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67 °F Forecast | Road Cams Thursday, September 16, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Rogue Valley's Finest EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend June 20, 2004 Rotenone still tops chub list Comments generate no new issues, and that is still the preference for dealing with Diamond Lake’s tui chub problem By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune Using a fish-killing chemical to remove millions of unwanted tui chubs from Diamond Lake remains a "pretty promising" option heading into the final stages of an environmental study on the problem, a U.S. Forest Service official said. Saying comments collected this spring on a draft environmental study appear to generate no new issues, Umpqua National Forest Supervisor Jim Caplan said use of the chemical rotenone to kill the lake’s tui chubs remains his preferred alternative. "It still looks pretty promising for a rotenone alternative, but we’re really not there yet," Caplan said Friday. A team of Forest Service experts continues to analyze and respond to comments on the draft study in preparation for the final study and this summer’s decision on Diamond Lake’s management future. That includes comments made by environmental groups pushing instead for an alternative that mechanically removes the chubs and doesn’t rely on chemicals. Advertisement Caplan said he "didn’t see anything new coming up" from the comments on the draft study. "But that remains to be analyzed," he said. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists who have lobbied for chemical treatment and restocking the lake with trout say they are encouraged by Caplan’s comments as well as similar comments made Monday during a Diamond Lake working-group meeting. "The proposed action to draw the lake down and (apply) rotenone was still on the table, and we took that as a good sign," said Dave Loomis, the ODFW’s Umpqua watershed manager. "We’re assuming that’s going to be the decision," Loomis said. "Until it happens, though, no one will know." The Forest Service is writing its final environmental impact statement and will issue a record of decision on the various alternatives for managing the eastern Douglas County lake. The final study and decision are expected sometime this summer, said Sherri Chambers, the Umpqua Forest’s Diamond Lake project leader. Illegally introduced in the early 1990s, the small, plankton-eating chubs now number in the millions and have altered the ecosystem of the popular trout-fishing lake in the High Cascades. The degradation has reached a point where fingerling trout cannot survive and toxic algae blooms close the lake to recreation at times in the summer. The ODFW now spends more than $100,000 a year stocking the lake with enough big trout to keep anglers’ interest while it works on a long-term solution with the Forest Service and other agencies. Options range from chemical treatment to mechanical removal to backing away and doing nothing. In the draft study, the Forest Service preferred an ODFW-backed plan to draw the lake down, chemically treat it to kill all the fish there, and restock it. If chosen, the treatment could take place no earlier than 2006, Chambers said. Of the more than 90 pages of public comments collected before the May 17 deadline, interest was mixed, Chambers said. "It’s across the board at this stage," Chambers said. "People were in favor of all the alternatives. The breadth of comments went from one-line letters saying they support the (chemical) treatment alternative to 10 pages of specific recommendations." The conservation group Umpqua Watersheds championed the mechanical-removal alternative over rotenone, which was used to halt a similar Diamond Lake chub infestation in 1954. Frances Eatherington, the group’s conservation director, said the first rotenone treatment didn’t solve the chub problem. She also chided the Forest Service as being "ridiculously short-sighted" for only looking six years forward in assessing impacts. "We’re disappointed they didn’t come up with a long-term solution," Eatherington said. "It looked to us like (mechanical removal) was the closest thing to it." Eatherington called rotenone "a drastic, heavy-handed solution," yet she anticipates some version of chemical treatment will be the final study’s conclusion. "They usually go with the preferred (alternative)," Eatherington said. The Forest Service collected 76 comments on the study, with most pointing to rotenone or mechanical treatment, Chambers said. She did not say which alternative had the most favorable responses. "It’s important for folks to know this is not a vote," Chambers said. Decision will launch fund-raising effort A final decision by the Forest Service on ridding Diamond Lake of unwanted tui chubs will turn state biologist Dave Loomis from a chemical-treatment advocate to a fund-raiser. Loomis, manager of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Umpqua watershed office, said he will start raising the $1 million needed to chemically treat the lake if the Umpqua National Forest chooses that alternative as he expects it to this summer. "As soon as the decision comes, the fund-raising begins," Loomis said. Under the $3 million preferred alternative, the ODFW would be responsible for the purchase and application of rotenone to kill off all the fish in the lake, including millions of unwanted chubs. The Forest Service would be responsible for about $1 million in design and building of a canal to draw the lake down. The remaining $1 million would be for post-treatment monitoring, educational materials and fish stocking over the following six years. Loomis said he will seek money from sportsmen’s groups and large private foundations, including special fund-raising events as small as bake sales, he said. "There are people who will want to put in $5 and others will want to put in more," he said. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. 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