Parks dept. killing off all alpine area fish

[WAcoyotehunter]

 Today's invasive species is tomorrow's cornerstone of the local system.

Yikes- like knapweed up here...  Hopefully they don't kill the fish, but I can see the point in wanting a more native environment.  Maybe limit the # of lakes stocked?

We have lots of brook trout up in Pend Oreille County, there are lots of folks that want them gone because they likely compete with the native trout (of which we have very few) for resources- the same thing happens all the time with bass and perch- they get wiped out to restore trout to a lake.   

[Skyvalhunter]

We Hi-lakers are working on getting a bill that would allow stocking to continue as long as the fish are sterile. It made it thru the House last time but died before it made it into the Senate due to the incomming congress. So there is hope

[Dmanmastertracker]

We Hi-lakers are working on getting a bill that would allow stocking to continue as long as the fish are sterile. It made it thru the House last time but died before it made it into the Senate due to the incomming congress. So there is hope

 Please send me the info on that if you don't mind, thanks.

[Smokepole]

I interviewed a WDFW biologist about brook trout a few years ago.  He told me the problem with brookies is they can reproduce with native bull trout, but the offspring are sterile.  So it makes sense that they would not stock them.  I don't see where native cutts or rainbows or triploids would hurt anything.

[TONTO]

Brook trout can reproduce in still water,where a rainbow or cutthroat need a running inlet to spawn.So in most hi lakes rainbow and cutts can't/don't reproduce.

[Dmanmastertracker]

 I did some more research on this, Westslope, Coastal Cutts and Redband Rainbow are all native to the ENTIRE NC Park, only physical barriers kept them out of certain lakes. This is much to do about nothing, the inference as to "non-native" species is fiction, made-up by folks that have too much time on their hands and don't get it. I don't feel they should stock sterile fish, continue to stock native species that can reproduce and save the taxpayer's money -though I realize some of this is volunteer work also. Some of the lakes do have inlets, but no outlets and could support naturally reproducing fish as well. Alchase is right, this would be a tragic and uneducated first step to dismantling any kind of "non-natural" support to keep natural fisheries going. Here's a good hypothetical. Suppose a mountain lake had an outlet connecting it at one point to a trout stream 200 years ago and a slide isolated it, would it then be against this moronic code to never stock the lake again if it required stocking to keep it's population at a fishable level, or at a level it benefits local wildlife? I just have not seen one ounce of scientific data on the part of the Park Service supporting the negative impact of these fish .

[Dmanmastertracker]

 One interesting side note, the organization pressuring the Park Service to conduct this action thinks a lot of themselves. On their web site, they take credit for establishing the NC Park, when in reality it was Henry Jackson and some key Congressional members who got it done, their group is not even mentioned in the Park History, anywhere.

[deaddog]

Funny thing is we employ these people.

Yea, the same folks that spent our money to stock the lakes in the first place, now will spend more to take them out, Can you guess what they will want to do in a few years, put the fish back in the lakes. Sounds like quite the racket to me. wdfg sucks

[Dmanmastertracker]

 Got to ask a few questions one on one with the Park Service, you can read more here http://www.thepnw-outdoors.com/. I also have a 2nd Q&A lined up next week.