Workers Remove Dead Fish From Poisoned Lake Davis

Dead fish lay scattered Thursday along the shores of poisoned Lake Davis, where state fish and game officials are trying to exterminate the predatory northern pike to protect downstream trout and salmon fisheries.

State workers skimmed dead pike and trout from the lake and piled them along the shore for disposal.

Authorities began pouring 16,000 gallons of liquid and 60,000 pounds of powdered poison into the 7-mile-long lake shortly after dawn Wednesday.

Fish and Game Department spokeswoman Alexia Retallack said Thursday that crews expected the poisoning operation to be completed by late in the day. The department expects the fish clean-up to continue for about a week, she said.

Workers said they were finding 10 pike to every adult trout. They found no young trout, which apparently were eliminated by the pike, Retallack said.

Despite protests from residents that led to seven arrests Wednesday, the state is killing all the fish in the lake and then will restock it with 750,000 trout.

State biologists said the pike were consuming trout at an alarming rate. They said the pike threatened the trout population of Lake Davis and could have devastated the state’s salmon and trout fisheries if allowed to enter the Feather River and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

But opponents of the poisoning said the pike already have entered the major fisheries, and that they are controlled by natural selection.

Lake Davis, in the Sierra Nevada back country about 150 miles northeast of Sacramento, is a drinking water source for about 4,200 Plumas County residents and is nationally known for trout fly-fishing.

Angry residents said the state’s action would taint the town of Portola’s drinking water--the poison contains traces of a carcinogen called trichloroethylene, or TCE--and damage the local economy.

But state authorities said the poison would dissipate in four to eight weeks, leaving the water safe. In the meantime, alternate sources of water are being used by Portola.