From the Northern California Hiking blog:
Here’s something for Desolation Wilderness hikers who also like to fish. The Forest Service is removing non-native trout from seven lakes to protect the mountain yellow-legged frog, which the trout have been gobbling up since the fish were introduced to the lakes in the 1950s.
The yellow-legged frog has been at the center of controversy for some time, and yes, I’d love to speak authoritatively about the effects (or lack of them) a trout population might have on the frog’s populations, but I’d be blowing smoke.
Like any fly fisherman, I hate to see trout populations removed. But then, like any person, I’m not too excited to see native species disappearing due to the introduction of non-natives.
More on this as it continues.
From the lot, the main ascent into that area feels like taking on the Sears Tower on foot. Without fish, all you have to look forward to is bears? (almost, since it is quite spectacular up there).
But, add three days of hippee food, two rods, a float tube, boots and fins, and I doubt my now rotund self could even make it to the fish.
Michael(Quote)
Yeah, but if you took a round float tube, you could simply insert yourself in the hole and roll downhill back to the car.
The Trout Underground: Solving unique fly fishing problems since 2005
Tom Chandler(Quote)
There’s a thought…..er…image.
Kentucky Jim(Quote)
Number one, fish in the area were being planted in area for about 100 years, the frogs and fish both flourished untill the more recent lack of water, which has made them both suffer. Also like to note the aggravation of having all my secret spots decimated.
Willie
Willie Wilson(Quote)
You don’t know the half of it. California F&G and the Forest Service have removed fish from lakes at almost every entry point into the Desolation Wilderness: East: Granite Lake, South: Ralston, Tamarack, Cagwin, Jabu, Le Conte, Lucille, and Margery Lakes; South-West: Highland Lake; West: Pyramid, Waca, and Gefo Lakes; and North-West: Tyler, Gertrude and Maud Lakes). Fish removal from linked lakes is an ill-fated attempt to create meta-populations of mountain yellow legged frog (MYLF). Unfortunately, the meta-population concept for species conservation does not work when an infectious disease ((Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) is present. Just the opposite- the meta-population allows the spread of the disease and the extinction of the MYLF. Forest Service and California F&G would have had to consider this alternative in an EIS. A warning of the pitfalls of the meta-population approach to species conservation when an infectious disease is present was published by Hess (1996) in Ecology. To this date no EIS has been written for fish removal in Desolation Wilderness although required by the National Environmental Policy Act for sensitive species (MYLF),or sensitive areas (Wilderness) or disputed issues (fish removal).
Richard Everett(Quote)