Did the sign indicate who applied the herbicide Glenn? ???  If so, I think a protest from the club would be in order.  If not, perhaps some communication with the Fish & Game folks could certainly get the perpetrator's attention. 
That is really one of the more stupid things I've heard of regarding wildlife habitat mgt.

Smitty

I don't know for sure, but I would think permitting for herbicide application would be handled by the Department of Ecology. Usually, they would pass the permit application through a representative at Fish and Wildlife, but it is possible that no one at Fish and Wildlife even had anything to do with the decision.

Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything that talks about the effect of herbicides on maturing fish eggs, but if I find anything out about that, I'll let ya know.

Chris

Yup, exactly Larry 

I did do some snooping around to find that there is no direct effect from Sonar on fish or fish egg health, as most of it dissipates below the water's surface or binds with other chemicals in the water and becomes organic.

But like Larry said, it doesn't help that there isn't any cover for juveniles to hide in once they are hatched. I think the sad part is that most of our lakes around here never really become choked with weeds to the point that people need to control them. I'm sure a lot of you have noticed on a lot of lakes, too, that lakeshore owners are often out mechanically harvesting weeds with rakes, etc. Too bad they don't know that for some weeds this actually makes them spread and get thicker!!! It's just like shaving your chest, Jerry, it gets thicker and blacker every time it grows back! 

So, here's the deal:  The company that applied the herbicide was Aquatechnix (sp?) out of Bellingham who was contracted by the Dept. of Agriculture, who recieved the permits from the Dept. of Ecology. 

I talked to the Dept. of Ecology folks who really didn't care about killing fish, so long as their precious salmon & trout weren't hurt.  In fact, the girl I talked to seemed enthused about the potential of harming the warmwater fish in Big Lake because, "...they reduce salmon and trout populations".  Suffice to say, I got nowhere with her.

I also talked with Mark D. who is the Skagit Co. lake biologist for the DFW.  He said they are usually not consulted for weed management initiatives unless grass carp are part of the plan.  He agreed the DFW should be more involved in the decision process in regards to the fishery.  Although he totally agreed that warmwater species deserve better treatment, and was clear he was on "our side", he, too, mentioned that there were many folks within and outside the dept who would love nothing more than to see the warmwater fish just disappear.

So, bottom line is:  there's nothing we can do about it.

However, Mark is going to check to see if there's any way the DFW can become more involved in the permit process, but at best, it would have to be from a salmon/trout perspective, as nobody seems to care what happens to the warmwater species.

That's where your license $$ is going, folks - to pay the salaries of people who want to kill bass (with the exception of ramp improvements). 

For those of us that's been around for awhile, this issue is nothing new.  But I am kinda dismayed there's been very little improvement in attitude in regards to warmwater species.

This is just part of a larger issue, as many in control still see bass as a "non-native" species and therefore must be eradicated.  Not sure where we go from here to change that attitude, but it's clear it's still a very large uphill battle. 

Perhaps Chris knows of a few individuals who are sympathetic to warmwater species.  I have to believe there are enough of them out there that could help - we only need to organize them.

Howdy Glenn,

Nice detective work!

I have worked with Mark Downen in the past, and he is definitely a friend, like you said, of warmwater fisheries. He is a past member of the Warmwater team for WDFW.

A few good people to talk with would be Steve Caromile, Chad Jackson, and Steve Jackson. They are all past or present warmwater team folks for WDFW that support our fisheries. Steve is the head of the warmwater program. His son, Chad, is now one of the biologists out of Mill Creek, but is also a past member of the warmwater program. He would be an excellent person to talk to. I don't have his personal number, but the Mill Creek office number is 425-775-1311. I believe they would be responsible or at least most in tune with the management of Big Lake.

The warmwater teams have a lot of good data and past papers that would support the need for sufficient weed growth in our lakes. If we could get them to be more interested in this issue, maybe that would spur more communication between the Department of Ecology and WDFW. I know the warmwater teams are in tune with this issue because they were looking at the effects of herbicides on warmwater fisheries when I worked for them the summers of '97 and '98.

I believe Big Lake is also slated as a lake to be managed for warmwater species, specifically. This is a good case to cease herbicide usage there.

Although I do not work for WDFW anymore, I feel that the attitude toward warmwater fisheries is much brighter than even just 5 years ago. A lot of the people from the "old school" are beginning to retire.

If this is an issue you decide to take up, Glenn, I would be happy to help you in certain areas. I can't devote a lot of time to politics right now, but I would still be able to hunt you down references that prove weed growth is valuable for our fisheries and also get you names and contact information of people you should talk to. Just let me know.

Chris