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Similar project that CATs stopped in 2005:"State Drops Plans to Poison Sierra Stream"
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Cure for Frogs Is Worse Than Disease
A plan to chemically sterilize dozens of lakes in two California national parks to protect imperiled frogs will cause more harm than good, according to Californians for Alternatives to Toxics.
The proposal by Sequoia and Kings national parks is meant to poison frog-eating trout that, ironically enough, were "planted" in the naturally fishless waters and have now disrupted the parks' aquatic environments.
The plan aimed at restoring the at-risk mountain yellow-legged frog (Rana muscosa)is moving forward despite evidence that agricultural pesticide drift is more of a danger to the species.
The Eureka-based group also pointed out that poisoning bodies of water with powerful pesticides will also kill rare and even yet-unknown species.
Nevertheless, park staff--impatient with a program that already has successfully eliminated fish from several lakes using non-pesticide methods--want to employ the toxic chemicals to rid now-unwanted fish from 82 lakes and 56 miles of streams. This will result in years of repeated poisonings and escalating long-time harm, CATs said.
Invasive planted fish are just one factor in the decline of the native frog, which lives in the icy waters of Sierra Nevada lakes but has suffered a precipitous 90 percent population decline.
- Poisonous Drift -
Experts with the U.S. Geological Service (USGS) found agricultural pesticides in the bodies of yellow-legged frogs in wilderness areas of Sequoia National Park a decade ago.
Further monitoring by USGS determined that the area where the pesticides originally were applied was in the Central Valley, hundreds of miles from the park. Since then, scores of laboratory and field studies have demonstrated the drastic effects of these agricultural pesticides on yellow-legged frogs and their habitat.
Similar stream-sterilization projects in remote California water bodies have been found to have significant and long-term adverse impacts to aquatic ecosystems. The pesticides also destroy non-target fauna, including rare species.
CATs noted that by hauling in and applying pesticides in wilderness areas, national park staff also will introduce noise, equipment, personnel and other disturbances that adversely affect the character of these ecosystems.
- Get Involved and Take Action! -
Join in the effort to save these treasured national parks from poisons that will further degrade the ecosystems they are meant to protect. Currently, the deadline is passed for telling the National Park Service what issues should be analyzed in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which remains to be written for the plan. However, your letters can have a powerful impact on how the effort to bring back the yellow-legged frog is approached.
You can still write to express your concerns and request notification of the publication of the draft EIS, and then write your critique of the EIS within the public comment time. Contact CATs to be placed on our mailing list for the project, and return to this website for updates.
