SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- National Park officials want to poison non-native trout to save a native species of frog in the Sierra.
KCBS’ Larry Chiaroni Reports
The park service tried this eight years ago, killing off non-native trout in 11 lakes in the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, and the effort worked, allowing the frogs that the trout love to dine on to rebound in great numbers.
"We saw an amazing comeback of some of the frog species, and we also saw a much better balance of the ecosystem," said Adrian Freeman, a park ranger at the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.
She says that in the 2001 pilot project the tadpole population went from 50 to 14,000 in three years.
Freeman says the non-native trout were planted years ago for recreation.
"We're not really talking about just one species, we're talking about an entire ecosystem that has been impacted by the way we managed the park years and years ago," said Freeman.
However, the poisoning of the trout worries groups like the High Sierra Hikers Association, California Trout and Californians for Alternatives to Toxics. They say putting poison in lakes and streams will also kill insects and other amphibians and alter the ecosystem.
Freeman says that the poison is not harmful to humans and in fact she says the poisoned fish are even safe to eat.
(MGO)
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