WSJ: It’s Bugs Vs. Sexy Megafauna in California

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Marshall Cutchin

In today’s Wall Street Journal, Justin Scheck writes about the heated debate surrounding the restoration of Paiute cutthroat trout to a nine-mile stretch of the Silver King Creek in the Sierra Nevada wilderness.  ”‘They’re nutty people,’ says ichthyologist Robert Behnke, a retired Colorado State University professor and expert on North American trout who calls the bug advocates ‘obstructionists.’”

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  • Doubledok

    It seems simple to  me - maybe it is too simplistic a view, but – why not scoop out representative samples of resident water bug larvae, pupae, and nymphs that occupy the gravel layer (with their gravel) and secure in a rotenone free zone? Before the trout are seeded into the water, re-establish the invertabrates at intervals along the tract. One could even place fish-proof gravel sceens over the patches to limit depopulation. –

  • Gofishinor

    The bugs and fish will do fine. Restore all native fish whereever possible. There other ways to get rid of non-native fish so the bugs will live on. Take the bugs out, breed em and put em back in. Wish Colorado would do more!!