Comments on: Saving Natives
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By Lucky on 05-17-12 @ 9:35 am
Rob: Good article, but there are of course hundreds of control cases on which to call. Bulltrout are extinct in over 50% of their historic range and in many of those cases they
disappeared because we failed to act. There is, naturally, some controversy over the outcome of
proposed actions on Flathead Lake, but there is near-complete agreement on what will happen if
we do nothing. We need to look no further than Logging Lake in Glacier Park where bull trout
were completely extirpated shortly after lake trout invaded. The USGS has called nine other Park
populations at “high risk” of extinction of bull trout if nothing is done. Lake Chelan in WA
lost one of the largest populations of bull trout in the world for many of the same reasons that
ours are disappearing.
While we may not know to 100% certainty that we can save these fish, we do know that if we don’t
water the peas, we will be eating nothing but beans.
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