West Medical gets fish treatment

(Editor's Note: This is part one of a two-part series on the planned treatment to remove an invasive population of goldfish in West Medical Lake.)

A Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) proposal to treat West Medical Lake, plus portions of two other streams in the eastern part of the state to restore trout fisheries will proceed.

The planned treatment this fall will seek to rid West Medical of pesky goldfish and portions of Smalle Creek and Highline Creek in Pend Oreille County of non-native eastern brook trout and restore native westslope cutthroat.

Crews of WDFW personnel and professional applicators will administer rotenone treatments, probably in mid to late October with the lake ready for the 2019 opening of fishing season.

"The goal is to restore trout populations by removing competing species that have essentially taken over these waters," Bruce Bolding, WDFW warm-water fish program manager said in a news release. "Illegally stocked fish compete with stocked trout fry for food and some prey upon them, rendering stocking efforts ineffective."

The plans were to have been outlined at a series of public meetings last month, with at least one of those forums on May 29 in Spokane.

"Typically, the public, when they are in favor of something, or don't care about it, nobody shows up," WDFW district fish biologist, Randy Osborne said in a June 4 interview. "Those that are opposed to it usually do," he added. This time no one was apparently interested.

Osborne said there is a chance that there will still be some people who are not happy about the process. "It's all part of a process, it remains in the proposal stage," he added.

"We go through the entire process that we have to do and then eventually when all the T's are crossed and I's are dotted then our director will sign off on it," Osborne said.

West Medical has been rehabbed eight to nine times, about 10–15 years apart, the last time in 2009.

The problem has been the introduction of goldfish. "People just don't think, they have too big of a heart."

Osborne said.

"If they have goldfish in an aquarium they don't have the heart to flush Herbie down the toilet so they think they're doing a good thing," Osborne said.

But once they are in the lake they take over. "We have no control, things start getting out of whack," Osborne said.

Goldfish are not predators, but rather competitors that vie for food. Osborne uses an apple pie analogy to illustrate the problem. The pie represents all the food in West Medical.

"If it were you and me we'd have a pretty good piece of pie," Osborne explained. "Now throw in everyone that runs Bloomsday, and you can't make any more pie, then pretty soon there are so many mouths to feed that nobody gets enough."

That sometime shows up in scrawny fish that chase anglers away to competing lakes.

The simple, and perhaps innocent behavior of dumping invasive species is just the beginning of a bigger problem. What people don't know is that it is illegal to stock any kind of fish in the state without getting a permit, Osborne explained.

If caught, and prosecuted, the offender could technically be liable for the entire cost of the rehab at approximately $150,000, Osborne said.

WDFW likes to maintain control of species at lowland trout lakes through fry plants, Osborne said. Trout fingerlings cost about 4 cents each to raise.

"You can put thousands of them in the lake and when they don't have any competition from other species, the lake will raise them up and our job is really done," Osborne said.

If a competing fish species is introduced to the lake, at least in the early stages, then larger fish, referred to "catchables" cost upwards of $1.51 each.

(Next week, read about the economic impact of a healthy fishery and how it is protected with periodic rotenone treatments.)

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.