Government agencies to poison Alpine creek

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to chemically treat Silver King Creek in Alpine County in an attempt to restore native Paiute cutthroat trout.

Retenone will be used along 11 miles of the stream from Llewellyn Falls downstream to Silver King Canyon. The lower reaches of three tributaries – Tamarack Creek, Tamarack Lake Creek and Coyote Valley Creek — will also be treated.

The goal is to have the Paiute cutthroat trout be the only trout species in the creek. The rotenone will kill off the other fish. Then the creek will be restocked with the Paiute.

Plans are for all of this to occur in late August.

Also participating in this fish kill/restocking are the U.S. Forest Service and California Department of Fish and Wildlife. This is not the first time the agencies have done this.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report