THE REAL PIKER

I can’t believe what I’m hearing. They are going to poison Lake Davis, AGAIN. Ten years ago the California Fish and Game Service poisoned the lake to kill the Northern Pike that some IDIOTS had dumped into the lake under the delusion they could co-exist with the Rainbow Trout the lake was famous for. A million dollars in annual business slowly dried up. Where fishermen once tossed back 4 pound trout in expectations of quickly replacing it with a six pounder, eventually it took an average of 4 hours to catch just one trout, and now it can take as long as 10 hours. And the Pike, well, they started to be found literally choked to death on the Trout fry they have been gorging on.
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The state tried every way imaginable to kill the Pike in Lake Davis. They were shot. They were electrocuted, netted, hooked, cornered, dynamited, starved, suffocated and dragged from the water individually and beaten to death with clubs. Eventually, in 1997, the state was reduced to draining down the 4,030 acre lake and poisoning it with piperonyl butoxide, a “…broad spectrum insecticide and piscidide” which is “mildly toxic” to humans. Then they restocked the lake with oversized Trout fry, hoping those would eat any Pike fry that had survived. Instead the Pike fry simply started growing nine to fourteen times faster. They became super Pike: Franken-fry; Fry-enators; big nasty ravenous pike. These Pike aren’t on an endangered species list, they are on the ten most wanted list. They’ve got more people gunning for them than Osama bin Laden, with about the same results. And now, after ten years and some $35 million dollars spent, California is pouring another $17 million worth of poison into Lake Davis.
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The 2,230 residents of Portola, California, 7 miles south of Lake Davis, used to draw their drinking water directly from the lake; crystal clear, ice cold fed by glaciers and so pure no filtering was required. Now they get their water from wells while public health officials assure them that the levels of pesticide present are perfectly safe. And while Esox Lucius Linaeus (the Pike) are thriving, Onocorhynchus clarki (the Rainbow Trout) are not.
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The year after the lake was poisoned 600 pike were caught in the Fish and Game nets. In 2004 the number was up to 17,635. In fact, just since humans started trying to wipe out the Pike of Lake Davis, 60, 500 Pike have been caught in Lake Davis. In 2005 Pike were caught trying to find a way around the Pike guards on the spillways at the dam that forms Lake Davis. And in 2006 a heavier than usual snow pack melt brought the lake to within inches of the top of the dam.
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The fear is that once the Pike escape from Lake Davis they will chew their way down the Feather River and start munching on the young Salmon spawn the state has spent several additional millions trying to coax back into the Sacramento River Delta. So the Pike must die. But why should Fish and Game be successful this time? Well, the state has a new chemical mix, CFT Legumine, which is just a remix of the same stuff they used back in ’97. And once the chemical breaks down in the water (which it will after a few weeks), come spring, Fish and Game will restock the lake with trout – again – and start a massive advertising campaign to attract anglers back to what was once one of the best Rainbow Trout fishing sites on the whole west coast.
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This past week the notices went in the local weekly newspaper. As of September 4th: “…Lake Davis, the shorelines, all its tributaries, all land up slope…to the ridge tops of the Freeman lake watershed, and all campgrounds, boat launches and day-use sites…” are now closed. And they will stay closed until the water tests safe again. It all sounds ominous.
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The potential catch is that Northern Pike are not only ferocious, but they can live up to 26 years. In that time even a fish can get clever. And those who survived the ’97 extermination attempt were probably the most resistant to the poison, and are probably still alive. Pike also scatter their eggs at random, so there is no single spawning ground where the poison can be concentrated. All-in-all the chances that the Pike will be exterminated this time are considerably less than certain.

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And maybe a little humility is a positive sign.
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The original treatment of the lake produced protests and a lot of bitterness. Now, one business owner asked, “What the hell took so long?” According to Suzi Brakken, director of the Pumas County Visitor’s Bureau, “The lake has been…empty of visitors for several years. People are tired of the issue. They just want it over with.”
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