PORTOLA - After several years of control and containment efforts at Lake Davis, the state formally announced plans Tuesday to eradicate the predatory, non-native northern pike. Department of Fish and Game (DFG) officials will again treat the Plumas County reservoir, which is on U.S. Forest Service (USFS) land, some time after Labor Day weekend (Sept. 4) with CFT Legumine, a new liquid formulation of rotenone, one of the only chemicals licensed to kill fish in California, said DFG Director Ryan Broddrick.

"Today's announcement culminates nearly eight years of working in partnership with the local community, the Lake Davis Steering Committee, and other government officials to examine every option possible for tackling the pike problem in Lake Davis," Broddrick said. "It has truly been a remarkable effort, and concluding this plan represents the safest and most effective means, with the fewest environmental and associated economic effects possible, to eliminate the northern pike from the only place they are known to exist in California."

To explain the DFG and USFS decisions, the agencies have scheduled a public meeting on Feb. 8, 2007, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., at the Feather River Community Arts Center, 216 Commercial St.?? Veteran's Memorial Hall, 449 W. Sierra Ave. in Portola. [Correction made 2/1/07]

The USFS will make its decisions later this month about whether to issue a Special Use Permit and two forest closures.

This project has been the subject of review since Sept. 14, 2005, which involved a joint Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement by DFG and USFS, and extensive outreach to the local community.

Pike are a non-native, invasive species that have devastated the local fishery and have had a subsequent negative impact on the local economy since 1999, when they reappeared after a controversial pike eradication project in October 1997. Despite control and containment efforts since 2000 - approximately 60,500 pike have been taken from the reservoir since then - the pike population continues to grow. If they escape, pike could cause irreversible ecological and economic harm to other areas of the state, including the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

The threat of pike escape is increasing, as anglers are catching more pike. Last May, two anglers were found moving live pike during an enforcement checkpoint. In addition, last year small pike were discovered for the first time near the spillway and Lake Davis came within 27 inches of overflowing last winter.

According to DFG's proposal, a liquid formulation of rotenone, a common piscicide, will be applied to the reservoir at a volume between approximately 45,000-48,000 acre-feet and its upper tributaries. The original proposed project in the September 2005 Notice of Preparation was to treat the reservoir at 15,000 acre feet. "The environmental review process worked," said Ed Pert, Project Manager. "We learned that treating at a level between 45,000-48,000 acre feet would have the fewest recreational and other environmental and associated economic impacts on the local community. In addition, the analyses conducted during the environmental review process indicated that a lower amount of water in the reservoir doesn't necessarily mean rotenone would be more effective." The project approval documents and EIR/EIS will be available at the DFG pike web site at www.dfg.ca.gov/northernpike/.

There are a number of factors different with this planned project compared to 1997, Pert said, including better communication with the local community, a better working relationship and cooperation with the USFS and other agencies; the wide range of options considered; better planning, including a number of environmental monitoring activities before, during and after the treatment; and the rotenone formulations to be used doesn't contain piperonyl butoxide, which persisted in the reservoir in 1997.

Because there are a number of factors beyond DFG's control that could prevent maintaining the reservoir volume at a minimum of 45,000 acre-feet at the time of treatment, DFG has approved a contingency plan that would provide for treating below 45,000 acre-feet, but as close to that level as possible. In addition, in the unlikely event enough CFT Legumine cannot be obtained, DFG would supplement with a minimum and safe amount of Noxfish, an alternate rotenone formulation.

"Treating at a volume less than 45,000 acre-feet may result in more environmental impacts than a treatment at 45,000 to 48,000 acre-feet, but it would still minimize impacts to the local community as much as possible under the circumstances," Pert said. "We should be able to determine the need for the contingency plan by May, using water level projections from the Department of Water Resources (DWR), unless factors other than weather and snow-pack are involved."

"It's imperative this eradication project quickly moves forward," Broddrick said. "Given the ever-increasing pike population, the increasing incidence of anglers catching pike, recent known incidents of anglers moving live pike, and the potential for spilling of the reservoir in extremely wet years, it is critical to minimize any delay."

As the project moves towards a planned late summer treatment, DFG will be obtaining several permits and approvals from a variety of state, federal, and local agencies, including the USFS, the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, the Fish and Game Commission, the California Department of Health Services, and DWR, among others.

DFG will seek approximately $12 million in Ecosystem Restoration Program (ERP) funding from CalFED to implement the project. Since 2000, DFG has spent approximately $3 million in controlling and containing pike in Lake Davis reservoir. The planning and feasibility phase of this project was funded primarily by a CalFED ERP grant totaling nearly $6 million. The CalFED ERP has identified halting the unauthorized introduction and spread of potentially harmful non-native introduced species of fish, such as pike in Lake Davis, in the Bay-Delta and Central Valley as a strategic objective (CALFED 2000).