From Mark Steffen at Steffenflyrod@lycos.com
DATE: Thu, 18 Dec 2003 21:34:
To all concerned: The National Park Service intends to kill trout in Bright Angel Creek in the Grand Canyon over the next four years.
For information regarding this project and to comment on the project go to the following web pages:
http://www.nps.gov/grca/compliance/fish.htm http://www.nps.gov/grca/compliance/pdf/scoping-fishltr.pdf It is important to note I think, that the Park is apparently not doing a press release or any public meetings, and only notifying persons on the Park's private "interested parties" list and that the 30 day comment period surrounds the Christmas holidays when people may be too busy to comment. People from around the world have fished Bright Angel Creek for the last 75 years. Certainly few will have the opportunity to learn of this or comment on it. Also note that the Park does not mention that they already "reduced" the trout last year 2002, by 400 brown trout in a feasability study with NO public notice. Nor does the Park mention that the Grand Canyon Research and Monitoring Center in Flagstaff is in the second year of a 4 year project to kill all trout in a 17 mile section of the Colorado River around the mouth of the Little Colorado river,(26 miles from bright angel creek), where the endangered Humpback Chub actually live. GCMRC has killed 11,500 trout in the first year
of their project!
The GCMRC project is one that the Northern Arizona Flycaster's club reluctantly supports, to protect the endangered Humpback Chub. The fish that the Park wants to help in Bright Angel Creek is the speckled dace which is not endangered or threatened but is in fact "Common". The Park also does not mention that the Colorado River, due to Glen Canyon dam is a cold water river and the Park's desire to have warm water fish living in cold water and to kill any cold water fish that live in the now cold water is irrational at best. Also the Park does not mention that the Park itself has degraded the fish habitat of Bright Angel creek by removing the native beavers and beaver dams, again without ANY public notice. Also the Park does not mention that due to a entire year (6-90 to 7-91) of environmental studies with repeated short periods of very low water and very high water, the aquatic food base of the river was almost entirely destroyed. Almost the entire population of trout was starved to death over a period of a year in the entire Colorado River including Lees Ferry and the Grand Canyon.
We know this because we witnessed it. How the native fish were effected was not documented, other than that the native fish numbers have declined since that time (surprise!). Government officials only reaction at the time was to stock catchable sized trout at Lees Ferry to make up for the fish killed there.
The aquatic food base of the river still has not recovered to pre- 1990 levels, due to drought and continued ill designed scientific experiments intended to improve the size of beaches for campers in the Grand canyon. Scientists do admit that studies of the aquatic food base have never been adequate and new studies are being designed now. We need to support this and insist that it be done and that we are informed.
The Park has not offered any alternatives, although some which would seem apropriate should be supported such as:
Tagging the fish that use the creek for spawning and then watching for them to see if they migrate to the area where trout are being killed around the mouth of the Little Colorado River. This alternative would allow us to learn rather than just to destroy.
Some people have suggested killing only the Brown Trout which the Park consider to be the most competitive and predatory.
Some have suggested that the park complains regularly that they cannot afford to do needed maintenance and that they can't even afford to hire a geologist for the greatest geological wonder of the world, yet they will spend almost 1/2 million dollars over the next four years to kill trout.
DO not send comments to Jeff Cross. Comments should be sent to:
Sara White, Environmental Compliance officer
at sara_white@nps.gov
or superintendent
Grand Canyon National Park
attn: Sara White, Environmental Compliance Officer
P.O. Box 129
Grand Canyon Arizona 86023
(928) 638-7956
It is important to refer to D18(GRCA 8211), the Bright Angel Creek project.Ask to be added to the list of "interested parties" and to recieve by mail a hard copy of the environmental assessment when completed.
Comments must be received by Jan 12th.
