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Randy Henry, a policy analyst for the Oregon State Marine Board leads a presentation on invasive species prevention in the Bailey Room at the Diamond Lake Resort Thursday.
DIAMOND LAKE — A silent invasion of nonnative species could be under way in any of Oregon’s water bodies, but by the time one would be obvious it would already be too late.
One thing’s for sure: State and federal officials who are charged with monitoring the health of lakes and rivers aren’t about to let another aquatic invasion on the scale of the last tui chub infestation at Diamond Lake slip under their noses.
“We’re really concerned about people using fish as bait,” Holly Truemper, assistant Umpqua District fish biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said at an invasive species prevention training session for state and federal officials on Thursday.
Fishing with live bait — except worms — has been illegal in Oregon since the 1940s. The two tui chub infestations that wreaked havoc on Diamond Lake’s ecosystem were caused by the proliferation and waste of tui chub, a native minnow-like fish of the Klamath Basin thought to have been used in the lake as bait.
Truemper said the ODFW recently received a tip from a reliable source that a couple of fishermen, known to be residents of the Klamath Lake area, fish on the north shore of Diamond Lake at the Cheese Hole every year with live tui chub. She added the anglers are reported to be regular fishermen of the lake since the 1980s and should know not to use the bait — which they carry in white buckets — anywhere in Oregon.
“They may not know or they may not care,” Truemper told the gathering of officials in the Bailey Room of Diamond Lake Resort. “We want help this year to look for these people.”
Since the fall 2006 rotenone treatment of Diamond Lake to rub out tui chub, signs and kiosks have been posted around the lake and at boat ramps to warn against the use of live bait. Visitors also are advised to clean boats and fishing and recreational gear that have been used in other water bodies before launching into Diamond Lake.
Randy Henry, a policy analyst for the Oregon State Marine Board, named other invasive species that currently threaten the flora and fauna of Oregon. They include bull frogs, which can eat turtle eggs and reportedly duck eggs too; nutria, a small dog-sized rodent that can be seen swimming in waterbodies across the state; scotch broom, a plant so ubiquitous it’s now beyond possible eradication; and feral swine, a nuisance that is so problematic in other states, such as Texas, that it’s considered a predator to sheep and fawns.
“We probably stand on the cusp of them becoming a permanent resident of the state,” Henry said.
But nasty pigs and seemingly innocuous amphibians and fish are the least of the state’s natives’ worries. There also are invasive plants, such as hydrilla, which can choke a water body of oxygen and habitat from top to bottom and decimate fish populations.
On average, Oregon spends $100 million a year fighting invasive plants. Twenty-one of the state’s 99 noxious weeds consume $83 million of that fighting money.
The tansy ragwort, which caused the deaths of thousands of horses and cattle from the 1970s to the 1990s, cost Oregon an estimated $4.2 million to fight and eradicate.
However, at least 96 nonnative fish and wildlife species are known to inhabit Oregon. One of those, the piranha, which is found in the Columbia River every year, has also been found displaying mating colors near volcanic vents that warm the water. But no evidence of actual mating has ever been discovered, said Steve Wells, an official with the Portland State University Center for Lakes and Reservoirs.
Lesser known are the microscopic invasive species, such as fungi and bacteria, that can simply be transported from one water body to another by claiming a fisherman’s waders as host.
No thicker than a paper clip, New Zealand mudsnails also fall in that category of easy transport. And they already inhabit the Deschutes River and coastal and eastern Oregon water bodies.
In short, Wells said only gear cleanliness can prevent nonnatives’ invasiveness. “I’m a big proponent of that.”
One thing’s for sure: State and federal officials who are charged with monitoring the health of lakes and rivers aren’t about to let another aquatic invasion on the scale of the last tui chub infestation at Diamond Lake slip under their noses.
“We’re really concerned about people using fish as bait,” Holly Truemper, assistant Umpqua District fish biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said at an invasive species prevention training session for state and federal officials on Thursday.
Fishing with live bait — except worms — has been illegal in Oregon since the 1940s. The two tui chub infestations that wreaked havoc on Diamond Lake’s ecosystem were caused by the proliferation and waste of tui chub, a native minnow-like fish of the Klamath Basin thought to have been used in the lake as bait.
Truemper said the ODFW recently received a tip from a reliable source that a couple of fishermen, known to be residents of the Klamath Lake area, fish on the north shore of Diamond Lake at the Cheese Hole every year with live tui chub. She added the anglers are reported to be regular fishermen of the lake since the 1980s and should know not to use the bait — which they carry in white buckets — anywhere in Oregon.
“They may not know or they may not care,” Truemper told the gathering of officials in the Bailey Room of Diamond Lake Resort. “We want help this year to look for these people.”
Since the fall 2006 rotenone treatment of Diamond Lake to rub out tui chub, signs and kiosks have been posted around the lake and at boat ramps to warn against the use of live bait. Visitors also are advised to clean boats and fishing and recreational gear that have been used in other water bodies before launching into Diamond Lake.
Randy Henry, a policy analyst for the Oregon State Marine Board, named other invasive species that currently threaten the flora and fauna of Oregon. They include bull frogs, which can eat turtle eggs and reportedly duck eggs too; nutria, a small dog-sized rodent that can be seen swimming in waterbodies across the state; scotch broom, a plant so ubiquitous it’s now beyond possible eradication; and feral swine, a nuisance that is so problematic in other states, such as Texas, that it’s considered a predator to sheep and fawns.
“We probably stand on the cusp of them becoming a permanent resident of the state,” Henry said.
But nasty pigs and seemingly innocuous amphibians and fish are the least of the state’s natives’ worries. There also are invasive plants, such as hydrilla, which can choke a water body of oxygen and habitat from top to bottom and decimate fish populations.
On average, Oregon spends $100 million a year fighting invasive plants. Twenty-one of the state’s 99 noxious weeds consume $83 million of that fighting money.
The tansy ragwort, which caused the deaths of thousands of horses and cattle from the 1970s to the 1990s, cost Oregon an estimated $4.2 million to fight and eradicate.
However, at least 96 nonnative fish and wildlife species are known to inhabit Oregon. One of those, the piranha, which is found in the Columbia River every year, has also been found displaying mating colors near volcanic vents that warm the water. But no evidence of actual mating has ever been discovered, said Steve Wells, an official with the Portland State University Center for Lakes and Reservoirs.
Lesser known are the microscopic invasive species, such as fungi and bacteria, that can simply be transported from one water body to another by claiming a fisherman’s waders as host.
No thicker than a paper clip, New Zealand mudsnails also fall in that category of easy transport. And they already inhabit the Deschutes River and coastal and eastern Oregon water bodies.
In short, Wells said only gear cleanliness can prevent nonnatives’ invasiveness. “I’m a big proponent of that.”
