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ENLARGE
Public comments are being taken as the management plan for Diamond Lake continues to be discussed
Two and a half years have passed since the project to treat Diamond Lake and rid it of tui chub was undertaken. Rotenone was applied in September, 2006.
By all accounts, the rainbow trout fishery during the fishing seasons of 2007 and 2008 were excellent. Water quality and lake conditions were good again for trout growth, a change from the lake’s murky, pea soup summer conditions of the previous decade, a result of an increasing tui chub population.
Now to maintain the “Gem of the Cascades” as a recreational fishery, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is working on the Diamond Lake Management Plan. The Diamond Lake Restoration Project Final Environmental Impact Statement of 2004 called for a revised plan to be written following the lake’s recovery from the 2006 treatment. The last plan to manage the lake was written in 1990 and was used until 2006.
Public comment on the revised plan is now being taken by the ODFW. Earlier this month, ODFW held public meetings in Roseburg, Central Point and Eugene to listen to the opinions of concerned citizens.
Anybody who wasn’t able to make one of those meetings or who wants to make additional comments is invited by ODFW to submit statements to Laura Jackson, the district fisheries biologist, at the agency’s office at 4192 North Umpqua Highway, Roseburg, or by e-mail at laura.s.jackson@state.or.us.
A draft of the proposed plan can be found on the ODFW Web site, or a copy can be requested from the ODFW office.
The 2009 High Cascades fishing season that includes Diamond Lake opened Saturday.
“With the time and money we spent restoring Diamond Lake, ODFW certainly intends to make every effort to keep the lake in a good ecological condition,” said Holly Truemper, the assistant district fish biologist.
As dictated by the 2004 restoration statement, there have been stockings of fingerlings and catchable trout (8 inches or above) into the lake during both 2007 and 2008. In addition, Truemper said, ODFW and the other agencies involved in the restoration have monitored the lake as directed by the 2004 statement.
There is concern, however, at the fact that golden shiners, an invasive bait fish, were found in a trap net in the lake in July of last year. Officials don’t know how the shiners got into the lake, but they suspect it was by anglers using the bait fish in hopes of hooking larger rainbow trout.
“We were very disappointed to find golden shiners in the lake last year,” said Truemper. “We were able to electro fish and remove 639 shiners.”
Most of those shiners were 3 to 4 inches in length. That corresponds to the size of shiners that are usually found and sold in bait shops.
Diana Wales of Roseburg expressed disappointment that the management plan draft proposes only fingerling stocking this year and no larger fish that could prey on the shiners and keep the latter’s population from growing.
“They’re going back to exactly the same management strategy as they had in the ’90s,” Wales said. “They’re doing nothing to address the bait fish issue. Instead of putting more bigger fish in to address the bait fish, they’re proposing stocking 350,000 fingerlings.”
Wales also suggested the lake could be considered as a Blue Ribbon Still Water Fishery. Senate Bill 502 has been proposed in the Oregon Legislature, and Wales said if Diamond Lake was given such designation, its trophy fish would grow fat by eating shiners or any other invasive fish. She also wrote in a guest column in last Tuesday’s News-Review that “more modest modifications of management of the Diamond Lake fishery could also be workable.”
Jackson said the stocking plan for this year is to put 300,000 to 350,000 fingerlings in the lake.
“One reason we’re not stocking legal and trophy fish is to monitor how a fingerling-only stocking does,” said Jackson. “The state will not be violating the FEIS. It says the actual numbers can vary depending on a variety of parameters available. It gives approximate stocking strategies for 2005 to 2011.”
Jackson added that ODFW plans to stock 10,000 predacious trout in the lake in 2010.
Predacious trout were stocked during the previous two years — about 6,500 in 2007 and 14,800 in 2008.
From creel checks done at the lake during the past two fishing seasons, ODFW officials have estimated there are about 165,000 fish in the lake that are 12 inches or longer. That number is a combination of the predacious trout that have carried over to this year and stocked fingerling trout that have grown to a size large enough to prey on the shiners. Jackson said that historically, Diamond Lake fingerlings average an annual 70 percent survival rate and grow about 2 inches a month. After one winter, the fish are 12 to 14 inches and can prey on smaller invasive fish.
Truemper said that many trout are known to eat fish half their size or less. Based on the fact the size of shiners found in the lake in 2008 was under 6 inches, any of the predacious trout remaining from the stockings of 2007 or ’08 could prey on the shiners.
The biologist said, “Stocking will now be more flexible based on a combination of factors that include a list of biological indices, such as zooplankton and benthic levels, along with data from creel surveys. A model with all of these factors included will help us more accurately determine stocking levels that will continue to balance the lake’s ecosystem.
“Another difference that shows ODFW is working to look at biological factors prior to stocking at Diamond Lake is that in this updated plan we intend to stock fingerlings later in June to provide protection for zooplankton to get cranking before fish are stocked,” she added.
From studying the shiners that were electrofished, officials have a good idea where the bait fish are congregating in the lake and about when they’ll spawn. With that knowledge, a crew is already scheduled to work for two months this summer to remove as many shiners as possible through boat electrofishing.
Results of testing on shiners caught last year are also due out soon and could help determine the source of the shiners first found in the lake.
The partnership of ODFW, the U.S. Forest Service, the Oregon State Marine Board, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and Douglas County is continuing to stress the importance of keeping invasive fish out of Diamond Lake. Posted signs and brochures explain the situation; there are boat washing stations to clean a boat so bait fish aren’t transported from one body of water to another; and there is prevention training for agency and Diamond Lake Resort employees, as well as for the public.
“These kinds of activities will continue this summer, and ODFW creel checkers will be at the lake from now through October to check boats and to educate lake users,” Truemper said.
Although the ODFW will present its draft for the Diamond Lake Management Plan to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission on May 15, the public has all summer to submit comments. The commission will have until an August or September meeting to consider additional comments and then the plan for approval.
By all accounts, the rainbow trout fishery during the fishing seasons of 2007 and 2008 were excellent. Water quality and lake conditions were good again for trout growth, a change from the lake’s murky, pea soup summer conditions of the previous decade, a result of an increasing tui chub population.
Now to maintain the “Gem of the Cascades” as a recreational fishery, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is working on the Diamond Lake Management Plan. The Diamond Lake Restoration Project Final Environmental Impact Statement of 2004 called for a revised plan to be written following the lake’s recovery from the 2006 treatment. The last plan to manage the lake was written in 1990 and was used until 2006.
Public comment on the revised plan is now being taken by the ODFW. Earlier this month, ODFW held public meetings in Roseburg, Central Point and Eugene to listen to the opinions of concerned citizens.
Anybody who wasn’t able to make one of those meetings or who wants to make additional comments is invited by ODFW to submit statements to Laura Jackson, the district fisheries biologist, at the agency’s office at 4192 North Umpqua Highway, Roseburg, or by e-mail at laura.s.jackson@state.or.us.
A draft of the proposed plan can be found on the ODFW Web site, or a copy can be requested from the ODFW office.
The 2009 High Cascades fishing season that includes Diamond Lake opened Saturday.
“With the time and money we spent restoring Diamond Lake, ODFW certainly intends to make every effort to keep the lake in a good ecological condition,” said Holly Truemper, the assistant district fish biologist.
As dictated by the 2004 restoration statement, there have been stockings of fingerlings and catchable trout (8 inches or above) into the lake during both 2007 and 2008. In addition, Truemper said, ODFW and the other agencies involved in the restoration have monitored the lake as directed by the 2004 statement.
There is concern, however, at the fact that golden shiners, an invasive bait fish, were found in a trap net in the lake in July of last year. Officials don’t know how the shiners got into the lake, but they suspect it was by anglers using the bait fish in hopes of hooking larger rainbow trout.
“We were very disappointed to find golden shiners in the lake last year,” said Truemper. “We were able to electro fish and remove 639 shiners.”
Most of those shiners were 3 to 4 inches in length. That corresponds to the size of shiners that are usually found and sold in bait shops.
Diana Wales of Roseburg expressed disappointment that the management plan draft proposes only fingerling stocking this year and no larger fish that could prey on the shiners and keep the latter’s population from growing.
“They’re going back to exactly the same management strategy as they had in the ’90s,” Wales said. “They’re doing nothing to address the bait fish issue. Instead of putting more bigger fish in to address the bait fish, they’re proposing stocking 350,000 fingerlings.”
Wales also suggested the lake could be considered as a Blue Ribbon Still Water Fishery. Senate Bill 502 has been proposed in the Oregon Legislature, and Wales said if Diamond Lake was given such designation, its trophy fish would grow fat by eating shiners or any other invasive fish. She also wrote in a guest column in last Tuesday’s News-Review that “more modest modifications of management of the Diamond Lake fishery could also be workable.”
Jackson said the stocking plan for this year is to put 300,000 to 350,000 fingerlings in the lake.
“One reason we’re not stocking legal and trophy fish is to monitor how a fingerling-only stocking does,” said Jackson. “The state will not be violating the FEIS. It says the actual numbers can vary depending on a variety of parameters available. It gives approximate stocking strategies for 2005 to 2011.”
Jackson added that ODFW plans to stock 10,000 predacious trout in the lake in 2010.
Predacious trout were stocked during the previous two years — about 6,500 in 2007 and 14,800 in 2008.
From creel checks done at the lake during the past two fishing seasons, ODFW officials have estimated there are about 165,000 fish in the lake that are 12 inches or longer. That number is a combination of the predacious trout that have carried over to this year and stocked fingerling trout that have grown to a size large enough to prey on the shiners. Jackson said that historically, Diamond Lake fingerlings average an annual 70 percent survival rate and grow about 2 inches a month. After one winter, the fish are 12 to 14 inches and can prey on smaller invasive fish.
Truemper said that many trout are known to eat fish half their size or less. Based on the fact the size of shiners found in the lake in 2008 was under 6 inches, any of the predacious trout remaining from the stockings of 2007 or ’08 could prey on the shiners.
The biologist said, “Stocking will now be more flexible based on a combination of factors that include a list of biological indices, such as zooplankton and benthic levels, along with data from creel surveys. A model with all of these factors included will help us more accurately determine stocking levels that will continue to balance the lake’s ecosystem.
“Another difference that shows ODFW is working to look at biological factors prior to stocking at Diamond Lake is that in this updated plan we intend to stock fingerlings later in June to provide protection for zooplankton to get cranking before fish are stocked,” she added.
From studying the shiners that were electrofished, officials have a good idea where the bait fish are congregating in the lake and about when they’ll spawn. With that knowledge, a crew is already scheduled to work for two months this summer to remove as many shiners as possible through boat electrofishing.
Results of testing on shiners caught last year are also due out soon and could help determine the source of the shiners first found in the lake.
The partnership of ODFW, the U.S. Forest Service, the Oregon State Marine Board, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and Douglas County is continuing to stress the importance of keeping invasive fish out of Diamond Lake. Posted signs and brochures explain the situation; there are boat washing stations to clean a boat so bait fish aren’t transported from one body of water to another; and there is prevention training for agency and Diamond Lake Resort employees, as well as for the public.
“These kinds of activities will continue this summer, and ODFW creel checkers will be at the lake from now through October to check boats and to educate lake users,” Truemper said.
Although the ODFW will present its draft for the Diamond Lake Management Plan to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission on May 15, the public has all summer to submit comments. The commission will have until an August or September meeting to consider additional comments and then the plan for approval.
