LAKE COUNTY – Lake County officials are concerned that a lawsuit to require the Department of Fish and Game to do an environmental impact study on its fish stocking program could seriously impact area lakes.

The Board of Supervisors will consider adopting a proclamation on Tuesday declaring a local emergency in response to the announcement late last month that Upper Blue Lake, Cache Creek, Indian Valley Reservoir and Pillsbury Reservoir will not be stocked by the program this year.

“Our proclamation essentially asks the Department of Fish and Game to do everything they can to expand upon the court order,” said County Counsel Anita Grant. “At this juncture, all we can do is ask.”

The lawsuit, filed by the Pacific Rivers Council and the Center for Biological Diversity, is based on the Department of Fish and Game stocking bodies of water around the state with nonnative fish, while having completed no environmental impact report.

Fish and Game spokesperson Jordan Traverso said the agency has been carrying out the fish stocking program for more than a century. Traverso noted this is one of a number of suits the Center for Biological Diversity has filed against the agency.

In its statement on the case, the Stanford Environmental Law Clinic – which is representing the plaintiffs pro bono – says the petitioners approached the agency in August 2005 to ask that an environmental review of the fish stocking program be undertaken, and to cease stocking fishery-raised nonnatives, which it said results in significant effects on native species.

That initial request, the clinic added, was supported by about 100 scientific studies – including some conducted by Fish and Game itself – that demonstrate the adverse impacts of stocking activities on various native species.

Some of the species of concern are the arroyo toad and California red-legged frog, the golden trout, winter- and spring-run chinook salmon, and summer-run steelhead trout, according to court documents.

A statement from the Center for Biological Diversity said that trout stocking can impact native species in a variety of ways. Because the fish are top-level predators in aquatic ecosystems, they prey on many native amphibians and fish, and compete with native species for food and space.

Trout stocking also may be a vector for introducing diseases, such as whirling disease and chytrid fungus, which are reportedly wiping out native amphibian species globally, according to the group. The stocking practice also can bring in invasive species like the New Zealand mud snail.

When Fish and Game didn't respond, the petitioners said they made a second request for action in mid-2006. After receiving still no response, the lawsuit was filed in Sacramento County Superior Court in October 2006.

Traverso said that she didn't know if the agency hadn't in fact responded. “It does not sound likely to me.”

A full trial in May 2007 ended with a verdict requiring Fish and Game to prepare the environmental impact report. At that time, the agency reportedly told the court that it could complete the document by Dec. 31, 2008.

Traverso said that, despite the fact that the California Environmental Quality Act requirements came along about 85 years after the stocking programs got started – and the fact that the agency had done years of monitoring – the court's decision made it clear that the program wasn't grandfathered in.

This spring, Fish and Game notified the court that delays in the process meant they wouldn't meet the end-of-year date. A Fish and Game statement said it's engaged “in the years-long and multimillion dollar EIR process,” which is now scheduled to be completed in January 2010.

At the start of November, Judge Patrick Marlette placed an injunction on the program, said Traverso, which would have shut down the entire operation.

Fish and Game asked for a chance to negotiate, and at the start of last month Marlette ordered Fish and Game and the suit's plaintiffs to negotiate where the agency could continue fish stocking as it prepares both a state environmental impact report and a federal environmental impact statement. Traverso said the federal report is necessary because the federal US Fish and Wildlife is involved with the state's program.

The result of the negotiation was a Nov. 21 order by Marlette allowing for more waters to be stocked than would have been stocked originally, said Traverso.

The agreement prohibits stocking fish in any fresh body of water in California where 25 particular amphibian or fish species have been detected, or where surveys haven't been done, according to Fish and Game.

Exceptions include stocking in manmade reservoirs larger than 1,000 acres; manmade reservoirs less than 1,000 acres that are not connected to a river or stream, or are not within red-legged frog critical habitat or where red-legged frogs are known to exist; stocking as required as state or federal mitigation; stocking for the purpose of enhancing salmon and steelhead populations and funded by the Commercial Trollers Salmon Stamp; stocking of steelhead from the Mad River Hatchery into the Mad River Basin; Fish and Game's Aquarium in the Classroom program; stocking actions to support scientific research; stocking done pursuant to an existing private stocking permit or to be done under a new permit with terms similar to one that was issued in the last four years.

Less than 20 percent of previously stocked water bodies were estimated to be affected, according to the plaintiffs.

Grant said most of the county's concerns revolve around trout fishing.

Stafford Lehr, a senior environmental scientist in Fish and Game's North Central Region office in Rancho Cordova, said the agency has released fingerlings and rainbow trout into the into area waters.

In Upper Blue Lake and Lake Pillsbury, the fish are catchable rainbow trout, each weighing about a half pound and measuring 12 to 14 inches in length, Lehr said. Indian Valley Reservoir also gets the trout, along with Kokanee fingerlings.

Cache Creek, Lehr added, receives brown trout fingerlings, measuring from 2 to 4 inches long.

The fish are sourced from 21 hatcheries around the state, Lehr said. The rainbow trout are released during the peak recreation season, anywhere from February through Labor Day if the waters remain cool enough. The fingerlings, spawned in the fall, are usually released in the spring.

None of the fish ever go into Clear Lake, said Lehr. “Clear lake is a warm water bass fishery.”

Grant said the county is concerned about tourism and the environmental impact that not stocking the fish could have on the area's exceptional bird life. “A lot of our bird species may be hard-pressed.”

Lehr said eagles and ospreys do forage on trout at reservoirs, but he can't say if they would be affected in this instance.

Traverso doubted that Fish and Game can do anything in response to the county's emergency proclamation.

“This is not a mater of the department making a decision,” Traverso said. “This is a court decision that the department is required by law to adhere to.”

The lists of impacted water bodies are subject to change, Traverso added, noting that the areas could be surveyed and removed from the lists if the species of concern aren't located.

Grant said the county has received anecdotal information that Upper Blue Lake is too cold for one particular frog species.

In this case, negotiations may have to be reopened, said Traverso, and the plaintiffs would have to be willing to do so.

A call to the Stanford Environmental Law Clinic yielded no answer on whether or not that's a possibility.

“There are a number of communities that have absolutely become reliant on our stocking programs for tourism,” said Traverso.

That appears to be a concern for Lake County.

Grant said not stocking the fish could have not just a potential environmental impact, but could become an economic issue at a time when a county like Lake can least afford it.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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