The tragedy for the citizens of the community depending on this lake for water and business continues.
Bid to eradicate pike will close Lake Davis
By Jane Braxton Little - Bee Correspondent
Published 12:00 am PDT Saturday, September 1, 2007
Monday is the last day Lake Davis is open for fishing as state and federal officials move into the final stages of preparation for a $12 million project to poison the reservoir and close the area to the public for more than two months.
The project will pump 17,000 gallons of toxic chemicals into the Plumas County reservoir in the California Fish and Game Department's second attempt to eradicate northern pike, a nonnative species that has flourished there since 1994.
The U.S. Forest Service will launch a temporary public closure Tuesday, said Lee Anne Schramel Taylor, a spokeswoman for the Plumas National Forest. The closed area will include Lake Davis, shorelines, all tributaries and all lands upslope of them to the ridge tops of the Freeman Creek watershed.
Campgrounds, boat launches and day-use sites in the Lake Davis recreation area will remain off-limits to the public until tributaries and Lake Davis are found free chemicals, she said.
Pike have been flourishing in Lake Davis since 1994, when state officials believe an angler illegally planted the Midwestern native species. A 1997 chemical treatment similar to the current plan cost the state $20 million but was unsuccessful.
Fish and Game Department officials began planning to poison Lake Davis a second time after a seven-year effort failed to control the pike without chemicals.
