COSTLY YELLOWSTONE INVASION
There’s
little hope of ridding Yellowstone Lake of its invading lake trout,
says a report by the National Park Service. The illegally
introduced lake trout, discovered by anglers in 1994, could
diminish the native cutthroat trout population by 70 percent or
more within 100 years. And by disrupting the food chain, the
invasion could affect 42 other species that depend on the native
fish for food, including grizzly bears, bald eagles, white pelicans
and otters. “The ecological consequences of this development are
truly frightening, and the public has had little time to absorb
what the loss of this extraordinary fishery will mean to the
ecosystem,” says Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Mike
Finley. There is a glimmer of hope: The report, The Yellowstone
Lake Crisis: Confronting a Lake Trout Invasion, says there’s a
50-50 chance that lake trout can be controlled with gill nets,
traps and other methods, but only at a cost of $9 million over the
next 30 years.
For a copy of the 36-page report,
edited by John Varley and Paul Schullery, write Superintendent,
Yellowstone National Park, P.O. Box 168, Yellowstone National Park,
WY 82190.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Costly Yellowstone invasion.
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