State Won’t Take Chance With Rotenone

The fish-eating public had a heyday the last time Williams and Badger lakes were ridded of non-game fish.

To boost production of trout, state workers have occasionally treated lakes with the organic chemical rotenone, which essentially suffocates all fish in the lake. Rotenone becomes inert after a few months. Insect life flourishes and hatchery trout can be reintroduced with no competition to quickly grow fat and pleasing to anglers.

But one thing has changed. When the rotenone is applied to the two lakes Oct. 4-5, people will be prohibited from using nets to salvage edible fish that come belly-up to the surface.

The Environmental Protection Agency rewrote the label on the chemical about five years ago, said Modonna Luers, Washington Fish and Wildlife Department spokeswoman. The label suggests that people should avoid consumption of fish treated with rotenone.

“It’s a recommendation, not a rule,” Luers said. “It’s not based on research that shows rotenone is harmful. Rather, it’s based on the lack of research showing that it’s safe.”

Thousands of bass and some trout that have eluded anglers’ hooks this summer will rot this fall. It’s one of those unavoidable shames of modern living.

News of people flocking to cash in on perceived complications from silicone breast implants or hot coffee spilled on their laps illustrates why the state isn’t taking any chances in our litigious society.

Too many people are looking for a way to win the lottery.

Wake-up Call:

Now that hunting seasons have resumed, I’m reminded that there’s no place to buy coffee in Spokane at 5 a.m.

Young Wisdom:

One of the great joys in our neighborhood is the way small children are left to graze at dinner time.

Since our family is notorious for eating somewhere between 6:30 and 8:30 p.m., it’s not uncommon for a 6-year-old who has already fussed through one dinner to wander in and belly up to the table during the course of our meal.

This apparently is a wild experience for kids from non-hunting families.

We’re not sure what stories they take back home after they’ve eaten antelope, which my daughter Hillary enthusiastically refers to as “Aunty Lope.”

Or crappie, which invariably is pronounced like any 6-year-old would sound out the word.

Or chukar, a creature that apparently has lived for decades along the Snake River without registering a moment of interest with anyone in our neighborhood.

“Is it a dinosaur?’ Byron Stevens once asked.

Meanwhile, the reaction of the kids to wild game is an opportunity worth feeding.

For instance, when Kate Hellenthal walked in recently, I was just sliding the walleye fillets off the grill. My wife, Meredith, heaped some rice and fruit salad on an extra plate and I asked Kate if she wanted some walleye.

Kate bit her lip as she studied the white char-broiled flesh. She has been to dinner at our house more than once. Kate knows better than to make a hasty decision.

“You like fish, don’t you?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said, “But I don’t like that kind.”

“How do you know you don’t like walleye?”

“Because I’ve never had it?”

Long haul

State sportsmen’s groups are slowly stalking support for Referendum 45, which would restore the authority that was politically snatched from the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission by Gov. Booth Gardner in 1987.

Virtually all major Eastern Washington wildlife groups, ranging from the Audubon Society to the Spokane Walleye Club, are backing the referendum in an attempt to route some of the politics out of the state’s wildlife management.

But sportsmen are having trouble raising the money it takes to educate the public about such political issues that receive little play in the general media.

No fat corporations have a stake in this issue. Contributions, however small, must continue to trickle in from the grass roots.

The November election is a chance wildlife advocates cannot pass up. Contact the Inland Northwest Wildlife Council, 534-6550.

Still intact

My Brittany pup, Radar, appreciates all the calls and letters of sympathy and encouragement in reaction to last week’s column on the spirited family debate over whether he should be neutered.

He was especially receptive to the suggestion that veterinarian Vern Brock is all wet to suggest that there’s no connection between a male hunting dog’s nose and his testicles.

“You only have to spend an hour or so observing male dog behavior to see that there’s a major connection,” one observer said.

, DataTimes MEMO: You can contact Rich Landers by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 5508.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review