Letters

Opposes FWP plan to poison wilderness lakes

Rotting, poison-filled dead fish will soon be floating belly up in our pristine high mountain lakes, choking the streams flowing to our water supply.

Bears, eagles, osprey, wolves, wolverines and others will eat these toxin-loaded carcasses, and elk, deer, moose, and all creatures great and small, will drink and absorb the poisons dumped in their water.

An expensive, idealistic ongoing ethnic-cleansing program to help a native trout is about to start which exposes humans, animals and birds to serious and needless risk, in my opinion. Lakes will be bombarded with rotenone and other toxic chemicals to kill all living fish.

Unintended consequences to humans, animals and bird life might be horrendous. Rotenone, a deadly poison to fish, was linked to a Parkinson-like syndrome in humans in a recent article in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA, April 26, 2006, Vol. 295, No. 16).

Who will take responsibility and be held accountable if this happens?

Potassium permanganate, a highly potent chemical which contains manganese and which is medically and chemically active, may be used to neutralize the rotenone and will also enter our drinking water.

The possible toxic effects of this are unknown, but why take a chance? If rotenone is safe, why does it need to be neutralized?

Messing with Mother Nature places us all on a slippery slope, and disasters happen far too often.

Remember a few years ago when we delighted in the spectacle of 600 eagles per day feasting on the spawning salmon-filled Lower McDonald Creek?

Shrimp were apparently introduced and, for whatever reason, the salmon spawn vanished and the show stopped.

And what about the effect on humans, wild birds and animals in the food chain of various insecticides, PCB, dioxin, lead-based paint, leaded gasoline, Agent Orange, and so forth?

We were once told they were harmless.

Elk and deer are at risk for degenerative brain disease — why add another risk? Why destroy the balance of nature for the many birds, animals and plants which keep these lakes and streams so pristine and delightful?

As a retired physician and pharmacist with a life-long interest in neuropharmacology, I am concerned about the effect of even small, needless exposure to rotenone, manganese and similar chemicals, both on adult humans and unborn babies when their mothers drink the water, as well as wildlife.

Let's not poison our drinking water with this unnecessary fish-killing project.

Vernon Grove

Whitefish