Back to fishies and froggies

Grab your bear can or camp chair, kick your feet up and chew the fat about anything Sierra Nevada related that doesn't quite fit in any of the other forums. Within reason, (and the HST rules and guidelines) this is also an anything goes forum. Tell stories, discuss wilderness issues, music, or whatever else the High Sierra stirs up in your mind.
el cuervo

Re: Back to fishies and froggies

Post by el cuervo »

BM wrote:

"...However, others have very compelling data which does not concur with Knapp."

others?

How about some links to said data?
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Bad Man From Bodie
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Re: Back to fishies and froggies

Post by Bad Man From Bodie »

Russ...

The decontamination protocol is a joke....good luck with that one I say...lets try to keep all of the animals out of the water too. Point is yes, fish eat frogs....a lot of critters always have....that's part of it all and why its alarming ......we need to have frogs around for a reason........but according to these scientist, da fungus is getting em, and in numbers! So, the fish may not necessarily be the main problem round here. As for porcupines, no you don't have to poison fish to restore their habitat :unibrow: .

el cuervo....

Why do you hate fish :evil: :evil: :evil: :mad: :mad: :puke: ???????
el cuervo

Re: Back to fishies and froggies

Post by el cuervo »

Bad Man From Bodie wrote:el cuervo....

Why do you hate fish ???????
Who says I hate fish?

Any chance we can read what these "others" have to write on the topic at hand?

I enjoy native fish in their home waters as much as I enjoy substantiated facts.
Last edited by el cuervo on Fri Jan 02, 2009 4:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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rlown
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Re: Back to fishies and froggies

Post by rlown »

Let me spin this topic in a slightly different direction. Based on the data that the scientists have put forth, which lakes/basins would you gladly give up as frog habitat?

From what i've read, it seems that they have to be all lakes in the upstream part of a basin, with good downstream fish barriers, natural or otherwise.

russ
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Bad Man From Bodie
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Re: Back to fishies and froggies

Post by Bad Man From Bodie »

So cuervo....

Bacicaly you are throwing out the The Vanishing Frog, hosted by Animal Planets Jeff Corwin as crap and not sound science ehh???? You are also disputing the data presented in the program no????

Also, what is not "substantiated fact" in the program?

Im off to Lee Vining so I'll have to catch ya later........as for those "others"....what data will satisfy you?
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rlown
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Re: Back to fishies and froggies

Post by rlown »

Let's not spin this discussion out of control again so Eric locks it. If we want facts that need to be presented, please stick to your facts.

(I'd just hate to see valuable dialog get locked again). I think there is a middle ground between Frog and Fish. Some lakes would be fine to be cleared for Frogs. Other lakes, some we dont really want to mention in a forum, might end up targets because we don't have involvement in the "selection" process for fish removal.

I'm wanting more transparency from DFG and the NPS on the plans are, and more input from the Angling community.

Russ
el cuervo

Re: Back to fishies and froggies

Post by el cuervo »

BM,

If that television show is the "others" you were referring to, disregard my request.

If by others you mean peer-reviewed journals, please post links.
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rlown
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Re: Back to fishies and froggies

Post by rlown »

el cuervo,

Maybe you could start a constructive dialog by posting your facts. We saw the show, we've read Roland's Blog (good stuff btw for the most part)

Russ

It might help others post resonable rebuttals or agreement.
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Re: Back to fishies and froggies

Post by giantbrookie »

Indeed we should stay on track here and stay civil.

Regarding your questions about which basins might be the best to "sacrifice" I must confess I don't have enough information to be able to make informed recommendations. The question concerns not on the distribution of frogs and the fish, but also the conditions of the frogs with regard to the dread chytrid fungus. There is also the problem of accessibility and the ease of coffee canning. There are oodles of overpopulated lakes (we usually think brookies, but I can think of some stunted rainbow and golden lakes, too) that anglers would be more than happy to sacrifice, but these aren't always optimally located with respect to the above criteria. There is also the curious case of the northern Sierra where frogs and trout have managed to coexist many decades into to the air drop era (and from what I hear the frogs seem to fight off the fungus better, too). Why this is so I don't know, but I know of lakes in Desolation that have had frogs and very good trout populations for decades, whereas in the "High" Sierra the only trout-bearing lakes that have MYLF have either very low population densities or (in the case of one lake I know that has frogs plus a ton of brookies) they have fishless ponds available nearby for the poliwogs to overwinter in (or at least that's the explanation I heard).

In any case, the above illustrates why continued cooperation and communication between the angling community and frog advocates is needed. We don't want to see fisheries wiped out in areas where frogs have little chance of repopulation. For example in the Triple Divide (juncture of Kern-Kings-Kaweah drainages) area (on all sides) there are dozens of lakes that are fishless and have been fishless for decades, but lack frogs. Something else has decimated the frog population here or is preventing it from recovering. This would be a very bad place to wipe out the few remaining fisheries, it would seem.

As for transparency, this is a problem, but I am sensitive to the concern by those on both sides of this (FWS, USFS, NPS on one side, DFG on the other). One of the fears folks have is that public knowledge will lead to coffee canning which would obviously sabotage frog recovery efforts. The flip side of this is it is a major bummer to hike to some remote off trail place and find a former lunker fishery devoid of fish (or in the case of some stories, full of gill nets). The coffee can thing is real and I have received some reliable info on at least one notorious (recent) case in Seki.
Since my fishing (etc.) website is still down, you can be distracted by geology stuff at: http://www.fresnostate.edu/csm/ees/facu ... ayshi.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Back to fishies and froggies

Post by gdurkee »

Whoa! What a busy place. And we're keeping it civil (though I imagine Eric's finger is hovering nervously over the "lock" button...).

Bad Man: Thanks mucho for posting the link to the Discovery program. That was outstanding -- I don't have cable and had wanted to see that. A really good example of science reporting. I did, though, miss reference there to science which would contradict any of either Roland's or Vance's research. At the end, they talked about climate change being a contributor, but that didn't seem to contradict anything on either the role of Chytrid or fish. Temperature, if it's a factor, only seems to enhance the effects of Chytrid, if I understood it correctly (as well as Roland's comments on his blog).

Also, just as a side-note on porcupines. I followed up from your comment a few months ago. Our Park's Chief Scientist has been hearing anecdotal stories about possible porcupine decline. The problem is no one has a handle on it enough to start a study (or money...). I think it's fair to say that of the species in California that have been endangered or considered endangered, each has received an enormous amount of scientific and press attention: bighorn sheep; peregrine falcon; even a kangaroo rat, if I remember right. In fact, the attention given the yellow-legged frog is pretty impressive considering it's not a cuddly and furry animal. Increasingly, I think such attention is appropriately proportionate to the perception that it's a wider problem (in habitat destruction or as an indicator species) than just the species in trouble. That's what's happening here. As I've said before, it's not just about the frogs. It's about the Sierra ecosystem.

I wish I were in Lee Vining right now... .

Russ: good to get us on track -- the fish froggie brouhaha has happened here before and we have a tendency to get excitable.
From what i've read, it seems that they have to be all lakes in the upstream part of a basin, with good downstream fish barriers, natural or otherwise.
Roland has a pretty good essay about the criteria required. Also, this spring, I think Sequoia Kings will publish their EA on the proposed lakes for fish removal over the next 30 years. If I'm in the frontcountry when that happens, I'll post it here. Here's Rolands thoughts on criteria:
In these projects, site selection was straightforward: choose sites that (1) are in close proximity to existing frog populations, (2) contain high quality frog habitat, and (3) have the appropriate characteristics to allow fish population removal using mechanical means (gill netting, electrofishing). Criterion 1 ensures that mountain yellow-legged frogs will be able to recolonize the restoration site following fish removal. For Criterion 2, high quality habitat is generally characterized as lakes deeper than 3 m (10'), located at elevations below 3600 m (11800'), and surrounded by other suitable habitats including fishless lakes, ponds, marshes, and low-gradient streams (see Knapp et al. 2003 for details). Criterion 3 requires that there are no upstream fish populations and that fish from downstream locations are prevented from moving into the site by natural barriers on the interconnecting streams.
The full essay is here:
http://anuranblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/ ... ience.html

Another essay with his thoughts about the role of climate change is here:
http://anuranblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/ ... ibian.html

And researchers spreading chytrid:
http://anuranblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/ ... ad-by.html

Actually, read all three of his Frog Fables.

Finally, Giantbrookie's comment that the angler community really needs to engage in this problem in a reasonable way is an excellent point. Totally opposing all attempts to restore frog habitat won't work. The angler community has to accept that it is in no way an either/or equation. The tendency to paranoia, by some, that the government is out to destroy your fishing is just not going to get you a place at the table with any credibility or subsequent influence.

g.
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