The buzz in biological circles could make a backcountry lake angler croak. Researchers have compiled mountains of data that show introductions of nonnative trout are annihilating native amphibians in high-elevation waters. That evidence, coupled with the clout of the Endangered Species Act, leaves little doubt the curtain is falling on a century-old era. Well-intentioned rangers, wardens, and anglers once used mules to pack milk containers filled with trout fry into thousands of fishless wilderness lakes.
Modern managers use aircraft to continue the tradition.
But in the zeal to create and sustain the continent's remote fishing holes, it turns out they have gone too far. Knapp's survey of 2,200 high lakes and ponds in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains jibes with studies in Idaho's River of No Return Wilderness, where trout are crippling local populations of spotted frogs and long-toed salamanders. Similar results have surfaced from amphibian research in Washington's North Cascades National Park and the High Uintas of Utah, as well as far-flung sites in South America and Spain. Yet these frogs hopping toward the brink of extinction are heralding changes that could improve the backcountry catch. Wilderness fisheries were established with no scientific basis or regard for consequences.