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Group asks county to help fight lake invaders
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"It's the crown jewel," Henrys Lake Foundation board member Ron Slocum said of the lake. "It's the finest big trout lake fishery in the West. It's an incredible fishery. We can't afford to fail on this one because once we fail, we're in trouble."
Fremont County has operated boat washes at Henry's Lake for the past two years in an attempt to prevent the spread of the dangerous mussel and weed invaders into the lake.
In fact, the county was the first in Idaho to take preemptive action against the invasive species, an initiative the state has endorsed and later copied in its boat washes at strategic points where boats enter the state.
The idea is to keep boats that might be carrying the invasive intruders from infecting Idaho's waters, just as the county's effort is aimed specifically at keeping the invaders out of Henry's Lake.
The foundation has already contributed $6,000 toward the county's efforts at Henry's Lake.
But the foundation members have noticed gaps in protection and are in the process of trying to fill the gaps.
Monday the president and a couple of board members asked the county for a letter of support for their efforts to get a couple of Idaho Fish and Game regulations changed to better combat the threats of invasive species.
Foundation President Phil Barker and board members Ron Zega and Slocum are trying to convince the Fish and Game to switch back to pre-2007 rules and allow fishing at the lake from one hour prior to dawn to one hour after sunset rather than 24 hours a day.
They also would like the agency to return to an Oct. 31 closing date on the lake rather than the Nov. 30 date initiated in 2007.
Those changes would better coincide when the county's boat wash stations can operate and would theoretically help prevent boats from slipping by the boat washes.
Commission Chairman Paul Romrell who, with county Weed Supervisor Bryce Fowler and the High Country Resource Conservation and Development agency, started the county's anti-invasive species program, said there are many other ways the invaders can get into the county's lakes and streams, such as the felt bottoms of fly-fishing waders and float tubes.
There also are places on Henry's Lake to launch boats that aren't covered by boat wash stations.
Romrell also suggested the foundation participate in an area-wide cloud-seeding effort he helped start and continues to lead. The foundation has been asked to help fund the effort before but has yet to donate to it.
In an interview after the meeting, Romrell said he handed the foundation members a letter seeking support for cloud seeding, but it was left in the commission room when they left the meeting.
Keeping sufficient water in the lake is another way to combat the milfoil problem, Romrell said, and cloud-seeding efforts have been successful in increasing the amount of precipitation in the area, independent consultants have reported.
The County Commission does supports the efforts of the foundation to return the fishing regulations to pre-2007 rules on dawn to dusk fishing and a season that ends Oct. 31, Romrell said.
The foundation agreed to draft a letter of support for the foundation's position on the regulations that the commissioners may review and sign.
JOYCE EDLEFSEN
jedlefsen@uvsj.com
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