Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Proposal to poison watershed meets resistance from Patagonia Town Council

The Patagonia Town Council has hired Tubac-based attorney Hugh Holub to look into a U.S. Forest Service project that calls for poisoning the watershed in Red Rock Canyon. The vote, which was made during the council’s regular meeting on Dec. 8, followed an hourlong presentation by local attorney Dennis Parker. Parker asked council members to oppose the project, saying that it would not work and could potentially poison the town’s drinking water if anything should go wrong. A proposal by the Coronado National Forest Service and the Arizona Game and Fish Department calls for poisoning the Red Rock watershed in order to kill off exotic species such as bullfrogs and mosquito fish. The idea is that by killing off the invaders, native species such as the Gila topminnow will return. “We do believe this is an important project for the recovery of the endangered species,” said Heidi Schewel, spokeswoman for the Coronado National Forest...more

The Fedzilla is poisonous in many ways, this being one of the more blatant.

1 comment:

SWilmeth said...

Has anybody seen how many places across the country have mosquito fish and bull frogs . . . . compared to the Gila top minnow? What are the feds going to do hire a bull frog bouncer and make sure that birds don't transport bullfrog eggs back into the watershed? And, technically, isn't killing even one Gila Top Minnows with poison to freshen up their habitat illegal? I mean killing an endangered species to eliminate competition from the illegals is still killing an endangered species! Maybe we ought to take a page out of this book and poison the same watershed . . . for two legged illegals!