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Planting Trout in Wyoming High‐elevation Wilderness Waters
Author(s) -
Wiley Robert W.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
fisheries
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.725
H-Index - 79
eISSN - 1548-8446
pISSN - 0363-2415
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8446(2003)28[22:ptiwhw]2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - trout , wilderness , elevation (ballistics) , fishery , sowing , geography , environmental science , hydrology (agriculture) , fish <actinopterygii> , ecology , geology , biology , agronomy , engineering , geotechnical engineering , structural engineering
Trout planting in wilderness waters is being criticized as inappropriate. Most criticism focuses only on fish planting, ignoring other human activity in wilderness. People began to realize the consequences of past actions, like fish planting in wilderness waters, long after self‐sustaining trout populations had established. As usual, some rushed to condemn the misguided actions of predecessors, deplore the results, and find ways to stop the intrusive fish planting, long after the sky had purportedly fallen. Wilderness management decisions, like those about fisheries management, are value judgments composed of trade‐offs between opposing options. Options for the management of wilderness areas include (1) strict regulation of human activity to insure that the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man; (2) excluding fish planting because fish may significantly modify formerly fishless lake ecosystems but permitting other human pursuits such as hiking, camping, climbing, fire suppression, mining and livestock grazing; or (3) a judicious mix of all activities, including fishing and some fish planting. I prefer the last option because it allows a range of human activities, yet preserves wilderness attributes and addresses maintenance of biological diversity and ecosystem conservation.