NorCal Biologists Opt To Poison Creek Near Lake Tahoe To Save Trout

RENO (CBS/AP) -- After fighting off legal challenges for a decade, California wildlife officials are ready to try to save a threatened fish in the high Sierra the only way they know how -- by poisoning its creek.

State wildlife biologists plan to begin dumping poison in an 11-mile stretch of the Silver King Creek south of Lake Tahoe on Wednesday as part of a long-term plan to rebuild populations of the native Paiute cutthroat trout.

They say they can't begin to restore the native fish until they kill off invasive trout that are eating its young.

Laurel Ames of the Friends of Silver Creek says it doesn't make sense to kill all the fish in order to save them. But she said it's time now to move on.

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