The Silver King Creek is in the Eastern Sierra's Carson-Iceberg Wilderness of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest and it is a tributary of the East Carson River of the Lahontan Desert Basin. The Paiute Trout is a very rare species that is native to the Silver King Creek. They are distinguished by a lack of spots and by a purplish iridescent color that is very distinctive. But, they have been all but become extinct as a result of the competition from the rainbow and the golden trout.
State fisheries biologists have decided after many long years of discussions and court battles, to eradicate the nonnative species of trout from the Silver King Creek in the High Sierras of California. The method chosen to remove the nonnative species was to disperse rotenone poison into the Silver King. Then the rainbow and golden trout that had floated belly up would be scooped up and removed from the stream. Then after restoring the water with a treatment of potassium permanganate, the eleven miles of the Silver King Creek will again be stocked with the Paiute Trout. Stocking the Silver King will be done gradually and carefully by introducing 50 to 100 trout at a time drawing from the small population of remaining stock. It is expected to take several years,, as much as yen years, to make the Silver King available of fishing.
This story is based on an September 2 article in the LA Times by Louis Sahagun and the picture by Eric Herve.