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------- NO~~/~).... "To lIc/p 5bortcn tbi' Ti111[ Bdn'cen Bitc/' {}!./ 7A4-Yc-L//j/r'-<:}.-(J, A mistakenly-predicated article in NATIONAL ..; ARKS \1i\GAZINE for May, by Robert R. Miller (a museum staff ichthyologist specializing in the sys- maties of southwestern fishes). attempts to discredit recent pre-impoundment rotenone trealment for fish agement purposes of the upper Green River in Wyo- . g and Utah. The article is notable principally for lack of scientific objectivity because, in fact, it is 70-mile-long Flaming Gorge Reservoir that will iterate the section treated and, by its cold water dis- ge, effect additional profound biological changes a great many miles downstream (irrespective of the of rotenone). '. Nevertheless, Miller condemns the state fishery biolo- . for using rotenone and, allegedly, driving several ies of fish there to the brink of extinction, The truth the matter, of course, is that their work is only after- -fact of the overriding environmental disruption sed by construction of the reservoir. In his confused . Ie, Miller describes the situation"",ith respect to sev- obscure species, having particular scientific interest him, as follows: . Included in the section of Green River that was affected by this poisoning project were places ideal for the maintenance of four of these rare kinds: the .Colorado squawfish (Ptychocheilus /ucius); the humpback chub (Gila cypha); the swift-river form of the bluehead sucker (Pantosteus delphinus), and ,the humpback sucker (Xyrauchen texanus). The squawfish is the largest member of the minnow family in this hemisphere. . . . The humpback chub is extraordinarily specialized for life in torrentially swift waters. The swift-water form of the blue head sucker is likewise admirably adapted, and . the humpback sucker is similarly specialized, but is the least threatened of the four. The incredible fact is that Miller unwittingly misses full significance of his own words! For, if torren- y-swift waters represent the vitally-essential habitat these four species, the dominating change that has rmined their doom in that vital stretch of river habitat is the drowning of the torrent by the deep, still waters of the rising reservoir! Whether rotenone has hastened the process a few years would seem largely beside the point. Much is also made of a possibiiity that some rotenone may have escaped past a detoxification station a few miles below the dam site. Possibly some delayed pocket may have come down-after prolonged tests for as long as 12 hours had indicated no further need for detoxifica- tion, when it was curtailed-and caused a partial down- stream kill. Again, while it was hoped to avoid this pos- sibility, whether it actually happened would have little real bearing on downstream biology in the face of the dramatic and far-reaching changes wrought by closure of the Flaming Gorge Dam. The fact is that the Green River, flowing through Dinosaur National Monument down to the Colorado, is now a dramatically different river from what the White Man, at least, has previously seen there. Where it once ran warm and muddy, the Green River now runs cold and clear below the reservoir, as it will from now on. Where it once fluctuated widely in volume of flow with the seasons, it will now run at a fairly constant volume the year-round. Fortunately, a recent Interior Department report has placed this complicated project in proper perspective. After analyzing the rotenone treatment--carried out in order to permit development of a new trout fishery in a drastically man-altered environment-the report states, significantly (emphasis added): " . radical ecological changes are taking place in the Green River due to the control of the stream flows, the changes in water temperatures, and the reduction in downstream silt loads as influenced by the regulation of the river at Flaming Gorge Dam. The cumulative effects by these ecological modifi- cations due to impoundment of waters may be ex- pected to influence udversely the habitats and the perpetuation of several native species and cannot be fully predicted at this time. This is the true crux of the matter. If the museum c I