Gizzard Shad will not wreck Lake Powell

[Kent]

I couldn't agree more that the UDWR is painfully slow to act (and that politics is involved in far more decisions than sound biology); however, I also believe that under today's political environment that it would have been impossible to get permits from the feds to ever plant gizzard shad in Lake Powell or likely any other water in Utah. The feds have still yet to approve the planting of small mouth bass in Lake Powell! Perhaps we should give the UDWR some credit for pulling off the almost impossible by getting approval to plant them in Willard. I have been told by a UDWR employee, who would know, that they tried repeatedly to get permission to plant gizzard shad in Yuba and the feds would never approve it. The reason given was if gizzard shad were planted in Yuba then they would be on both sides of Utah Lake, which would only increase the chances that a bucket biologist would plant them in Utah Lake and further threaten the June Suckers.
[signature]