SUN JOURNAL • May 28, 2022
According to Bob Mallard, spokesman for the Native Fish Coalition, Green Lake in Hancock County. is the only water in the country where Arctic charr and landlocked salmon “occurred naturally.” The term for this is “coevolved.” The lake is also a native habitat for rainbow smelt as well. Mallard says that this triple species mix of native fish make Green Lake a “natural resource of national significance.” Since 1961, IF&W has been regularly stocking both salmon and lake trout in Green Lake. Because lake trout are deep bottom dwellers like charr, Mallard and the NFC contend that this stocking is misguided, that the lake trout in particular will forage on the charr and hybridize with them, and thus represent a direct threat to the native charr’s survival. How big a sacrifice and how much energy and public money are we willing to expend to protect a native fish in a specific body of water? ~ V. Paul Reynolds