SACRAMENTO, Aug. 11 -- The U.S. Forest Service on Wednesday rejected environmentalists' appeal of a plan to poison a stream south of Lake Tahoe to aid what wildlife officials call "the rarest trout in America."
Unless opponents sue, the decision frees the California Department of Fish and Game to seek a permit to clear nonnative fish from 11 miles of Silver King Creek next month using rotenone, a toxic chemical.
The department then wants to restore the Paiute cutthroat trout to its native habitat in the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness. Silver King Creek flows into the Carson River south of Lake Tahoe.
Wildlife officials said insects and other species wiped out by the fish poison are likely to repopulate the creek within a couple of years.
The department is considering using the same chemical to try to wipe out voracious foreign northern pike in Lake Davis, north of Lake Tahoe.
