Poisoning Wild Watersheds

On episode 133 of the Green Root Podcast (the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance), concerned citizen Mike Rawluk questions a Colorado government/corporate scheme to poison a watershed and drinking water source inside designated wilderness with a fish-killing pesticide.

Host Josh Schlossberg talks with Mike about:

-How Colorado Parks and Wildlife and Denver Water plan to use the pesticide/piscicide rotenone to extirpate an “invasive” trout subspecies native to Colorado from McQueary Creek and Lake in the Vaquez Peak Wilderness;

-The Environmental Protection Agency’s 2006 ban on rotenone for agricultural and household due to potential health risks;

-Recent legal victories in Montana to stop spraying rotenone in watersheds as a violation of the Wilderness Act;

-Whether poisoning entire waterways to remove certain fish species—including in Rocky Mountain National Park—does more harm than good; 

-Mike’s take on a root cause of the ecological crisis.