I was a bit surprised I could not find a Lake Pedder thread. So here it is and to kick off a bit of Sunday news from the abc. Tasmania's unsolved mystery of a missing biplane and a passionate conservationist http://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-...-brenda-hean-max-price-disappearance/12660976
Just to clarify where we are talking about. Picture from Wild Magazine.https://wild.com.au/ And this article in particular. https://wild.com.au/news/restore-pedder/
Be a hell of a trick. But I wonder if there is a group who prefer it the way it is now? At the time I thought it a wonder of world vandalism.
The Fishing and associated Tourism lobby have been very vocal in the past about not changing the current status quo. And the Fishing lobby is pretty powerful in Tas. It's a pretty simple job to drain the Serpentine Impoundment, take it down a few metres a year over 10 years and chase the drain with re-veg and job is done. There is nothing hard about it. But to do so would represent a defeat to the "we must develop and chop down for jobs and energy and so on" folks. It would be a signal event that could lead to other things is the concern of the loggers for example. The crazy thing is to restore the lake is likely to be a massive and huge tourist draw card and a world event for 10 years and then there will be a unique lake to sell. And it's not like there are not enough other lakes and impoundments to go fishing on elsewhere in Tas.
Speaking of Lake Pedder, I have a spare copy of Max Angus's The World of Olegas Trunchanas. Postage cost to anyone who would treasure it.
Not much since the trout ate the native fish. There are/were vestige populations of native fish in a couple of spots but for how long?
Do all fish need to be catchable? And there are many other native water beasties the trout clean up. Anaspides for example. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaspides_tasmaniae And it's not like almost every other waterway, lake and impoundment in Tasmania is not seeded with trout. In fact it's a search to find a lake or tarn that does not have trout. I can name a few but they are only a few compared to the volume of water with trout. Trout absolutely dominate Tassie waters so the loss of a water even as large at the Serpentine Impoundment is a minor dent in the availability of trout and trout fishing.
It has always puzzled me that we are justifiably concerned about the introduction of feral animals. Except trout. We have government programmes releasing millions and millions of trout into our rivers every year.
Except trout should be designated as a pest and that is the difference, just like carp they displace native fish and invertebrates and compete for food with even animals in the platypus. And trout do not always remain in their designated streams or waters but do expand well beyond their original release points. This has been demonstrated in Tassie time and time again. But it's a pipe dream to expect the designation of trout as a pest and I accept there are waterways that I'm happy to leave as sacrificed to the trout fishing community. But that also means I expect some give and take the other way and the single biggest example of this is the removal of the Serpentine Impoundment and the resurrection of Lake Pedder.
Sorry but you are very wrong. Educate yourself (this review is old now, but for its time was extremely comprehensive and the message from the literature hasn't changed since). I enjoy fishing for trout, its a great summertime recreational activity when you live in the Snowies. But I am wholly aware that the best terrestrial animal to compare them to is rabbits before myxomatosis.
But, it does make the point that there are people who prefer the lake at 20 times its natural size. I am with @skifree in that I think it never should have happened. But also not sure about reversion, but its interesting.
If it does revert how long will it take to return to something like its previous appearance? I'm thinking particularly of mud and the thousands and thousands of dead tree stumps. Will the beach return?
The article above refers to dive work where the beach has been confirmed as just sitting there under a foot or so of silt. So no reason to think it has disappeared. As for re-growth that will be a 10 to 500 year project depending on how you look at it. But the other context is when the dams were built hundreds of acres were cleared, scraped, blown up, quarried or otherwise damaged. Hydro made pitiful attempts to effect regeneration and in the end gave up on a task they had no interest in and handed the problem over to Parks with a sum of money ($10 million is floating about in my memory, could be wrong) and washed their hands of the matter. Needless to say Parks ran out of the money well before the task was finished and it is still ongoing. The upside is Parks learnt a lot about regen in the area over the years and should be well equipped to effect a reasonably efficient regen program with fewer failures than previously. Just because regeneration is a big long task it's no reason not to do something. It just needs to be considered and including in the funding.
