Casper Star-Tribune Online
Feb. 1, 2008
A Colorado man has been fined $100,000 for stocking ponds at a Wyoming ranch
with rusty crayfish, a destructive species that officials say could have
significantly damaged aquatic habitat and native fish.
Shannon Skelton,
34, the owner of Colorado Fisheries in Fort Collins, pleaded guilty to one count
of unlawful transportation of illegally possessed wildlife from Colorado to the
Wagonhound Ranch in Converse County. Jointly with his company, Skelton must pay
$40,000 in fines and $60,000 in restitution to the Wyoming Game and Fish
Department.
Already, more than $34,000 has been spent to eradicate the
crayfish -- native to the Ohio River drainage -- from three ponds and a section
of creek on the Wagonhound Ranch in Converse County.
Colorado Fisheries
creates fish habitat and sells trophy fish to ranches and fishing lodges,
according to Game and Fish. Al Condor, the agency's regional fishery supervisor,
said Skelton was adding the crayfish, which provide forage for other species,
“to grow more and bigger fish.”
The crayfish were discovered at
Wagonhound during a site visit to evaluate a plan to move fish from one pond to
another, Condor said. Until that point, rusty crayfish had not been found in
Wyoming.
“We were very lucky,” he said. “They were in a fairly confined
area.”
The ranch managers were unaware of the crayfish and, like Game and Fish, was
an unknowing victim, he added.
After isolating the ponds and minimizing
their size, Game and Fish employees used chemicals to kill anything living in
the water.
“We tried, basically, to eliminate anything that breathed with
gills,” Condor said. “There was no way to sort out the good crayfish, the bad
crayfish, and the fish that remained in the ponds.”
According to U.S.
District Court documents, Skelton was originally charged with three counts of
transporting wildlife in violation of the Lacey Act, a federal law prohibiting
trade in plant and animals that are illegally taken, possessed, transported or
sold.
The charging document alleges that between 2002 and 2005, Skelton
transported freshwater crayfish and freshwater shrimp from Colorado to the
Wagonhound Ranch in Converse County and to the Fish On Ranch in Albany County,
and transferred a variety of freshwater shrimp to the Masterson Ranch in Carbon
County.
Wagonhound business manager Dustin Ewing deferred comment to Game
and Fish. Representatives of the Fish On Ranch and the Masterson Ranch were
unavailable for comment.
Condor said he’s as certain as he can be when
dealing with biological systems that all crayfish were eradicated. The
department will continue monitoring the sites, and may survey waters basinwide
as well, he said.
“Unfortunately, if we find them in the North Platte,
which I don’t think we will, we just can’t deal with that,” Condor said. “It is
really unfortunate that somebody with a new aquatic species has the ability to
transform an entire aquatic ecosystem.”
Private landowners stocking ponds
with fish is common in Wyoming, Condor said. Game and Fish requires a permit,
which is free. The process ensures that illegal species and fish with disease
aren’t placed in water which could seep through drainages to other waterways
downstream.