Two Southwest Iowa lakes to get makeovers

You may’ve heard of extreme makeovers for people and homes — but this weekend a couple of southwest Iowa lakes are gonna get the aquatic version. Andy Moore of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources says they plan to renovate Bartlett and Folsom lakes near Interstate 29. Bartlett says the renovations are needed to get rid of an unwanted fish. He says they’ve found white perch in the lakes, which are not native to Iowa or the central part of the United States. He says those fish can cause some real problems, so they’re going to go in and kill them. Moore says they have to kill all the fish in the lake to wipe out the white perch. He says the main thing is to stop the species from getting any more of a foothold in the state. Moore isn’t sure how the unwanted fish got into the lakes. He says they don’t know where the fish came from, although he says they do know they’re in Nebraska and have become a problem there. He says they may’ve been brought in by an angler or when may’ve been in the Missouri River when it flooded. Moore says put a chemical into the water to kill off all the fish. He says it’s a chemical made from the root of a plant in South America and when they put it in the water it keeps the fish from getting oxygen. Moore says the chemical does not kill the other aquatic life. Once all the fish are dead, the D-N-R will restock the lakes with game fish. He says it will take about three weeks for the lakes to detoxify, and then they’ll restock them with bluegills and catfish this fall and large mouth bass next spring. He says it’ll a year and a half or so before the fishing gets good again. Moore says the fish that’re killed off will be left to naturally decompose. Moore says the chemical to kill off the fish costs around 10-thousand dollars and it’ll cost another thousand for the fish to restock the lakes.