Three ponds in Cheyenne set to open to the public

CHEYENNE — Three existing ponds in Cheyenne are set to be repopulated and opened to the public for fishing.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) will do this by putting rotenone, a pesticide, in the ponds to kill all the existing fish, including invasive species, and then restock them with other species.

Stephen Siddons, statewide fisheries biologist for WGFD, said they realized a lack of public fishing opportunities in Cheyenne, and WGFD began searching for potential locations in 2020. They identified eight potential locations and selected three to pursue. The two current Cheyenne ponds open to the public, Sloans Lake and Lake Absarraca Recreation Area, are both on the north side of the town, leaving many areas of the community unserved.

The new locations will be at Pasture Pond on the north side of the Laramie County Community College, in The Pointe subdivision in northern Cheyenne and in the Dry Creek Natural Area. All are set to open to the public in 2025.

“It should be a great opportunity for folks to bring their kids down, their family or just go fishing for the afternoon, play hooky from work,” Siddons said.

He gave a presentation Wednesday at LCCC to discuss the project at Pasture Pond.

The 2.5-acre pond gets around eight or nine feet deep at points and will be restocked with largemouth bass and bluegill. Currently, the pond is stocked with fathead minnows, black crappie and yellow perch, which are all fairly desirable for anglers.

But it also has non-native bullfrogs and goldfish.

Siddons said goldfish can be found in almost every pond in Cheyenne and reminded attendees to never release their pets to ponds because it disturbs the habitat and is also illegal.

Soon, WGFD will begin to administer rotenone to the lake to kill off the existing critters there. Rotenone inhibits the cellular respiration of organisms and their ability to use the dissolved oxygen in the water, effectively choking out anything with gills. It can also kill some bugs and salamanders, but Siddons said the WGFD is able to calculate the exact concentration needed to kill certain species.

The carcasses will be collected and disposed of in a pit on campus and buried. They will then use fathead minnows as sentinel fish to monitor the concentration of rotenone remaining in the water throughout the summer by tracking the health of the minnows.

Around October, WGFD will bring in bluegill hatched in the spring and summer to populate the pond. Siddons said they will bring in largemouth bass as the bluegill grow. He anticipates the pond opening to the public for fishing next spring.

Rotenone is derived from the bean plant family and has been used for centuries to capture fish, and some people still use it today to collect fish for food. By the 1940s, it was being used in 34 states and several Canadian provinces routinely for the management of fish populations.

In the U.S., rotenone was first applied to ponds and lakes and then to streams and rivers by the 1960s. Nowadays, it’s a common tool in fisheries management. It’s used widely for developing, managing and maintaining sport fisheries across the nation. It’s also used for removing invasive species and removing species for native fish conservation efforts.

In Wyoming, the pesticide is used roughly three or four times per year.

Siddons said this method of using rotenone and restocking the lake is the most efficient and cost-effective option. Other techniques include dewatering the pond to a nearby stream and refilling it, removal of organisms with netting or stocking on top of the existing fish.

Bobby Compton, Laramie County fisheries supervisor, said this practice is fairly new to Laramie County, and Chance Kirkeeng, regional fisheries biologist for WGFD, said he has only seen this done four or five times across the state in the past 20 years.

The changes to the ponds are largely funded by the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission, the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust and Wyoming Game and Fish Habitat Trust Fund. Compton said most of the costs associated with this project are in the time and salaries of WGFD employees.

A representative from LCCC said that the school has not allocated any funds for the project and has only spent some staff time working on it.

WGFD began stocking the Dry Creek Recreational Area pond and the Pointe Lake pond around a month ago. They are stocking them with larger bluegill from the hatchery. All three ponds are expected to be open to the public in 2025.