Campaign under way to polish Cascade gem.

Byline: INSIDE THE OUTDOORS By Mike Stahlberg The Register-Guard

Bob Pinson never had a chance to fish Diamond Lake in its heyday.

"It was already well in decline the first time I got up there," he said. "So I've done most of my fishing around Crane Prairie and Wickiup."

But Pinson is well aware of Diamond Lake's place in the hearts and memories of countless Oregon families.

"So many people have fond memories of family outings at that lake," he said.

That's why the Portland fundraiser is confident he'll succeed in his task of raising $1.865 million in donations to help restore the Gem of the Cascades to its former glory.

Pinson is point man of an Oregon Wildlife Heritage Foundation fundraising campaign launched at the behest of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The Foundation's full-page color advertisement in the 2006 Oregon Sport Fishing Regulations booklet, now at sporting goods stores, was the first widespread notice that a public fundraising campaign is under way. The ad is an appeal for people to donate $25 or more to the Restore Diamond Lake fund.

Basically, the foundation is trying to raise enough money to make up the difference between what state, local and federal governments could scrape together and the $5,568,000 cost of the restoration project.

Most anglers are familiar with the need to restore Diamond Lake, which once drew 100,000 anglers a year to fish for the fat rainbow trout in the pristine lake located in the Cascade Mountains east of Roseburg.

For several years, however, the lake has been overrun by millions of tui chub, a minnowlike fish that has decimated the aquatic food chain and upset the ecosystem of the lake, leading to toxic algae blooms in the summer.

Biologists estimate that there are now 95 million tui chub in Diamond Lake, all the result of someone illegally using live minnows for bait.

The restoration project was developed by a "working group" that includes representatives of nine different government agencies eager to see Diamond Lake returned to a "swimmable, fishable" lake.

The project involves digging a canal that will be used to lower the level of the lake by 8 feet and reduce the volume of water by one-third by the end of the 2006 recreation season. The remaining body of water will then be treated with rotenone in the fall of 2006.

Rotenone is a chemical substance derived from tropical and subtropical plant roots; it will kill all fish in the lake by preventing them from breathing. Rotenone rapidly decomposes in light and will break down within a short time.

After all the fish carcasses are removed, Diamond Lake will be refilled next winter and restocked with trout in early 2007.

Biologists are confident the procedure will be successful because it's been done before. Diamond Lake was treated with rotenone and restocked in 1954, then thrived for almost 40 years before the tui chub again reared its ugly head in 1992.

The fundraising effort is "going well," Pinson said. "We've raised about $750,000 so far." Most of that was pledged by corporations, foundations and philanthropic individuals before the fundraising effort went "public." Members of the steering committee are continuing to make calls on potential donors.

Pinson said he expects small, individual donations to account for about 10 percent of the total raised. Contributions are tax-deductible.

Money spent restoring Diamond Lake will be returned many times over through the increased economic impact on nearby communities that the expected tenfold increase in annual angler visits will generate, Pinson said. That impact is expected to amount to $35 million over the first 10 to 12 years.

And that doesn't count the immeasurable value of "keeping our heritage alive by keeping these kinds of special places for families," Pinson said.

For more information on the restoration project, log on to: www.restorediamondlake.org.

Mike Stahlberg can be reached at mstahlberg@ guardnet.com.