(Boise, ID) - Even after six years of drought, Idaho trout have taken back a piece
of river left dry for almost a century. More than four miles of dry river bed near Grace are receiving
regulated flows of water for the first time since 1908 as result of the
settlement agreement between PacifiCorp, settlement agreement between
PacifiCorp, the company that produces electrical power in Southeast
Idaho, and the natural resource agencies and recreational organizations.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that provides
licenses to operate hydropower facilities on rivers such as the Bear
River requires that the needs for fish, wildlife and recreation be
considered as well as the interests of hydropower.
Conservationists, anglers and recreationists are delighted that water
will again flow in these previously dewatered river sections.
Idaho Fish and Game regional fisheries manager Dick Scully said
"Restoring several miles of a river fishery in the midst of a six-year
drought is pretty amazing." The agreement restores to previously dry
river beds four and one-half miles of river below Grace Dam and one and
one-half miles below Cove Dam if Cove decommissioning becomes a reality.
It will restore aquatic life, recreate a fishery and provide water for
fish, wildlife, plants, shore birds and more."
One of the stipulations in the new 30-year license that PacifiCorp
received in December 2003 is that a minimum flow of 80 cfs be left in
the Bear River at Grace. From 1908 until this new license was signed,
PacifiCorp diverted all the Bear River's flow except when flow exceeded
960 cubic feet per second, the capacity of their hydropower flume.
PacifiCorp could decommission the Cove Dam restoring another 1.3
miles of river. Cove Dam, built in 1917, diverted the entire Bear River
flow from this 1.3-mile reach about six miles below the Grace Dam. The
Cove project has not operated since 2003 because of flume maintenance
problems and all the Bear River flow has stayed in the river channel.
If the Cove project is decommissioned, this section of the river
would continue to have abundant flow. Additionally, by removing the Cove
Dam, native Bonneville cutthroat trout would be able to migrate freely
between Oneida Reservoir near Preston, all the way up to Grace Dam.
When hundreds of rainbow trout raised at Idaho Fish and Game's Grace
Hatchery were stocked into the "new" river it marked a new era for the
Department and for area anglers.
"It is kind of amazing to think that fish will once again swim in
river sections where they had been for thousands of years, but not for
the last century," Scully said. "We will just have to wait to see how
the fish do and how many anglers fish here."
Fish and Game will regularly plant rainbow trout into these newly
re-watered river sections so anglers can enjoy the benefits of the new
PacifiCorp Bear River license. The stocked rainbows are sterile to
prevent interbreeding with native Bonneville cutthroat trout which
should repopulate this stretch of river over time.
State, federal and private conservation organizations met with
PacifiCorp for nearly 10 years to work out the agreement which contains
several measures designed to help fish and wildlife along the Bear
River. Under current federal guidelines for relicensing of hydropower
facilities, fish, wildlife and recreation must also be considered.
Scully recently visited the Grace and Cove Bear River projects where
he checked water flows, water clarity and visited with half a dozen
anglers. All the Idaho anglers were fishing in areas of the canyon that
were spring-water fed or below Cove Dam diversion. He wondered if any
trout had re entered a stretch of water between Cove Dam and the second
part of the flume system that had water in it last year and this year.
Checking the area, Scully encountered a family of fishermen from
Utah. Using small beadhead flies they caught numerous rainbows. Their
catch confirmed Scully's theory that rainbows planted below Cove Dam
would move upstream using the newly created waters.
Creation of a new fishery and restoration of aquatic habitat could
not have come at a better time. Southeast Idaho waters are hard hit by
drought. Chesterfield Reservoir, once a mainstay fishery, is dry.
Blackfoot Reservoir is so low that native cutthroat trout and rainbow
trout fisheries are severely limited. The enormous American Falls
Reservoir has drained to under five percent the last four years by the
end of summer. Other irrigation-controlled reservoirs in the region have
fluctuated with several being drained. Migrating cutthroat trout numbers
on the Upper Blackfoot River have dropped dramatically from nearly 5000
adult migrants headed up river in 2001 to a low of 120 last year.
