Top Ten 2011 Trout and Salmon Stories in Idaho
As in past years Idaho Trout Unlimited wraps up 2011 with a ranking of the top ten stories, events and other things affecting trout and salmon in Idaho.
1. For the third time in a decade the Bonneville Power Administration and NOAA Fisheries are found guilty of violating the Endangered Species Act with their biological opinion for managing the Federal Columbia River Power System. Judge Redden directed these repeat offenders to again submit a new plan by January 2014 and do a better job protecting salmon.
2. Weather conditions across Idaho — a long winter with above average snow — led to a protracted runoff and Idaho streams were full of water, benefiting the wild trout across the state as well as incrementally improving the migration conditions for juvenile salmon (smolts) as the migrate seaward. Of course the migration conditions are good only until the smolts encounter the slackwater of the lower Snake River and have to run the gauntlet of Federal dams (see story 1). With the long, slow melt in the spring and early summer the base flows of many mountain streams are in better condition than they have been in years. And this may prove important if 2012 ends up a below average water year.
3. For the 1st time in 102 years some water flowed into the Big Wood River below Magic Reservoir after the irrigation season ended. The Big Wood Canal Company (BWCC), in cooperation with the Wood River Land Trust, began releasing 15 cfs of stored water to enhance the existing fishery below the dam. The additional 15 cfs into the historic Big Wood River channel is an attempt to maintain the seasonal fishery that exists there in “good water” years (years like this one).
4. The big news on the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River is the first fish passage over Chester Dam since 1938. A fish ladder has been constructed on Chester Dam as part of a hydroelectric project, which is being added on to the irrigation dam. Two diversion canals have been screened to keep the fish in the river. The fish ladder will be fully operational in 2012 upon completion of the hydroelectric project. See video below.
5. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill on Jan. 29, ruled in favor of the Idaho Roadless Rule, a Federal rule that protects trout and salmon habitat on nearly nine million acres of U.S. Forest Service managed lands in Idaho. The decision upholds the Idaho roadless rule that Trout Unlimited supported in negotiations with then Governor Jim Risch in late 2006 and through the rule adoption process in 2007 and 2008.
6. Long-time professional Virgil Moore was promoted to Director of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game in April. Moore is the first fisheries biologist in the position who both studied and worked primarily in salmonid and cold water fisheries management through his career with IDFG, and through his career Virgil has played a key role in the wild trout fishing regulations on the South Fork Snake RIver and the South Fork Boise River.
7. Pierce Creek gets reconnected to South Fork Boise River this November thanks to a cooperative project of the Ted Trueblood Chapter, Boise National Forest, Mountain Home Highway District, Southwest Idaho Resource Advisory Committee, Boise Valley Fly Fishers, and all the TU members who donated to the project or participated in a first ever fly casting tournament. Removing the culvert opens up two miles of spawning and rearing habitat to support southwest Idaho’s premiere blue ribbon trout fishery.
8. TU’s Boise-based science team, along with scientists from federal and state agencies and organizations, released a groundbreaking study on cimate change and potential effect on trout and salmon. Published appropriately enough during the hottest time of the year - August 15 - the study found that changing climate could reduce suitable trout habitat in the western U.S. by about 50 percent over the next 70 years, with some trout species experiencing greater declines than others.
9. TU announced in late November that it filed with the Portland Federal District Court its intent to withdraw from the long-standing litigation over the Snake River salmon as affected by the Federal Columbia River Power System.
“Without question, this litigation has been pivotal in obtaining improvements in dam operations and fish habitat that have helped slow the decline of wild salmon and steelhead,” said Chris Wood, TU’s president and CEO. “But slowing decline isn’t enough. We need to recover these remarkable fish, and one way to do that is to sit down with the people most affected by salmon recovery and work out an agreement that meets their economic needs while recovering these fish of enormous cultural, economic and ecologic value.”
10. The Ted Trueblood Chapter was honored with the Silver Trout award at the national Trout Unlimited meeting held in Bend, Oregon in September 2011. The silver trout award is equivalent to second place, and this is second place among 360 chapters in the nation.
This is the second time in a decade the Trueblood Chapter has received such recognition. In 2002 the Chapter won the Gold Trout award, the top chapter in the nation.
The awards program noted the good work of the Trueblood Chapter, most recently the effort to replace the Pierce Creek culvert on the South Fork Boise River. The ongoing work in the lower Boise River, youth educational programs like Trout in the Classroom, the summer Trout Camp, and the October 2010 Trueblood Writer Series event with New York Times writer Timothy Egan were other examples cited in the award.
