NEWSHOMEOPINIONLOCAL INTERESTRECENT ISSUESLETTERSCLASSIFIEDSLINKS |
Methow Valley News March 30, 2000 Endangered Species Coverage Irrigators consider developing HCPs by Lee Hicks Individual irrigation ditches are weighing the promise and perils of developing habitat conservation plans for fish to limit enforcement measures and potential litigation under the Endangered Species Act. But if the experience of Wolf Creek Reclamation District is an early indication, the process could involve much uncertainty along the way. As WCRD and Sun Mountain Lodge renewed a combined effort to craft an HCP with federal agencies, it was clear an important question remains unanswered: "How much water is needed for fish, and when is it needed?" In an all-day meeting Monday (March 27) at Sun Mountain Lodge to continue negotiations toward an HCP for Wolf Creek and the resort, it was apparent that much more data may be needed to improve on the "best available science" required by the ESA to aid fish recovery. Representatives of the Chewuch, Fulton and Skyline irrigation districts were scheduled to meet later with federal and state officials to discuss developing HCPs. The habitat plans can often cost upwards of several hundred thousand dollars over several years. But they can provide "incidental take permits" under the ESA that offer legal and regulatory assurances. Wolf Creek and Sun Mountain officials have been working with National Marine Fisheries Service and US Fish and Wildlife, along with state water and fisheries agencies, for many months in an effort to create an HCP. The nearly 15-mile Wolf Creek diversion begins at a headgate on the edge of a Forest Service roadless area, feeds Patterson Lake and provides domestic water for Sun Mountain along with 800 irrigable acres. The district was only able to operate briefly last growing season after the federal agencies forced the Forest Service to withhold special use permits to divert on federal land. At Monday’s meeting, federal and state officials acknowledged that more information is needed to determine just what streamflow levels are optimum for Wolf Creek to protect fish and aid recovery. NMFS and USFWS have separately issued biological opinions. USFWS has listed bull trout as threatened in the basin and NMFS listed spring Chinook and steelhead trout as endangered. The NMFS biological opinion for steelhead and chinook, still in draft form, sets stream "target flows" at 15 cubic feet per second for the mouth of Wolf Creek on the Methow River from early April operation of the district to Sept. 1. The USFWS opinion, issued as final, now requires the ditch to shut off if flows drop below 8 cfs at the mouth any time from July 15 to Sept. 15. WCRD has a new screen, as yet untested, that is capable of diverting up to 12 cfs. The district is proposing this year to rebuild the dam on Patterson Lake Road to add about 3.3 feet capacity to the lake and to pipe about 2,900 feet of the ditch most in need of repairs to stop transmission losses. Critical to this year’s plans is funding, which was recently turned down by the state salmon recovery board. Efforts are underway in the state legislature to secure other funds to match a $1.148 million grant available for Wolf Creek and other Methow basin projects. Several fisheries biologists attending the Sun Mountain meeting agreed that spring Chinook and bull trout may migrate in early summer during higher flows into Wolf Creek from the Methow River. This would mean that most migrating fish could already be in the stream system before irrigation diversions become critical. All told, fewer than a dozen spring Chinook and perhaps 20 bull trout might migrate into Wolf Creek in a typical year, Forest Service biologist Jennifer Molesworth noted. Ken Williams, a retired state fisheries biologist and contributor to the 1992 "Mullan report" on the basin fishery, said most research shows fish move up earlier. "These fish are moving through in high water..." he said. Molesworth added, "What we observed last year, it didn’t seem like we had more fish moving in later." To test assumptions of when fish migrate in the stream, officials discussed the possibility of "pulsing" flows by adjusting August diversions upward and downward. Although fish numbers will likely be small, the biologists said their response could be tracked by video cameras at the entrance to Wolf Creek, and through instream snorkeling. The biologists cautioned that a single year of research will only represent an "observation" start in the process of an HCP, not a valid scientific "experiment." Data could be supplemented by hatchery research of fish in the mainstem of the Methow. The HCP would also involve continued streamflow monitoring and thermograph—or temperature data—collection. Williams and Molesworth both said temperatures appear to be cooler and conducive to fish habitat. Streamflows have dominated the Wolf Creek discussions as well as thosefor other basin ditches. But, as Molesworth put it, "There’s so much variability I don’t know if you can tie it all to flows. We just need to keep monitoring." Opinion | Sports |
Local Interest |