The Associated Press | Posted: Sunday, September 18, 2005 12:00 am
GRANDDAD, Idaho (AP) - Officials from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game are exploring an idea that could improve fishing at Dworshak Reservoir.
Fisheries managers are studying a plan to add nutrients to the water that would be distributed through migrating kokanee salmon through the North Fork of the Clearwater River.
"It's restoring productivity back into the watershed," said Ed Schriever, regional fisheries manager for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game at Lewiston.
The construction of Dworshak Dam more than 30 years ago blocked both salmon and steelhead from reaching North Fork tributaries where they would have spawned and died. As their bodies decomposed the nutrients from the fish would have been absorbed by the streams.
Schriever said there have been several studies in the western United States and Canada that tracked oceanic nutrients in the rings of stream-side trees. But there have not been studies specific to the Clearwater River basin.
"Deductively we are pretty confident the watershed is less productive than it was when salmon and steelhead were going there," he told the Lewiston Tribune.
Adding nutrients could improve aquatic life in the watershed and lead to healthier and even larger fish, he said. Orofino resident Dennis Harper has been pushing the idea for more than 10 years and is pleased it now seems to be getting some attention. U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, is supporting the idea and has encouraged the parties to pursue the study.
"Eventually we would like to see improvement of the fishery over all and even a trophy fishery in Dworshak Reservoir," Harper said.
The state has recorded smallmouth bass caught in the reservoir. But Schriever said like all reservoirs, Dworshak is gradually becoming less productive.
The corps has hired a consultant from British Columbia in Canada to study the plan.
Information from: Lewiston Tribune, http://www.lmtribune.com