JEFF GEARINO Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Monday, June 2, 2008 12:00 am
To fish or not to fish: That is the question.
For tiny Teton Reservoir, anyway.
Designed to collect silt from area streams and creeks before it reaches the North Platte River, the popular fishing lake south of Rawlins has done its job too well over the years.
There's so much silt that water levels are down, the fish habitat is threatened.
So Bureau of Land Management officials want to determine if the Teton Reservoir should continue to be used by locals as a year-round recreational fishing site - or if the small reservoir should stay primarily as a sediment catcher and as water storage for agricultural use downstream.
BLM officials said increasing levels of silt and high water evaporation rates have resulted in a lack of water and inadequate depths at the reservoir. The ugly water conditions have made the lake unsuitable for fish habitat.
BLM spokeswoman Kristen Lenhardt said the BLM is beginning discussions on possible future actions for the reservoir.
She said the agency began an "in-depth analysis" last week to determine the most appropriate use for the reservoir.
"Right now, the BLM is going to be determining the feasibility of keeping it as a recreational fishing site year-round," Lenhardt said.
"There's a lot of things they're going to be looking at," Lenhardt said in a phone interview.
"It could be anywhere from dredging it and working on the reservoir so it can be a year-round fishing habitat for the locals … to perhaps making it just a seasonal fishing habitat and restock it only at certain times of the year," she said.
Teton Reservoir is located about 13 miles south of Rawlins on Sage Creek Road in Carbon County.
The reservoir was originally developed in the 1960s in the Little Sage Creek drainage as part of a larger watershed effort to reduce sedimentation going into the North Platte River.
BLM officials said although the reservoir continued to contribute to sediment control, use of the area evolved over the years to serve multiple purposes, including becoming a popular recreational fishing area. The collected sediment, however, has reduced the reservoir's capacity.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has been stocking the reservoir with several thousand rainbow and brown trout each year to meet the increasing angler demand.
But in April, BLM specialists asked Game and Fish not to restock the reservoir with fish because of the water conditions.
"Since right now, the water conditions are just not suitable for fish habitat … the thinking is since it won't be a good place for fish to live, there's no sense in putting them into a bad situation this year," Lenhardt said.
Senior rights
Lenhardt said there are other users on the North Platte River system that have senior rights on water sources that flow into the Teton Reservoir that will have to be considered in any future use plan.
She said the BLM has junior water rights to fill the reservoir only one time during each year, which means the lake is "lower down on the ladder" to acquire the water.
Lenhardt said as part of the analysis, the BLM will coordinate with the senior water rights holders to ensure their water needs are met under any new or continued use of the reservoir.
"With our junior water rights, we have to release some of the water (each year), so the water does flow down to ranchers for irrigation and the like," she said.
"But we'll still use the reservoir for that and as a silt trap, which was the original purpose," Lenhardt said.
She said meetings with BLM specialists, local, state and federal organizations will be scheduled this summer to gather information for the analysis.
Reporter Jeff Gearino can be reached at 307-875-5359 or at gearino@tribcsp.com.
* Last we knew: The Bureau of Land Management announced in April that Teton Reservoir would not be restocked with trout this year.
* The latest: BLM officials said Friday they are beginning work on a feasibility study that will examine the continued use of Teton Reservoir as a recreational fishing site.
* What's next: Meetings with BLM natural resource specialists to discuss the future use of the lake will be held throughout the summer.]]->