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Wyoming Has 400 Miles Of Snow Fences To Help Keep Roads Open In Winter

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Wyoming Has 400 Miles Of Snow Fences To Help Keep Roads Open In Winter


When the winter weather in Wyoming gets weird — and when isn’t it weird — the Wyoming Department of Transportation has its own team of snow scientists it can call on.

It’s a group of hands-on scientists whose year-round mission is the practical study and application of science to snow, and more particularly to snow in Wyoming, where wind and cold combine to create some of the most hazardous driving conditions in the nation.

The leader of the team is Clifford Spoonemore, a civil engineer by training. Rounding it out is a geologist and, because this is practical, applied science, a snowplow operator to keep the science real and down to earth.

“This is our lovely state of Wyoming inside America,” Spoonmore told Cowboy State Daily as he held up a map showing storm severity across the United States. “And you can see with the scale here, white is the most severe. And, of course, you see (white) over Yellowstone and the Rocky Mountains here, the whole Rocky Mountain chain.”

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Meanwhile, the so-called lake effect that should produce bad conditions for Michigan and New York isn’t as severe as one might expect.

“You’d think the lake effect there would be really bad, and it is, but it’s not white like we get,” Spoonemore said.

After pointing out where the snow falls most in Wyoming — the Rendezvous areas, Yellowstone, the Big Horns and Snowy Range — Spoonemore pulls out one more map. It shows the hours of blowing snow on an annual basis for the United States.

“You can see, Wyoming is the epicenter of blowing snow,” he said, pointing to a river a pink that is centered right over the Cowboy State and appears nowhere else in the U.S. “Everybody else gets some snow, and they get wind, but they don’t get both of them like we do.”

Wyoming Is The Eye Of The Storm

Wyoming Department of Transportation has heard often from drivers that it seems as though conditions get remarkably worse as soon as they cross the border into Wyoming.

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Maps of snow accumulations and of blowing wind clearly show why. Winter really is much more powerful in Wyoming than in other states.

The challenges that presents have driven the state to take a scientific approach to its snow management that’s a little more dedicated than anywhere else in the nation.

“We are not the only group (across the nation) that was ever formed to do this,” Spoonmore told Cowboy State Daily. “But most states just do it within the internal working order of their table of organization. They don’t break it out into a separate group. We kind of pulled it out separately for, especially because of the special wind that we have.”

The forerunner of WYDOT’s science team was Dr. Ron Tabler. He was commissioned in the early 1960s after Interstate 80 was built to help the state figure out how to keep the highway open more days during winter.

“I-80 was closing 40 days out of 60,” Spoonmore said.

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And, it wasn’t even new snow that causing that problem. It was all the dry snow that built up out on the plains, blowing in and closing the road weeks after any snowstorm.

“It might be blue skies in Cheyenne, but out on the interstates, the wind is blowing 60 to 80 mph, and it’s got hundreds of miles of plains full of dry snow and that will just blow across the road when it’s not even snowing,” Wyoming Department of Transportation Communications Director Doug McGee told Cowoby State Daily. “It’s 2-week-old snow, and it’s closing our road.”

Enter The Wyoming Snow Fence

Tabler was with the U.S. Forest Service at the time, studying ways to trap and keep winter moisture around for agricultural use. He had come up with an idea he called a snow fence, which could be placed in desired locations to trap snow.

His idea was that later, when the snow melted, the moisture would seep into the ground slowly, helping create a deeper moisture bank and lusher vegetation.

Wyoming Department of Transportation had a completely different idea for snow fences, however.

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They wanted to use the fences to trap all that dry and blowing snow that was shutting down I-80.

Tabler sought out a grant for a 10-year study on when and where to place snow fences to control the blowing snow.

That became his life’s work, much of which is captured in a thick notebook that Spoonmore keeps close at hand.

The Winter Science Team took over Tabler’s work after he retired, to keep improving on the state’s management of blowing snow.

Moving I-80 Isn’t The Solution Some Believe

Many in the Cowboy State have contended since I-80 was built that the interstate should have followed Highway 30 to avoid the worst of wind and blowing snow.

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However, maps of what the wind and blowing snow are doing in Wyoming show that moving the route to follow Highway 30 wouldn’t necessarily solve those problems. The route still lies in a giant pink blob where there is more snow and more wind than anywhere else in the nation.

That territory belongs to winter, and it is huge. Going east to west, the blob covers an area that starts right around Cheyenne, just after the edge of I-25. It doesn’t fade at all until sometime after Rawlins, somewhere in the Wamsutter area, and it remains in the next highest level — blue — until Rock Springs.

Going north to south, the blob goes from the Colorado border almost to Casper, stopping just shy of Douglas.

Missing the pink area altogether is impossible.

It’s most narrow across the Colorado border, but moving I-80 there would put the route going over challenging, mountainous terrain in the area of Baggs and Savery, or even further south into Colorado.

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“We don’t know that trying to skirt up and go through Medicine Bow would have helped too much. It’s just one of those, we still would have been there,” Spoonmore said, pointing at Highway 30 on the map, with all the pink surrounding it.

400 Miles Of Snow Fences

Wyoming has more than 400 miles of snow fences these days, and just about every aspect of them has been studied, either by Tabler or the snow science team that took over for him.

Studies have looked at optimal locations, whether vertical snow fences are better than horizontal, and the ideal gap between the ground and the snow fence. The most recent study looked at how much energy a solar panel attached to a snow fence collects, and whether the panel harms snow fence efficiency.

The study shows the panel can collect a lot of energy, without appreciably harming the ability to capture snow.

WYDOT has no concrete plans to add solar panels to all of its snow fences at this time, but it’s something that may be considered at some point in the future. Power from the solar panels could help run roadside signs and other applications.

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Once the science team was established, it didn’t take long to realize there are a lot more questions that the team can tackle for the department to determine what’s optimal for winter weather management.

“Over the years, we’ve learned far more about winter overall, and now we get into almost everything winter,” Spoonmore said.

New studies are looking at things like automated vehicle location devices that can track vehicle locations and measure how much material is being put down in those locations. Another study is examining what color of lights are most visible in a snowstorm to try and prevent crashes involving snowplows.

“We can use drones to fly into our indoor stockpile sheds and take measurements,” Spoonmore said. “And that will save people from having to climb up and take the measurements themselves. They can get all sorts of information using drone technology.”

Why More Salt Isn’t Always The Right Answer

One of the really important questions the team has tackled is when and where to place snow-fighting materials like salt and sand, which the department buys by the ton.

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WYDOT used 234,564 tons of sand and salt mixes for the 2022-2023 winter season, 6,044 tons of bulk sodium chloride, just over 1 million gallons of various liquid deicers, and 4,865 tons of other melting compounds.

With a shopping list that large, it pays to be efficient with the materials use, and that’s one of the things the science team works to refine.

In many cases, the answer isn’t necessarily to just put down more material either. There are complications with each material because of Wyoming’s winter conditions.

“We can put down salt, but the issue is dry salt has to go through a phase change (to be effective),” Spoonmore said.

A phase change refers to changing salt from a solid, dry powdery substance that would just blow away to something that is in a liquid form that can stick around long enough to do some good.

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Generally, that means having enough natural energy from the sun to melt some of the snow. That helps keep the salts working in a brine at appropriate and effective concentration.

Temperature Places A Hard Limit On Salt Use

But salts have their limits temperature-wise, and that’s a complicating factor. They just won’t work below a certain range.

For sodium chloride, that outer limit is minus 6. But it works far better between 16 and 28 degrees. That gives a window for the snow to melt enough that a snowplow can come through and get it off the roadway.

Magnesium chloride, meanwhile, has a little bit lower effective temperatures. Its outer limit is minus 28.

But, like sodium chloride, its effective window is much higher. Its optimal range is between zero and 20 degrees.

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Other materials that go further down the temperature scale are possible, but too expensive for widespread application and, in some cases, highly hazardous substances. Wyoming doesn’t use them for those reasons.

Putting salt down when conditions aren’t optimal has its dangers, and can actually be counterproductive to road safety. The salts have to be applied wet, so that wind doesn’t just blow it all away before it can be of use, as well as to ensure the brine has an optimal salt concentration.

“Any time you put down a chemical — go back to our wind,” Spoonmore said. “It is above 50 mph. All you’re doing is making your road wet and giving a spot for that snow to stick, and then it becomes your problem instead of your solution.”

Sand, meanwhile, is generally used as a means of adding more traction to the roads. It is vulnerable to both high wind and passing trucks, which blow it right off to the side of the road.

Renee Jean can be reached at: Renee@CowboyStateDaily.com

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  • File photo (Cowboy State Daily Staff)
  • Wyoming's unique winters with its cold, wind and blowing snow, have led to the development of scientific snow mitigation measures like snow fences.
    Wyoming’s unique winters with its cold, wind and blowing snow, have led to the development of scientific snow mitigation measures like snow fences. (Wyoming Department of Transportation)
  • Wyoming's unique winters with its cold, wind and blowing snow, have led to the development of scientific snow mitigation measures like snow fences.
    Wyoming’s unique winters with its cold, wind and blowing snow, have led to the development of scientific snow mitigation measures like snow fences. (Adobe)
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Politicians mull action as details of alleged abuse, falsified records at Wyoming Boys’ School become public

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Politicians mull action as details of alleged abuse, falsified records at Wyoming Boys’ School become public


by Maya Shimizu Harris, WyoFile

The photo of an Iraqi inmate strapped by U.S. military police to a restraint chair in the Abu Ghraib prison sparked “a collective cry of ‘torture,’” Sue Burrell, an attorney and author of a 2009 paper on restraints used at U.S. youth detention centers, recalled of a 2005 Newsweek magazine cover. 

For Burrell, however, it stirred a more personal response. “All I could think of was that the restraint chair in the photo was almost exactly like the one we had recently seen in a juvenile detention facility in the United States,” she stated in the paper’s preface, which showed the Newsweek photo next to another of a restraint chair at a U.S. youth detention center. 

A June court filing in an ongoing lawsuit alleging abuse at the Wyoming Boys’ School, a state facility for delinquent juveniles, almost mirrors the 2009 paper’s preface, showing two side-by-side images, one of a boy in a restraint chair with a white bag over his head and another of him huddled alone in the corner of a cinderblock room. Above the images is a quote attributed to one of the defendants: “[The] best part of the chair is watching the kids cry and scream like a fucking child . . . that’s what makes it worth it.” 

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“I had never thought I would see a photo of a child with a bag over their head, like they’re being water boarded,” said Rep. Karlee Provenza, a Laramie Democrat who has advocated for juvenile justice reform in Wyoming. 

(Court filing)

It’s unlikely the images — which sparked outrage on social media — would have come to light if it weren’t for the lawsuit. For years, lawmakers and advocates have grappled with the lack of transparency around the Wyoming Boys’ School specifically and the state’s juvenile justice system more broadly. 

Citing confidentiality laws, the Wyoming Department of Family Services, which oversees the boys’ school, has declined to release information about abuse allegations at the facility. DFS treats allegations of abuse or mistreatment at the detention center as Child Protective Service cases. Child Protective Services and the boys’ school are both under the auspices of DFS, meaning the agency investigates itself without oversight or transparency.

“We can’t trust the government to investigate itself,” Provenza said. “We’ve seen how that falls short, so it might be that it needs to be a broader conversation and not just targeted at DFS.” 

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A legislative catch-22

Lawmakers — those responsible for crafting laws that regulate the state’s juvenile justice system — also struggle to access data that could help them see more broadly how Wyoming’s juvenile justice system works. That’s because Wyoming doesn’t have a statewide system. Instead, each county takes a different approach, making it difficult to collect uniform data showing how kids move through the system and what outcomes they experience. 

For years, legislators have sought new laws to standardize data collection on Wyoming’s juvenile justice system and allow DFS to share it. They hoped the data would show how children move through the system and what their outcomes are, which could help lawmakers pinpoint what’s working and what needs to improve. 

But fears of government overreach have stymied efforts to pass legislation that would increase transparency. Some lawmakers who opposed these measures have suggested studying the juvenile justice system more before passing any laws. 

Rep. Jayme Lien, R-Casper, during the first meeting of the House Special Investigative Committee on Feb. 26, 2026, at the Wyoming Capitol in Cheyenne. (Mike Vanata for WyoFile)

“My recommendation would be that the Legislature take some time to really put together a good dive into the juvenile justice system and all of its programs together to be able to make one clear, concise bill that fixes a plethora of problems,” Casper Republican Rep. Jayme Lien told her colleagues before voting against a measure to change Wyoming’s confidentiality statutes. 

That idea puts the Legislature in a catch-22: to study the state’s juvenile justice system, lawmakers need data. But when the Joint Judiciary Committee tried to do a deep dive into juvenile justice in 2021, it quickly realized that access to that data would require a statute change. 

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Lien didn’t respond to a message from WyoFile sent Monday inquiring about whether she had looked into the topic and had interest in supporting any related legislation this upcoming session if reelected. 

Political will? 

Juvenile justice reform isn’t an interim priority for the Joint Judiciary Committee this year. “It doesn’t need any study,” Rep. Art Washut, the Casper Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said. “We know what it is, we know what the needs are. It’s just a political will to pass legislation.”

“It’s always been very frustrating, sort of circular arguments that we haven’t done this, so we can’t do that,” Donna Sheen, the former executive director of the Wyoming Children’s Law Center, said. “But the bottom line is that we continue to leave children in really harmful places.”

When it comes to how children are treated at juvenile facilities, Wyoming’s current regulations are “pretty minimal,” Sheen said, and don’t differentiate between facility types. “So in that respect, there are very minimal expectations or rules around how children can be treated.”

Through materials provided in discovery, including depositions — testimony given under oath — images and records, the lawsuit against the boys’ school provides a window into what a child might experience at the facility. Besides providing images, the latest response in the case also includes new allegations that boys’ school employees were encouraged to downplay the use of force against residents in incident reports. 

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“In light of what’s coming out from this lawsuit, it is clear that we need to make changes,” Provenza, the Laramie Democrat, said in a phone call. 

What those changes might look like is unclear right now. “I think everyone is digesting what’s coming out from the lawsuit, and then trying to figure out: What are the policies that need to change within the agency? What are the guardrails that the state needs to put in place to protect kids?” 

Provenza said over text that she’s “hopeful” other lawmakers “will see the need for statute changes” and will also be willing to work on juvenile justice reforms come the next legislative session. 

More broadly, Provenza said she would also prioritize putting a version of past confidentiality amendment bills into statute. “Without that change in statute, we are going to have a difficult time evaluating any program effectiveness,” she said in a follow-up text message. 

Governor, candidates react

Gov. Mark Gordon, who appointed DFS director Korin Schmidt, declined to comment on the specifics of the case when asked by WyoFile if he thinks Wyoming should have stronger guardrails on the use of solitary confinement and force against children in state custody and if the lawsuit’s allegations call for an independent review of the boys’ school and DFS’ oversight of the facility. 

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“Building upon the commitment I witnessed firsthand during my mental health town hall and visit to the Wyoming Boys School in 2023, the safety and security of the students and staff at the facility are paramount to me,” he said.

The governor said that he had been “in direct contact” with Schmidt, who “verified and assured” him that “the youth currently residing at the school are safe and receiving proper care.” He also mentioned that most of these allegations “were made roughly four years ago.” In 2022, WyoFile and the Casper Star-Tribune reported that the use of force, restraints and confined isolation had increased at the boys’ school. 

Three people sit behind a wooden table, looking off to the right
Flanked by Wyoming Department of Family Services Director Korin Schmidt at left and Wyoming Department of Health Director Stefan Johansson at right, Gov. Mark Gordon presents his roadmap to town hall participants Jan. 29, 2024, in Cheyenne. (Madelyn Beck/WyoFile)

Gordon will finish his final term as governor in November. There are four Republicans and a Democrat vying to replace him. WyoFile posed the same questions to these candidates. 

“Wyoming needs a juvenile justice system that protects communities, holds offenders accountable, and ensures children in state custody are treated humanely, safely, and with appropriate guardrails that focus on rehabilitation,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, a Republican running for governor, said in a statement to WyoFile. 

“I take these allegations seriously, children in state custody are the responsibility of the State of Wyoming.” 

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If elected, Degenfelder said she would “support an independent review” of the boys’ school, including its use-of-force policies, isolation practices, staff training, reporting and transparency for lawmakers and the public. 

Republican gubernatorial candidate Brent Bien also said in a statement to WyoFile that he would support an independent review of the allegations. “These are minor children in state custody. As such, the state does have a duty to not only maintain order, but to also ensure accountability while still protecting that child.” 

“Though I can not prejudge a lawsuit, as Governor, I would not ignore any allegations that involve excessive force, isolation, ‘restraint chairs,’ or any other actions that may harm children in state custody.” 

Wyoming, he said, should have “clear guardrails” for juveniles in state custody. If elected, he would support legislation requiring reporting, “body/video records,” limits on isolation and restraints, trauma-informed training and regular oversight of “all juvenile facilities.” Bien said those measures should include “strong consequences” for violations. 

“The recent allegations about the Wyoming Boys’ School are deeply concerning,” Sen. Eric Barlow, a Gillette Republican who served as Speaker of the House, said in a statement to WyoFile. “Every young person in the state’s care deserves to be safe and treated with dignity. Wyoming families want their kids close to home, getting help and support.” 

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In 2025, Barlow voted in favor of Senate File 157, “Department of family services-confidentiality amendments-2,” one of many attempts over the last couple of years to improve juvenile justice data sharing, before it died in the House Judiciary Committee. 

Republican candidate Curt Blake did not respond to WyoFile by publishing time. 

The state defendants in the boys’ school lawsuit have until Friday to file their reply supporting their request for summary judgement — when a court decides a matter before a case goes to trial.


This article was originally published by WyoFile and is republished here with permission. WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.

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Dan Speas Fish Hatchery temporarily closed to visitors as construction begins on new cool-/warm-water expansion

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Dan Speas Fish Hatchery temporarily closed to visitors as construction begins on new cool-/warm-water expansion


CASPER, Wyo. — On Thursday, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department announced that the Dan Speas Fish Hatchery will be temporarily closed, beginning June 25, due to the construction of a brand-new, state-of-the-art cool-/warm-water fish production facility.

A release from Game and Fish says that the brief pause in public access is a necessary step to ensure the safety of visitors and staff during the heavy-lifting phases of the project.

“We had hoped to keep access open to the hatchery, but we have discovered there will be too many safety hazards during the demolition phase of construction,” said Lars Alsager, Game and Fish superintendent of Dan Speas. “The Department will reassess the closure in the fall of 2026, once initial demolition and foundational work are safely wrapped up.”

As Wyoming’s largest producer of fish for stocking, the Dan Speas Fish Hatchery — along with the state’s nine other fish hatcheries — will continue its normal cold-water fish production uninterrupted throughout the entire construction process.

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Once the expansion is complete, the new facility will dramatically boost Game and Fish’s ability to manage diverse recreational fishing opportunities across Wyoming by raising sport fish locally, rather than importing them from other states.

Anglers can look forward to high-quality, in-state production of walleye, sauger, crappie, bluegill, largemouth bass and channel catfish.

“This project marks a thrilling milestone for Wyoming’s outdoor community, ensuring a robust, self-sustaining future for cold, cool and warm-water sport fishing right here at home,” adds Alan Osterland, chief of fisheries.

The release notes that the Wyoming Game and Fish Department is committed to keeping the community in the loop every step of the way. They included a brief snapshot of what to expect throughout the project:

  • Fall 2026: Demolition and foundation work conclude, and the department reassesses public access to the facility.
  • Fall 2027: Construction of the new cool-/warm-water fish production facility officially ends.
  • Spring 2028: The first batch of cool- and warm-water fish will be produced and prepared to stock Wyoming waters.

“The Wyoming Game and Fish Department extends its sincere thanks to the public for their understanding and cooperation as we build a premier fishery asset for generations of anglers to come,” the release states.

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Colorado And Oregon Lift Fishing Restrictions, Drought Will Kill Fish Anyway

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Colorado And Oregon Lift Fishing Restrictions, Drought Will Kill Fish Anyway


Facing extreme drought in the wake of an exceptionally mild winter, officials in Colorado and Oregon have thrown up their hands and told anglers at some reservoirs: Catch all the fish you want, because they’re going to die anyway.

Conditions aren’t nearly so dire at two of Wyoming’s premier fishing reservoirs, Flaming Gorge in Sweetwater County and Boysen in Fremont County, where limits remain in place and the angling should remain good this summer, a state park manager and marina owner told Cowboy State Daily.

In northeastern Oregon, fishing limits were lifted on three reservoirs on the Powder River, a tributary of the Snake River, which originates in Wyoming.

Colorado is allowing unlimited angling on Antero Reservoir on the South Platte River in the central part of the state, and the Nee Noshe Reservoir to the southeast.

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Utah has loosened catch limits on Crouse Reservoir, east of Salt Lake City, and Nine Mile Reservoir, south of the city.

In each instance, state agencies surmised reservoirs are getting so low and stagnant the fish are doomed regardless, according to numerous media reports.

No Emergency, Yet

Despite drought conditions across the state, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department doesn’t have “immediate plans to enact emergency regulations to liberalize creel limits,” according to fisheries management coordinator Mark Smith.

“However, conditions could change rapidly. If an emergency change to creel limits were to occur that information would be disseminated widely to the public and posted at the water for anglers to find,” Smith said in an email to Cowboy State Daily.

Some of Wyoming’s larger reservoirs have conservation pools, or “dead pools,” to act as buffers for fisheries when water is running low, Smith said.

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Even so, “all stored water has limitations,” he added. The water at Flaming Gorge and Boysen is expected to drop enough to render some boat ramps useless.

So, Game and Fish is watching closely for a “tipping point” that might warrant a change in fishing regulations, Smith said.

Despite dire drought conditions and a massive drawdown at Flaming Gorge Reservoir, there should be angling opportunity for huge lake trout and fish. (Courtesy Tony Valdez)

Bad New For Small Waters

For smaller fisheries, the news isn’t quite so good.

“Ultimately, our goal is to protect all of our fisheries, but we recognize that some of our small waters have already been lost, or will be lost, to drying,” Smith said.

Sometimes that happens so fast there isn’t time to react, he said.  

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“For example, when we were finally able to access roads and assess small ponds in the 33 Mile country north of Casper this May, most of those fisheries had already succumbed to low water elevations and poor water-quality conditions,” Smith said.

“Other sagebrush stock-water reservoirs could face a similar fate,” he added.

Emergency regulations require the governor’s signature.

“Emergency regulations take effect immediately upon the Governor’s approval and would be lifted if conditions improved and fish were likely to survive,” Smith said.

Boysen Could Lose Boat Ramps

Boysen Reservoir has been roughly 70% full during June, Boysen State Park superintendent John Bass said.

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Boysen is one of Wyoming’s top destinations for walleye, and also boasts good trout fishing.

Bass said he doesn’t anticipate the reservoir dropping to the point of mass fish die-offs or calls to lift all fishing limits.

According to Bureau of Reclamation estimates, Boysen will slowly fall, but remain above 50% capacity.

All four Boysen boat ramps are usable, he said. They are Bannon, Tough Creek, Fremont Bay and Cottonwood Bay.

“Although, as the lake starts falling, the Fremont and Cottonwood Ramps will be too shallow to use. But that’s a fairly common occurrence in my 10 years here,” Bass said. “The Brannon and Tough Creek boat ramps will be usable for the remainder of the year, until ice-up.” 

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‘The Marina Could Be Gone’

Likewise, there’s no reason to think officials will call for a free-for-all at Flaming Gorge, which straddles the Wyoming-Utah state line, Buckboard Marina owner Tony Valdez said.

“I don’t think we’ll be at the stagnant water level, where we could lose all of the fish,” he said.

Flaming Gorge draws anglers from all over the region for its prized kokanee salmon. It’s also known for lake trout and other species.

The Bureau of Reclamation this spring announced that Flaming Gorge is set for a million-acre-foot drawdown to make up for severe shortages downstream at Lake Powell, on the Utah-Arizona state line.

An acre foot is the amount of water that would flood an acre of land to the depth of one foot.

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Valdez has previously expressed concerns the drawdown could ruin kokanee spawning areas. Kokanee are already under pressure because of competition with lake trout and burbot.

Wyoming Game and Fish and the Utah Division of Wildlife already lifted catch limits on smaller lake trout (under 28 inches) and burbot, in hopes of helping the kokanee.

Valdez said he doesn’t expect fishing limits to be suspended on any other species.

However, boat ramps could be rendered useless as the reservoir drops for the drawdown, he added.

Valdez said his marina could also tank this summer.

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“This year, the marina could be gone. In fact, I’ve got to go deal with that right now, and move some stuff around (because of dropping water levels),” he said during a telephone interview with Cowboy State Daily.

Catfish Getting Scarce

Valdez said if there’s any danger of water dropping to fish-killing levels it would hit first upstream, at Fontenelle Reservoir.

“If it did get that low, the first one to go would be Fontenelle, then the Green (River) and then Flaming Gorge. But I don’t see it dropping that low,” he said.

Drought has ruined some of the fishing on the Blacks River, which feeds Flaming Gorge on the west side, Valdez said.

That river once was a hot spot for catfish, he noted.

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“People still catch catfish near the confluence, more so in the lake than on the river. The river gets stagnant,” he said.

While Flaming Gorge is holding its own for now, the long-term picture could be stark.

During a Tuesday meeting in Denver, members of the Upper Colorado River Commission said conditions along the river system – which includes the Green River – are dire.

Wyoming state engineer Brandon Gebhart said it could be the worst year on record for the Colorado River basin.

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.

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