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Dentry: Conservationists' lawsuit win deposits 85,000 trout in Gunnison

Published November 15, 2006 at midnight

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Fortune is smiling on the lower Gunnison River again thanks to the diligence of trout conservationists and friends of The Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

Famed for its superb trout fishing and with senior water rights restored after a Bush administration raid, the Gunnison now is 85,000 rainbow trout richer.

Early this month, volunteers from two Western Slope fly-fishing clubs floated in rafts and helped the Colorado Division of Wildlife distribute the 5-inch, Colorado River-strain rainbow trout fingerlings along 8 miles upstream and downstream of the confluence with the Gunnison's North Fork.

The stocking was the latest attempt to mitigate the impact of six years of whirling disease on rainbows in the river. It came seven weeks after conservationists won a lawsuit against a Bush administration deal to give up the national park's 1933 water right to help Colorado businesses and cities that held lesser water rights.

The deal, orchestrated by former Interior Secretary Gale Norton in 2003, aimed to squeeze flows in the gorge to a mere 300 cubic-foot-per- second minimum. It would have given up 10,000 cfs peak flows researchers said the river needs periodically to flush debris and sediment.

Conservation groups, including Trout Unlimited, Western Resources Advocates, High Country Citizen's Alliance and the Wilderness Society, filed the suit, which accused the administration of ignoring science and established water law and failing to consider public input.

In September, U.S. District Court Judge Clarence Brimmer handed down a ruling, saying the deal Norton cut with Colorado was "arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion" and that the administration failed to protect national park resources.

On Nov. 2, volunteers from the Gunnison Gorge Anglers and Grand Valley Anglers helped biologist Dan Kowalski of the DOW plant the 85,000 rainbow trout fingerlings.

The fingerlings came from eggs Kowalski took from rainbows spawning at the East Portal of the Black Canyon. They were hatched and grown in the division's Rifle Falls Fish Hatchery, which is whirling-disease free.

At 5 inches, the little trout have grown beyond reach of whirling disease and will be contributing to a bright future for the Gold Medal river.

SHAMEFUL KILLS: The dead include two lynx, a 6x6 bull elk and two cow elk - all killed illegally.

And that was the body count just since October. The Division of Wildlife is seeking information on the following cases:

• A lynx was found Nov. 2, shot and killed by a rifle near Hermosa Park, 30 miles north of Durango near Durango Mountain Resort.

• A lynx was found Nov. 1, killed by a shotgun blast near San Juan County Road 110 (Cement Creek Road) just north of Silverton.

• A 6x6 bull elk was shot, killed and left 50 yards south of Peewink Mountain Road, less than 1 mile from the gate at Sugarloaf Road, in Boulder County, about Oct. 26-27.

• Two cow elk were shot and left to rot near Teller County Roads 8 1/82, north of Victor, about Oct. 14-15.

Anyone with information about these crimes can call the Division of Wildlife's Operation Game Thief number, 1-877-265-6648. Information can be offered anonymously and might result in a reward of $1,000 if it leads to someone being issued a citation.

FLYING GOATS: State and federal wildlife officers helicoptered 14 mountain goats off 14,433-foot-high Mount Elbert near Leadville and trucked them to South Dakota's Black Hills in early November.

The relocation, from a herd of 100 mountain goats that live on Mount Elbert and Mount Massive, will help South Dakota rebuild its flagging goat population. The state was one of several that helped Colorado establish mountain goats in the late 1940s.

The Black Hills mountain goat population has slipped from a historic high of 400 animals to about 100. About 2,000 mountain goats live in Colorado. Biologists say the goats are equally adapted to high or low elevations, providing they have cliffs and rocky outcroppings to protect them from predators.