“They’re Gonna Die”: Drought Dooms Trout in Colorado’s Dolores River—and Probably Beyond — Field & Stream (Monument: living in)

[Colorado Rambler]

The lower stretch of the Dolores River, which translates from Spanish as “river of anguish,” is living up to its namesake. The popular trout-fishing tailwater, which sits below McPhee Reservoir, is down to a near trickle. “The stream is flowing anywhere between 5 and 9 cfs,” reports Jim White, an aquatic biologist for Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW). “Typical flows are around 70 cfs or higher.”

Such low flows are taking a toll on the river’s trout population. The lack of water leads to higher water temperatures, which directly harm cold-water species such as trout.

“We’ve got a temperature logger placed 2 miles below the dam, and we’re starting to see temperatures upwards of 80 degrees in the evenings,” says White. “We’re starting to exceed what’s called the ‘acute temperature threshold’ for trout, meaning they’re gonna die.”

~snip~

There are two main culprits in the Dolores’ plight: agricultural water use and drought. McPhee Reservoir was a man-made project completed in 1985 primarily to store and provide water for agricultural use in the region. The reservoir itself has become a known hotspot for cliff jumping and catching smallmouth bass, but recent drought conditions have put the project’s long-term viability in question. Not only is the tailwater at 5 to 10 percent of its usual flows, but farmers are only receiving similarly meager water allocations.

~snip~

“We’ve been in a drought for almost 20 years,” says White. “Everybody is suffering from dry conditions here on the West Slope of Colorado and region-wide in Utah and Wyoming.”

White adds that climate change is playing a role in creating extended drought conditions “without a doubt.” According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, every state in the Western U.S. is currently experiencing drought conditions.

“Droughts are more common, they’re lasting longer, and they’re tied to some of the variability that’s coming from climate change,” says Scott Yates, Director of Trout Unlimited’s Western Water & Habitat Program. “The Dolores and a lot of other western tailwaters are cautionary tales that things are changing.”

Read more at Field and Stream

Just when you think that there can't possibly be any more bad news... Colorado's Four Corners region is probably suffering more than any other area in Colorado this summer. There is some good news though. We seem to be getting a little early monsoon action giving us a much needed break from the extremely high temperatures of last week, and we've even gotten a couple of scattered rain showers. Unfortunately, the forecast is for more heat and dry beginning around the first of July.

However, even a good monsoon won't be enough to save the fish in the Dolores this summer.

[cowboyxjon]

Meanwhile, we’ve been getting a lot of rain on the Front Range. I really wish I could redirect it to Western Colorado.

[DOUBLE H]

Monsoon moisture generally cranks up around the 4th of July. Sometimes Mesa County gets a bunch of rain and sometimes it doesn't. Last year it didn't. the year before it was no great shakes either. I'm very familiar with the area the OP is talking about as my favorite spots for fishing is Miramonte and Groundhog Reservoirs, north of McPhee Reservoir. This is not a pretty picture here, not at all.

[Colorado Rambler]

Originally Posted by DOUBLE H

Monsoon moisture generally cranks up around the 4th of July. Sometimes Mesa County gets a bunch of rain and sometimes it doesn't. Last year it didn't. the year before it was no great shakes either. I'm very familiar with the area the OP is talking about as my favorite spots for fishing is Miramonte and Groundhog Reservoirs, north of McPhee Reservoir. This is not a pretty picture here, not at all.

It feels like a bad dream to me. I remember the very first time I came out to the Four Corners when I was only 23 or so. It was incredible. The mountains were all snow capped and it was spring runoff time (around Mother's Day). The Dolores came roaring through town as if it were the Colorado River itself and not just a tributary. We went on to Hovenweep National Monument which had not been discovered yet. When we went on a late afternoon hike, FIVE Great Horned Owls flew over our heads, just one after another. Last week there was a fire in Hovenweep and Kinder Morgan keeps putting in more pumping station by the day.

If humans are forced to leave the Four Corners for the second time, the coyotes will shed no tears and the ravens will begin singing like larks. If any trout are still left in the Dolores, they will jump out of the water for joy.

[pikabike]

The dramatic changes accelerated so much that I could even see it happening over 15 years of living in the foothills. When we first moved to that house, the summer afternoon thunderstorms occurred almost daily. I cursed them, because that was my time to play oudoors after work. We had not had those storms elsewhere in the metro area, only in that particular microclimate.

Only a couple years later, those storms all but vanished. The winters turned weirdly devoid of snow, too. The ground would get so dry that shoveling what snow we got revealed DRY, DUSTY DIRT instead of a damp surface. When it was like that, I deliberately left an inch or so of the extremely dry snow on the ground and hoped it would melt instead of sublimate.

Prior to those droughty winters, a 3-ft snowfall was nothing unusual there. I liked having less work to do but worried about the longterm effects.

Then we got the up-and-down climate, in which spring and fall went away. Winter would morph into a hot summer, and vice versa.

It was a sad day when we flew over the Sangre de Cristos in late winter and they bore not one bit of snow. First time I had ever seen them brown in the winter or spring.

Here, the old Ute should’ve been white into spring. Not any more, I guess.

[xeric]

If climate is warming, it stands to reason that climate belts will move north in the northern hemisphere. This means that some areas will probably get drier but others will get wetter. If climate belts move north, I would expect stronger monsoons because of enhanced tropical moisture in the summer. Maybe this won’t happen but on the contrary, assuming that all areas will have the worst aspects of their climate magnified is catastrophic thinking that probably doesn’t help anything. What would help would be for the people in the USA (en masse) to reduce their energy usage to per capita levels that match those of the more frugal developed countries (such as Japan or France).

[pikabike]

Originally Posted by xeric

If climate is warming, it stands to reason that climate belts will move north in the northern hemisphere. This means that some areas will probably get drier but others will get wetter. If climate belts move north, I would expect stronger monsoons because of enhanced tropical moisture in the summer. Maybe this won’t happen but on the contrary, assuming that all areas will have the worst aspects of their climate magnified is catastrophic thinking that probably doesn’t help anything. What would help would be for the people in the USA (en masse) to reduce their energy usage to per capita levels that match those of the more frugal developed countries (such as Japan or France).

Agree to the max!

Simple, unsexy, inconveniencing, unlazifying conservation seems to have been buried under the wishful rush for alluring high tech substitutions that allow consumers to continue their profligate ways.

Regarding climate belt shifts, I compared a 2010 Peterson Western bird field guide to the 1990 version, page by page, species by species. Where ranges had shifted, they shifted either northward or towards higher elevation areas.

The wild creatures that can move around provide us ample warning...if only we heed them—and if they don’t go extinct before that.