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USFWS reviews sturgeon, bull trout recovery
efforts |
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October 28, 2017 |
Since white sturgeon in Montana’s Kootenai River
was listed as endangered in 1994, the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service has completed several
iterations of biological opinions and critical
habitat designations for the freshwater fish.
Along the way, bull trout were listed in 1999,
three Biological Opinions (BiOps) were approved,
two lawsuits challenged the Service’s BiOp
results, finally resulting in the 2006 BiOp for
sturgeon and bull trout that was effective
through 2016 and has been extended through 2018.
And, finally, the Service is in the process of
preparing a 2018 BiOp.
The sturgeon’s decline was largely due to the
construction of Libby Dam and the changes in
river flows caused by the dam’s operations.
Other factors – flood plain development,
contaminant runoff, over harvest and
agricultural activities – also contributed to
the sturgeon’s decline.
Libby Dam, built in 1974 and operated by the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is a major storage
dam on the Kootenai. Lake Koocanusa backs up 90
miles behind the dam, with 42 of those miles in
British Columbia.
The Service completed its first BiOp in 1995 on
the federal Columbia River power system’s
effects on the sturgeon, as well as four species
of snails.
Complicating the results of that BiOp was the
listing of bull trout in 1999 as threatened
under the federal Endangered Species Act,
causing a reinitiation of ESA consultation of
the 1995 BiOp to address bull trout.
The Service completed a second BiOp in 2000, but
the Center for Biological Diversity sued the
agency in 2003, challenging both the BiOp and
designated critical habitat associated with the
sturgeon.
The Service issued a new BiOp in February 2006,
finding that the proposed operations of Libby
Dam caused jeopardy for white sturgeon, but
reached a no-jeopardy opinion on bull trout,
according to the Service’s Jason Flory, speaking
at the Northwest Power and Conservation
Council’s October meeting in Columbia Falls,
Montana.
The reasonable and prudent alternative of the
2000 BiOp focused on flow management, Flory
said, calling on operations at the dam to
provide peak natural spring flows that would
encourage sturgeon to move upstream into
spawning area for 42 consecutive days each year.
The peak flows required by the BiOp, however,
were not very specific regarding timing. It just
said spring flows, Flory said.
The RPA in the 2006 BiOp expanded the options
towards recovery and provided a “suite of
performance-based alternatives designed to
achieve habitat changes that would assist the
sturgeon with spawning and rearing below Libby
Dam,” an October 3 Council memo introducing the
Libby BiOp update said.
A follow-up challenge of the Service’s critical
habitat designation by the Center for Biological
Diversity in 2007 asked for a re-consultation
and for the federal agency to finalize its
critical habitat designation. That suit resulted
in a 2008 settlement between the plaintiffs, the
CBD, the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho and the State
of Montana, and the defendants, the Service, the
Corps and the Bonneville Power Administration.
With the settlement, U.S. District Court Judge
Donald Molloy dismissed the case September 11,
2008.
Once the 2006 BiOp and settlement were
concluded, the full suite of performance
alternatives focused on in-river attributes,
Flory said. They included a renewed focus on
specific flow management, three years of spill
tests, adding two turbines to Libby Dam,
improvements to the dam’s temperature control
system, VARQ flood management, habitat
improvements downstream of the dam by the
Kootenai Tribe of Idaho and, for sturgeon, a
conservation aquaculture program to artificially
add sturgeon to the river.
The spill tests, Flory said, did not result in a
change in sturgeon behavior (although spill has
occurred during high water), so operations the
last few years have focused on timing of
releases and temperature of the water during the
spring.
“The intent is to coax sturgeon to migrate
further upstream and to create better habitat
with deeper pools when they get there,” Flory
said. He added that preliminary data is showing
that about 20 percent more sturgeon are
migrating upstream of Bonner’s Ferry into those
spawning areas.
Variable flow, or VARQ (Q refers to flow), flood
control has been in effect at Libby Dam since
2003. In 2009, the Corps signed a Record of
Decision for the flood control plan.
Prior to the ROD, the dam would generally
release high flows from January through April in
order to make space to capture the spring runoff
in May, June, and July. Because of the large
amount of water drafted, historically little
water was released from May through July period
to allow refill of the reservoir.
During the draft season in a majority of years
VARQ provides less flood storage space than
standard flood control in Libby's reservoir,
Lake Koocanusa. During the spring-early summer
refill, water releases from the dam will vary
based on the year's April-August water supply
forecast for the basin. The water release
adjustments compensate for the reduced winter
reservoir draft under VARQ.
VARQ also helps by stabilizing flows downriver
in all but the highest water years by sending
more water downstream in spring and early
summer.
In 2010, the Service finalized critical habitat
designation for bull trout.
The Service is again in the process of
reinitiating ESA consultation for both species
the next iteration of the Kootenai River BiOp.
The agency has extended the 2006 Libby BiOp
beyond 2016 and through 2018. The current
schedule, according to Flory, is to have a final
biological assessment from the action agencies
this month and for the Service to complete the
BiOp December 31, 2018. |
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