06-21-2007, 01:10 AM
The Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) and the Colorado Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation (DPOR) have joined forces to purchase water shares from the City of Colorado Springs to add to the permanent water storage pool at John Martin Reservoir.
A total of 2,000 acre feet of water was purchased by the two agencies with delivery scheduled for completion by June 6.
"This is a great purchase to ensure the long-term storage needs for fishing and recreation at John Martin," says Dan Prenzlow, DOW Southeast Regional Manager. "Adding capacity to the permanent storage pool bodes well for the health of the fishery."
Earlier this year the state added to the storage at John Martin when water was acquired from the City of Pueblo. "This is very good news for anglers," says Prenzlow. The state sought water from the cities because the amount of water the state could legally store in John Martin Reservoir reached dangerously low levels in recent years.
John Martin Reservoir is a popular place for camping, boating, fishing and bird watching. It is bordered on the east and north by a state park; and on the west and south by a state wildlife area.
When full, John Martin can hold 618,000 acre-feet of water -- giving it the potential to be the largest reservoir in the state. This year it holds approximately 73,000 acre-feet, but last year the DOW thought it might lose all of the fish when the reservoir dwindled to less than one percent of its capacity. Fortunately, the reservoir stabilized at the end of the summer when the DOW leased water from a local irrigation company and many of the sport fish survived. Over the winter, a series of major snow storms in southeast Colorado and ample spring run-off brought water levels up, but they are still a far cry from what the reservoir can hold.
John Martin is known as one of the top spots in southeast Colorado for crappies, wiper, catfish, walleye, saugeye, perch, bluegill, bass and other warm water species. Last fall the DOW sampled the fish population and found ample numbers of saugeye, catfish, and white bass survived. "Given good water conditions, I am confident that our fisheries biologists will be able to maintain John Martin as a top notch fishery," says Prenzlow. "
John Martin Reservoir has always been a key fishery resource for the lower Arkansas Valley, attracting Colorado anglers to the excellent walleye, white bass and crappie fishing," reports Doug Krieger, senior fisheries biologist. "But an adequate conservation pool and increasing water levels are needed to provide the habitat for strong fish populations -- this purchased water will help the fish and the anglers."
A total of 2,000 acre feet of water was purchased by the two agencies with delivery scheduled for completion by June 6.
"This is a great purchase to ensure the long-term storage needs for fishing and recreation at John Martin," says Dan Prenzlow, DOW Southeast Regional Manager. "Adding capacity to the permanent storage pool bodes well for the health of the fishery."
Earlier this year the state added to the storage at John Martin when water was acquired from the City of Pueblo. "This is very good news for anglers," says Prenzlow. The state sought water from the cities because the amount of water the state could legally store in John Martin Reservoir reached dangerously low levels in recent years.
John Martin Reservoir is a popular place for camping, boating, fishing and bird watching. It is bordered on the east and north by a state park; and on the west and south by a state wildlife area.
When full, John Martin can hold 618,000 acre-feet of water -- giving it the potential to be the largest reservoir in the state. This year it holds approximately 73,000 acre-feet, but last year the DOW thought it might lose all of the fish when the reservoir dwindled to less than one percent of its capacity. Fortunately, the reservoir stabilized at the end of the summer when the DOW leased water from a local irrigation company and many of the sport fish survived. Over the winter, a series of major snow storms in southeast Colorado and ample spring run-off brought water levels up, but they are still a far cry from what the reservoir can hold.
John Martin is known as one of the top spots in southeast Colorado for crappies, wiper, catfish, walleye, saugeye, perch, bluegill, bass and other warm water species. Last fall the DOW sampled the fish population and found ample numbers of saugeye, catfish, and white bass survived. "Given good water conditions, I am confident that our fisheries biologists will be able to maintain John Martin as a top notch fishery," says Prenzlow. "
John Martin Reservoir has always been a key fishery resource for the lower Arkansas Valley, attracting Colorado anglers to the excellent walleye, white bass and crappie fishing," reports Doug Krieger, senior fisheries biologist. "But an adequate conservation pool and increasing water levels are needed to provide the habitat for strong fish populations -- this purchased water will help the fish and the anglers."