04-17-2011, 09:40 PM
First of all thank you, Cpierce for bringing this up and keeping us informed. The Blackfoot Reservoir/Upper River are gems that should be given a lot more care and attention. The upper river (the river above the reservoir) is a beautiful river, that in its day was a world class cutthroat fishery. Following the drought of the late 80's and early 90's, EVERYTHING changed.
I completely agree that while water levels probably started this ugly snowball rolling, the infestation of the scrourge of pelicans allowed it to get bigger and bigger. I grew up in Soda in the 80's and I can tell you that perhaps an occasional pair of pelicans would be seen from time to time but the white plague that exists now is a recent phenomenon and when combined with the inconsistent water levels has pushed the cutthroat populations to the brink of unsustainability.
I believe it is the Native American tribes that own the dam and water rights and recent drought years meant that there was money to be made by selling the water. I'm not sure what can be done about that.
I applaud the work that is being done on the upper river and in trying to get a handle on the un-natural numbers of pelicans that hamper recovery efforts.
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I completely agree that while water levels probably started this ugly snowball rolling, the infestation of the scrourge of pelicans allowed it to get bigger and bigger. I grew up in Soda in the 80's and I can tell you that perhaps an occasional pair of pelicans would be seen from time to time but the white plague that exists now is a recent phenomenon and when combined with the inconsistent water levels has pushed the cutthroat populations to the brink of unsustainability.
I believe it is the Native American tribes that own the dam and water rights and recent drought years meant that there was money to be made by selling the water. I'm not sure what can be done about that.
I applaud the work that is being done on the upper river and in trying to get a handle on the un-natural numbers of pelicans that hamper recovery efforts.
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