None The Nature Conservancy in Colorado Press Releases Search All Press Releases Christine Broda-Bahm Phone: (720) 974-7002 Cell: (303) 910-5427 E-mail: cbrodabahm@tnc.org

Upper Colorado River Reservoirs Release Water to Benefit Native Fish

Seasons’ Results for Coordinated Efforts Among Western Colorado Water Users Show Benefit for Endangered Native Fish and People

Grand Junction, Colorado—June 1, 2006—Water managers in the Upper Colorado River Basin turned the valves to enhance the spring snowmelt peak and provide habitat for the native fish such as the Colorado pikeminnow and humpback chub. These fish evolved in the Colorado River more than three million years ago, during the Pleistocene Era, and only live in the big rivers of the Colorado basin.

“These peak flows provide essential habitat for many life stages of the endangered fish,” said Dan Luecke, water expert for Western Resource Advocates. “Peak flows are a key element in helping bring these fish species back from the brink of extinction.”

The water releases surge through the Colorado’s major tributary streams, like the Blue River, the Williams Fork, and the Roaring Fork, and converge at the Colorado River in Grand Junction to create flows greater than 18,000 cfs. (Without the coordinated releases, the river would have peaked at a much lower flow.) High flows help the fish by scouring out sediment and flooding back waters, creating conditions that native fish need to spawn and survive. Fast water also favors the native fish over the predatory bass and other non-natives that evolved in slow-moving lakes and rivers. 

“We commend all the many folks working at these reservoirs to act in concert for the benefit of native species,” said Tom Iseman, Water Program Manager for The Nature Conservancy. “By coordinating their actions in high water years, they are able to balance water needs for people and wildlife to the benefit of both,” he continued. “It’s working.”
 
Established over a decade ago as part of the Upper Colorado River Basin Endangered Fish Recovery Program, the Coordinated Reservoir Operations Team synchronizes reservoir releases to help enhance peak flows. In years when snowpack is at or above average, some portion of this water bounty can be passed on to the Colorado River fish. This year is only the third time in the last decade that conditions have allowed for a coordinated reservoir release.    

“As water issues continue to dominate state concerns, this season’s victory is an especially sweet reminder that working together, we can balance the needs of both people and wildlife in Colorado,” said Charles Bedford, the state director for The Nature Conservancy in Colorado.

The Nature Conservancy and Western Resource Advocates were quick to note that other challenges to the fish, such as nonnative bass predation, remained a problem. Coordinated reservoir operations are only one of many actions that the collaborative, multi-stakeholder Recovery Program undertakes for the benefit of the native fish. The Program restores bottomland habitat in river corridors, changes the operation of federal reservoirs to provide needed flows for fish, and builds fish screens and ladders. The Recovery Program includes an array of federal and state agencies, water and power users, and conservation interests, led by The Nature Conservancy and Western Resource Advocates, working to recover native fish while providing for human uses of water.

“This past week’s effort was a great success in providing water to benefit endangered fish,” said Bart Miller, Water Program Director with Western Resource Advocates. “It’s another example of the benefits of a collaborative effort carried out by the Endangered Fish Recovery Program.”