The water temperature at Lees Ferry on the Colorado River has risen above 70 degrees seven times since late August. A few degrees higher can be lethal for trout.
In this photo provided by Terry Gunn, an angler casts a line at Lees Ferry near Marble Canyon, Ariz. June 7, 2011. From prized rainbow trout to protected native fish, declining reservoirs are threatening the existence of these creatures, and also increasing the cost of keeping them alive. In this photo provided by Terry Gunn, Lehman Beardsley, left, and Gunn, who guides fishing trips, pose with a rainbow trout at Lees Ferry near Marble Canyon, Ariz., Nov 7, 1987.
“We’re in totally uncharted territory,” said Gunn, who began guiding in Marble Canyon in 1983. That year, Glen Canyon Dam began to release water on an emergency basis after record snowmelt produced a powerful spring runoff, resulting in near failure of the dam. In all these years, the river has usually been cold, with typical summer temperatures in the 50s.
Recently, a small reprieve of cooler temperatures has taken the edge off the fear at Lees Ferry, but uncertainty still taints the air. Just a few miles north of Lees Ferry and its trout fishery there’s another threat — nonnative predatory smallmouth bass. They’re supposed to be contained in Lake Powell. But this summer they were found in the river below the dam. Smallmouth bass already wreaked havoc on native fish way upriver where the government spends millions of dollars each year to control the predators. They were held at bay in Lake Powell because Glen Canyon Dam has served as a barrier for them for years — until now.
Last month, the state of Nevada and the Bureau of Reclamation announced they’re kicking in nearly $12 million on a project to pull water from deeper in the lake into the hatchery. The new line will source water from a third straw that the Southern Nevada Water Authority built following a severe drop in lake levels in the early 2000s. As Lake Mead plummeted this year, the agency had to begin using it to rescue Las Vegas, and soon, the hatchery.
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