Blackfoot River and Reservoir

[MMDon]

Having fished up there all my life, I see the problem as less the pelicans and more the water table being pumped dry. Reservation pump irrigation is 90% of the 1000 pound gorilla in the room. Combine the pivot irrigation with the drought and you had a recipe for disaster. Bringing the water levels in the lake back up and increasing flows in the river would bring the fishing back to where it was when the natural springs fed the shrimp which were the main food supply to the lake. Deeper water means less feather born predation in both biomasses. Still, short of the Reservation Farmers preventing the water table from dropping down so perilously low, I suppose shooting, oops, I mean fencing out the pelicans is a last resort fix to some of the situation. Perhaps not a fix for the water becoming so warm and stagnant in the out flow that thousands of fish lay dead below the bridge or the springs that feed the shrimp drying up . . . but it helps.

The pelicans are only an indicator of the volume of secondary fish that populated the system as the depletion of oxygen allowed their numbers to explode with the dramatic decline in the numbers of trout.

Just a thought but if their reports are to be taken seriously, maybe they could make them a bit more encompassing and complete, political correctness aside. The Pelican tale may be a tad bit over the top for those that study the Blackfoot Reservoir water system.
[signature]