Fishes of Moses Lake Washington

029/3 Walla Walla College Publications of the DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES and the BIOLOGICAL STATION Vtme 1, Number 1, pp. 1-22 October 29, 1951 FISHES OF MOSES LAKE WASHINGTON —BY— KENNETH ELLISON GROVES Walla Walla College Department of Biological Sciences College Place, Washington 1951 FISHES OF MOSES LAKE 1 Acknowledgements It would be impossible to mention all who gave assistance in this study. To do so would be to name scores of fishermen and many local residents. To teachers, especially Drs. E. S. Booth, L. M. Ashley, and B. W. Hal- stead the writer is indebted for guidance and counsel. To early residents: R. P. Penhallurick and wife, William Killian, I. N. McGrath, Walter Schneirla and especially George Hockstatter credit is given for valuable information. The last three named were associated with the carp industry formerly operating at Moses Lake. Mrs. Margaret Harris, Frank Lees and K. I. Goodrich of Moses Lake, Washington furnished data on flood control and irrigation. A. H. Cruikshank, President of the local Sportsmen's Association and J. H. Laney, Washington State Game Protector, assisted in work relating to fish problems. Miscellaneous courtesies were extended by Doctor and Mrs. Richard Penhallurick and Dr. and Mrs. Harold J. Reith. E. P. Vance, Officer of Soil Conservation, permitted the copying of the aerial composite photograph of Moses Lake. Letters from many scien- tists and technicians were invaluable, and the Bureau of Reclamation furnished information and a project map. 2 FISHES OF MOSES LAKE Introduction Since Moses Lake is situated in the heart of the Columbia Basin Project (see map on page 5) which soon will bring irrigation to over 1,000,000 acres of waste land, much attention is at present centered on this lake, which heretofore has excited little notice or interest in its development. A survey of its fishes was suggested, therefore, since in the consummation of the plans of the Bureau of Reclamation this lake will be altered. The presence of carp in the lake has been its dominating feature since the day in 1904 when its flood waters rolled down to the Columbia River, allowing the carp to enter. The planting of spiny-rayed fishes through the years, has been gradually achieving some control of the carp population in the lake The attempt to poison carp in Moses Lake has been given up by the State Game Department after several experiments in the shallow lake arms. Some controversy exists as to whether carp are actually obnoxious. Lately a marked increase in aquatic vegetation, especially tules (Scir- pus validus), seems to indicate that there are fewer carp, since these fish are chiefly vegetarian and feed heavily on the plant life. Catch records indicate a numerically high game fish population. Many of these specimens are large for their species. The peculiarly small number of yearling and two-year old carp taken by seining at various points of the lake re- veals a high mortality rate for carp. In the planning of this study it was deemed desirable to limit its scope to tracing a partial history of fish fauna in the lake and to tabulating those species found at present. Because fish life in a lake is determined by conditions found therein and affected by such external influences as surrounding country, weather, and similar factors some data on these topics are included. Physical Features Location. The Columbia Basin, ranging in elevation from 500 to 2,000 feet is composed of 2,500,000 acres of sagebrush flats and scabland. Ridges, extending east and west through it, have been cut through by streams. Some of the coulees still hold chains of lakes. 0 Moses Lake, N. latitude 47 06', W. longitude 119° 19', is in the heart of the Columbia Basin, in the eastern part of Washington state on Spokane- Seattle Highway No. 10. The Milwaukee Railway runs to it. Its elevation is 1,046 feet above sea level. The town of Moses Lake (formerly known as Neppel), with a population of about 3,000, is located on the east shore. Size. Moses Lake, third largest lake in the state, is approximately six- teen miles long with an average width of one-half mile. Its area is about 8,000 acres, with nearly 120 miles of shore-line. An Indian legend persists to the effect that Moses Lake was once dry land, and according to Dr. George Beck, geologist of Central Washington College of Education, that concept could harmonize with the geological theory of the area. Crab Creek originates near Spokane and flows south toward the lake, suddenly disappearing. A little farther south a consider- able number of springs arise and feed into the lake through Rocky Ford Creek. To Dr. Beck it seems obvious that Moses Lake is merly Crab Creek Aerial Photograph of MOSES LAKE Washington Courtesy U. S. Soil Conservation Commission 4 FISHES OF MOSES LAKE dammed up by the shifting sands at the foot of the lake area. Since no one has determined whether or not the springs actually come from crab Creek, the drainage area of the lake is uncertain; but should this be the case, this lake would possess the greatest drainage area of all Washington lakes. According to observations by Evermann and Nichols (1909), Crab Creek disappeared into porous ground in the area north of Moses Lake and reappeared farther south. They recorded that under high water conditions this creek empties into Moses Lake. Scheffer (1950) writes that an explorer of 1853 described the lake as being six miles long. Whether he did not see the northern end of the lake or whether it was actually only that size at that date is not known. There is evidence, however, that the lake enlarged in years past. Old timers relate that the early wagon trains went up the east bank of the lake and found little obstacle in Parker Horn, but that later wagons were forced north around the dunes by the rising lake. Dr. Beck relates that his father saw old wagon ruts in 1901 under the water. The R. P. Penhallurick family, which has lived on Parker Horn for forty-two years, has seen the constant extension of the horn which used to terminate south of the present air base railway bridge. George Hochstatter affirms that sand dunes drifted inward a half mile and covered the old White Bluff wagon trail that came through from Rocky Coulee. This drifting is witnessed at the present time, particularly in the pothole area at the south and southwest end of Moses Lake. Many potholes appear and disappear with the shifting of the dunes and the creek outlet from the lake. Only at this site of Moses Lake have the dunes• interfered with natural drainage sufficiently to back up water and form a lake. Currents of cold water seem to indicate that the lake is also fed by underground springs. Another contributing factor to the rise of the lake is the increasing cultivation of the vast drainage area above. Great sections of sage brush land that formed a natural water shed have been turned into farms, thus removing that control against flooding. Form. Moses Lake lies in a north and south direction and is shaped like a pipe with a long curved stem. Local residents have named its ex- tensions as "horns" (see map on page 11). The lake was named for Chief Moses, head of a Colville tribe of Indians. At the northern end of the lake a great rock was the rendezvous of the Moses band of Indians. It is now known as Rocky Ford. Chief Moses Trail led to it from the north- east, forking at the lake, one branch heading for Moses Coulee and the other southward Surrounding country. Geologically this area consists of basins of rich soil left by the settlings from great glacial rivers and unique scablands marked by thousands of eroded channels. These high-walled valleys are often called coulees. Bretz (1932) has made a study of the geology of this country, and most of this section of this paper represents his interpreta- tions and findings. Loessial deposits vary in depth from top soil deposits of two feet to deposits of 200 feet. Some of the scablands have not accum- ulated even a mantle of residual soil; yet in these lands entire hills of loessial soil may be found. Deposits consist of gravel, sand, and basalt. The bluffs at the edge of Moses Lake are identified by Beck, geologist of Central Washington College, as "White Bluffs" similar to those opposite Hanford, Washington, but masked by a thin veneer of glacial matter. FISHES OF MOSES LAKE 5 The floor around Moses Lake is not scabland. Too low to experience extensive erosion it belongs to the glacial drainage plexus. Fossil horses, identified as Pliohippus, were found under the ice at the foot of Moses Lake by Wesley Kerving, an amateur fossil collector. He also unearthed mastodon remains on the sides of Weber Coulee (not far from Moses Lake) 50 feet above the coulee floor. Adam East, who has a private museum in Wenatchee, Washington, once owned a farm at Moses Lake and has collected mammoth specimens in this area. Soil. According to Mangum (1912) the Moses Lake area presents a mixture of soils of two types: (1) sandy and fine sandy b arns two to six feet deep over limestone over basalt; and (2) stony and gravelly soils underlain by compact deposits of gravel and rounded boulders. These soils also contain volcanic ash which is very productive to crops, and which provides natural drainage for the local orchards.

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