A Prized Trout Stream Flows Year-Round Again

Little Cimarron River CONTINUED FROM COVER

gone into foreclosure but remained a valued established, WRC sold the land in March 2020 piece of the valley’s agricultural heritage. WRC to a neighboring farmer, who has embraced purchased the property, along with its water the irrigation arrangement to demonstrate that rights, and, in partnership with Colorado Water agriculture and rivers can coexist in Colorado. Trust, spearheaded a community solution that The farm can now remain a productive part of would allow water for fish and farms both. the local economy, while the stream remains

PETER MARBACH PETER connected year-round for the sake of the Little The farm can now remain a Cimarron’s fish. Consistent flows will help decrease water temperatures in the lower river SPRING 2020 NEWS FROM WESTERN RIVERS CONSERVANCY ISSUE 45 Heritage and productive part of the local and allow trout and other native fish to reestab- economy, while the stream lish the de-watered reach of the stream. Access on the The project’s innovative split-season remains connected year- approach is the first of its kind in Colorado. WRC A Prized Trout Stream This Issue: John Day River round for the sake of the and the new landowner are demonstrating the viability of cutting-edge solutions like this--solu- Little Cimarron River, CO Deepening our work on Oregon’s John Day Little Cimarron’s fish. tions that will be critical to meeting the goals Flows Year-Round Again WRC completes a landmark project River, Western Rivers Conservancy is poised laid out in Colorado’s Water Plan. A unique that returns perennial flows to an to acquire a critical three-mile stretch of the While holding the land, we conveyed the collaboration of agricultural and conservation outstanding Colorado trout stream lower John Day, at McDonald’s Ferry. The water rights to Colorado Water Trust in 2014. partners made this possible, including WRC, Col- effort will protect a key boater take out, Working alongside the trust, we established orado Water Trust, local farmers and ranchers, create new river access, preserve a historic a split-season irrigation agreement that helps and the Colorado Water Conservation Board. We Panther Creek, ID segment of the Oregon Trail and improve ensure adequate flows for fish during the driest hope this groundbreaking effort paves the way New effort to conserve a critical crucial spawning and rearing habitat for summer months, while allowing the farm to for similar solutions to Colorado’s water chal- stretch of this important Salmon John Day steelhead. draw water at other times. lenges, keeping rivers, fish and local farming River tributary This summer, WRC hopes to purchase With the water-sharing regime firmly economies healthy for the long run. g the 4,100-acre McDonald’s Ferry property, McDermitt Creek, OR & NV named for the historic ferry that settlers The last, best chance to save used to cross the John Day River on their Lahontan cutthroat trout from journey west. Wagon ruts from the 1800s extinction in the Great Basin can still be seen on the ranch, carved into the desert floor by the thousands of wagons heading west to the Willamette Valley. South Fork Salmon River, ID Today, the property is critical for boaters as WRC makes critical headway in the last take-out before the river winds into its effort to protect the South Fork a 10-mile roadless reach and then careens Wilderness Ranch over the un-runnable Tumwater Falls. Until now, public access to the John John Day River, OR Day River at McDonald’s Ferry has been Expanding public lands and RUSS SCHNITZERRUSS uncertain. To guarantee permanent river protecting habitat along a wild and access, WRC plans to purchase the prop- WRC’s pioneering efforts to rewater this stretch of the Little Cimarron River will ensure this trout stream flows top to bottom all scenic river in eastern Oregon erty and convey it to the BLM for protection year long. The project sets a new precedent for keeping water in stream while meeting the needs of local agriculture. within the John Day Wild and Scenic River corridor. Our efforts will also create new Little Cimarron River access to three miles of the John Day River. Colorado Conservation of the ranch presents an exciting opportunity to restore a stretch of Grass Valley Canyon Creek, a tributary to n Colorado’s Southern Rocky Mountains, Western ular Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. the John Day that flows through the proper- Rivers Conservancy just completed a groundbreak- The Little Cimarron’s forested upper reaches ty. The stream once provided prime spawn- Iing effort to return much-needed water to the Little contain superb habitat for brook and cutthroat trout. ing habitat for summer steelhead, but years Cimarron River, one of the Centennial State’s top- Downstream, though, the Little Cimarron encounters ago its confluence with the John Day was notch trout streams. irrigation ditches that pull water from the stream for moved to make way for cultivation. This and Beloved by fly anglers, the Little Cimarron tumbles hay and cattle. In the summer, this can leave the Little water withdraws upstream severely limit from the Uncompahgre Wilderness, an alpine wonder- Cimarron River running low and warm—or dried up fish passage. Habitat restoration on the DURNANRICHARD land of jagged peaks and wildflower-dotted tundra in altogether—cutting off access to the colder, healthier property would be a significant step toward the San Juan Mountains. Leaving public land, the river habitat of the upper river for downstream fish. The upper reaches of the Little Cimarron (above) are home to native westslope cutthroat trout, while the lower flows north through a high agricultural valley where To keep the river running cold all year, Western making this crucial tributary a viable spawn- reaches of the stream are home to wild producing brook and brown trout, sculpin and other species. farms and ranches draw the stream down, sometimes Rivers Conservancy bought a former dairy farm in ing stream for steelhead once again. g to nothing, before it joins the Cimarron River. The main 2012 that diverts substantial water from the Little PORTLAND SAN FRANCISCO DENVER OLYMPIA Cimarron then meets the Gunnison River in the spectac- Cimarron. Targeted for development, the farm had (503) 241-0151 (415) 767-2001 (303) 645-4953 (360) 528-2012 www.westernrivers.org CONTINUED ON BACK KRISTA SCHLYER KRISTA Idaho Last Chance for Great Basin Lahontan Cutthroat Conservation McDermitt Creek Headway at Oregon and Nevada Wilderness’ Edge n the arid, far reaches of southeast Oregon and northern Nevada, Western Idaho’s remote South Fork Salmon River IRivers Conservancy has embarked on roars down from the Salmon River Moun- a game-changing effort to recover one tains, through Payette National Forest of the West’s most endangered fish: the and the Frank Church/River of No Return Lahontan cutthroat trout. Wilderness, and into the Main Salmon River Lahontan cutthroat, the state fish of at Mackay Bar. It’s a swift 86-mile descent Nevada, is a large, bright-orange species through a rugged river canyon which is every of cutthroat that were once abundant bit as beautiful as the famed Middle Fork, across thousands of miles of streams NATIVE TROUT ADDICT TROUT NATIVE yet even more remote. in the Great Basin. Today, the fish are Roughly 16 miles upstream from the on the brink of extinction because the Lahontan cutthroat trout are on the verge of extinction in the Great Basin. WRC’s efforts on McDermitt Creek are the South Fork’s confluence with the Salmon, cold-water river habitat they depend on best hope of keeping these fish from disappearing for good.

Western Rivers Conservancy is working MAUGHAN RALPH DR. has been rapidly disappearing. Within conserve the ranch, setting the stage (the colorfully-plumed bird that indicates to conserve one of the last major private Panther Creek is one of the largest tributaries flowing out of the Salmon River Mountains and into the Main Salmon their shrinking territory, they must also inholdings along the river: South Fork River. WRC is working to protect a key property along the stream, midway up the river. compete with non-native fish. for restoration, permanent protection of healthy sagebrush grasslands), as well Wilderness Ranch. WRC has been working The primary hope for Lahontan the ranch and the reconnection of 55 as Columbia spotted frog, pygmy rabbit, with the landowners and the Payette Land cutthroat lies with the increasingly rare miles of stream habitat on and around mule deer, California bighorn sheep, Trust to protect part of the 234-acre property WRC Launches New Effort on a streams that flow cold and clear year- the property. This will double the number Rocky Mountain elk, bobcat, great horned through a conservation easement, which the round through the dry expanses of the of stream miles available to Lahontan owl, mountain lion, muskrat, beaver, family generously donated to the land trust Prime Salmon River Tributary Great Basin. Chief among these streams is cutthroat across the fish’s northwest golden eagle and sandhill crane. this month. We are now working to purchase McDermitt Creek, which drains the south range and give the species a fighting As we work to secure the ideal the remaining 134 acres with the goal of slope of Oregon’s Trout Creek Mountains chance at survival. WRC’s efforts will also long-term steward for the land, we are conveying the lands to the Payette National Panther Creek and crosses into Nevada’s Great Basin. allow biologists to remove non-native partnering with the US Fish and Wildlife Forest later this year. Idaho To protect 15 miles of McDermitt trout from McDermitt Creek and then Service, Oregon Department of Fish and The second largest tributary to the Creek and key tributaries, WRC is working reintroduce genetically pure populations Wildlife, Nevada Department of Wildlife Salmon River, The South Fork is a remark- to purchase a lynchpin property, Disaster of Lahontan cutthroat to the full length of and other organizations, each of which able river in every regard. Because of its f there’s a river redemption story out Functional salmon habitat is limited in the Peak Ranch. The property, a cattle the stream, where they once thrived. regard Disaster Peak Ranch as imperative remoteness, it is one of the few rivers in there, it’s Idaho’s Panther Creek. This river due to road proximity and private ranch for generations, owes its superb Meanwhile, the ranch will remain to Lahontan cutthroat recovery. Together the Columbia Basin that still has reasonably Ispectacular Salmon River tributary has land management. So, about midway up condition to the current owners, who in operation, contributing to the we are moving toward a shared vision of intact assemblages of native fish, including much in common with the better-known the river, Western Rivers Conservancy has have prioritized healthy habitat alongside local economy as it has for decades. thriving runs of Lahontan cutthroat along bull trout, spring Chinook, summer steel- Middle Fork and South Fork Salmon rivers, launched an effort to conserve one of the ranching since the 1950s. Disaster Peak Ranch adjoins seven the full length of McDermitt Creek to head and westslope cutthroat trout. An as- but was decimated by decades of cobalt last private properties along the stream, Building on that stewardship legacy, BLM wilderness study areas, and the ensure this beautiful and important fish tonishing 20 percent of the Columbia Basin’s and copper mining. Toxic runoff left the a rare inholding within the Salmon-Challis WRC is seizing the rare opportunity to landscape supports greater sage-grouse survives into the future. g Chinook salmon come from the South Fork. lower river lifeless, and no salmon or National Forest. The mile of Panther Creek From a recreation perspective, the South steelhead could make it into the upper that runs through the property has some Fork Salmon is exceptional, especially for its river. Lower Panther Creek was just a of the best potential spawning and rearing whitewater boating, hunting and fishing. scenic shell of a once-great stream. habitat for salmon and steelhead in the WRC’s efforts will permanently con- In the 1990s, that began to stream. It’s a stretch of the river that both serve a critical piece of land along a river change when federal agencies, mining the National Forest and the Shoshone- that is otherwise protected nearly in its companies and the state of Idaho began Bannock Tribes consider a top priority for entirely. And this is one of those rivers where a massive $50-million restoration effort habitat recovery. every piece of riverland matters. g to clean up the mine and recover Panther WRC plans to buy the property and Creek. Over three decades later, the transfer it to the Salmon-Challis National stream is nearly as healthy as it was Forest. Once this happens, habitat before the mine. The aquatic insects are restoration will begin in earnest, and the rebounding, the salmon are back, and entire 109-acre property, which could the trout are thriving. Today, the most otherwise be subdivided and developed, visible legacy of Panther Creek’s mining will be permanently protected. Mountain history is the road that runs alongside lion, gray wolf, Rocky Mountain elk, it. Panther Creek is even part of the mule deer, a plethora of bird species Idaho Birding Trail, which traces the best and a wealth of other wildlife inhabit the birding sites in the state. area, and this special stretch will remain While Panther Creek has come a undeveloped, protected as habitat, WRC is working to conserve Disaster Peak Ranch at McDermitt Creek to reconnect and restore 55 miles of g long way, there’s still work to be done. forever. stream habitat for endangered Lahontan cutthroat. ZACH SPECTOR ZACH CHRISTI BODE CHRISTI TOM AND LEESON PAT Idaho Last Chance for Great Basin Lahontan Cutthroat Conservation McDermitt Creek Headway at Oregon and Nevada Wilderness’ Edge n the arid, far reaches of southeast Oregon and northern Nevada, Western Idaho’s remote South Fork Salmon River IRivers Conservancy has embarked on roars down from the Salmon River Moun- a game-changing effort to recover one tains, through Payette National Forest of the West’s most endangered fish: the and the Frank Church/River of No Return Lahontan cutthroat trout. Wilderness, and into the Main Salmon River Lahontan cutthroat, the state fish of at Mackay Bar. It’s a swift 86-mile descent Nevada, is a large, bright-orange species through a rugged river canyon which is every of cutthroat that were once abundant bit as beautiful as the famed Middle Fork, across thousands of miles of streams NATIVE TROUT ADDICT TROUT NATIVE yet even more remote. in the Great Basin. Today, the fish are Roughly 16 miles upstream from the on the brink of extinction because the Lahontan cutthroat trout are on the verge of extinction in the Great Basin. WRC’s efforts on McDermitt Creek are the South Fork’s confluence with the Salmon, cold-water river habitat they depend on best hope of keeping these fish from disappearing for good.