Lakes Spring To Life In Scabland Areas After Long Drought

Lincoln County is wet and wild this month.

The saturated ground has recharged springs that were dry two years ago. Creeks are reviving. Lakes are filling. Fish are finding more room to swim. Mule deer are getting fat on greening grass. Wildflowers are exploding among the peculiar expanse of sage and basalt known as the scablands.

Waterfowl are finding hog heaven in thousands of wet spots that have been dry since the mid-1980s.

While exploring the scablands Wednesday morning, I found thousands of shootingstars, a flower that requires wet soil, blooming among sagebrush where the ground was parched three years ago.

A turtle dared to venture into the sage, apparently confident that another moist haven was over the next rise.

The reptile was right.

The rains of 1995 provided a long-overdue boost to nesting ducks and geese. But the scars of a 10-year drought can’t be erased in a single year.

Don Schuh of Odessa has a fascination with the orderly way that water moves through the scablands. Countless isolated potholes hold water in the spring. But the larger Lincoln County lakes tend to be linked by creeks in basalt channels that run for miles.

Of particular interest to Schuh is Lake Creek, which begins as a trickle northwest of Davenport before feeding lakes of enormous importance to the region’s ducks, geese and other wildlife.

Last year, the water collected in arteries from wheat fields and rumbled down Lake Creek to Wall Lake and then into Twin Lakes. When these lakes had their fill, water poured into Coffee Pot Lake, a favored resting spot for thousands of Canada geese each fall.

“Coffee Pot is a huge lake,” Schuh said. “It was so low last year, hardly any water got beyond it. This year, it’s full and spilling water into Deer Lake.”

With a little luck and decent spring rainfall, Lake Creek might reach the dry ghost of Pacific Lake for the first time since about 1985, he said.

But large voids must first be filled. Before water can begin trickling into the Pacific Lake, which is about 30 miles from the Lake Creek’s headwaters, the stream must continue the surge that began this winter.

Deer Lake was filled and began feeding Browns Lake.

“Browns filled up and Tavares Lake filled on Sunday,” Schuh said.

A good flow is pouring into Neves Lake this week. From there the flow has only two more small lakes to fill before it heads to Pacific Lake, which has been dry since 1989.

Bureau of Land Management stream specialist Lou Juhrs said that even in the best-case scenario, there’s likely to be only enough water to dampen the lake’s dusty bottom.

“But at least that could seal the ground,” he said. “Then if we get two or three more wet years in a row, the lake could fill.

The significance of these trickling events is lost on people with short memories.

In the early ‘80s, Pacific Lake was a sensational trout fishery. But the lake was surrounded by public land and accessible to just a handful of anglers.

During the drought, however, the BLM acquired a chapped 4,000-acres called Lakeview Ranch, providing public access to the west end of the lake.

With all the bad news about fisheries nowadays, a little hope is enough to wet an angler’s appetite.

Nearly off-limits: President Clinton recently signed an executive order recognizing hunters and fishermen as “the first partners” of the U.S. Wildlife Refuge System. The order reaffirmed hunting and fishing as priority activities on most refuges.

But that doesn’t mean they have free rein.

Under a recently approved management plan to increase waterfowl nesting, spring fishing will be discontinued at the popular Pillar-Wigeon chain of lakes on the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge near Othello.

The new plan goes into effect May 1. To make up for the spring restrictions, anglers will be allowed to fish the lakes in September, a month that traditionally has been closed to fishing in those waters.

Longer seasons also have been approved for Hutchinson and Shiner lakes, which hold small bluegills and bass.

, DataTimes MEMO: You can contact Rich Landers by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 5508.

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