Drought conditions put Henry’s Lake in jeopardy

MACKS INN, Idaho – Five years of drought have stretched southern Idaho’s irrigation resources so thin that the world-renowned trout fishery in Henry’s Lake is now in jeopardy.

“It’s like there is no tomorrow,” said Bob Bartsch, vice president of the Henry’s Lake Foundation.

“It just leaves you raw.”

Known for its huge brook trout that draw anglers from around the world, Henry’s Lake has not filled to its 90,000 acre-feet capacity for several years, and the lower water levels have hurt fishing.

But this year, the region’s irrigation storage system could be drawn dry by mid- to late-August, Bureau of Reclamation hydrologist Mike Beus said, and that could subject Henry’s Lake to a drawdown of up to half its capacity for crop irrigation and to help salmon and steelhead migration.

That kind of drawdown will further impact fishing, but the extent remains unclear.

“I’d have to say it’s really going to suffer,” said Jim Fredericks, fisheries manager for the Idaho Fish and Game Department.

The major concern is that a significant drawdown will severely limit the oxygen needed to keep the lake’s 1 million fish alive through the late summer and over the winter.

“If they drop it too much this summer, it’s liable to cook all the fish,” said Mark Morris at Henry’s Lake Station.

“And if it’s half-full for winter, who knows what will happen.”

The lake suffered a major winter kill because of inadequate oxygen levels in 1992 and 1993, and the department bought aerators to deal with future problems. Those aerators were used to save much of the fishery two years ago when the lake was drawn down to 55 percent of capacity heading into the fall of 2002.

But aeration only creates pockets of survivable water in the huge lake, and neither Fredericks nor Morris can assess how much help that would be under current conditions.