Complex river issues need thought

Last Thursday’s Spokane River Anglers Forum attracted an impressive collection of local fisheries prowess and intellectual muscle focused on trout in Spokane’s signature stream.

Some 140 men and a few women gathered at the Inland Northwest Wildlife Council Center. Some were trolling for the truth while others were casting for special interests.

Occasionally, I felt as though I should be wearing hip waders, and I’m not talking about protection from high water.

Six government, industry and angling panelists gave several hours of fact-filled presentations on the river and the trout fishery, mostly geared to Avista’s efforts to satisfy relicensing requirements for Upriver Dam.

One thing was clear. As much as the public has neglected the Spokane River for the past 150 years, it continues to be of tremendous importance to all of us. The river handles our basic needs, such as sewage, while promoting our extravagance, such as the eye-appeal of megahomes near Post Falls.

The phosphorous load in Long (Spokane) Lake is connected to the water level at the docks around Lake Coeur d’Alene.

The huge amount of water we’re pumping – and often wasting – from the Rathdrum Prairie aquifer is the most serious threat to maintaining trout-friendly water temperatures in the upper Spokane River, not the minimum flow out of Post Falls Dam.

When it comes to satisfying these and other issues and interests, trout and trout anglers are often high and dry.

Even though a tremendous amount of information was presented at the forum, it barely scratched the surface of the work and discussion that’s been underway since 2002, when the first working groups –including one devoted to fisheries – were organized to create preliminary proposals that have already been made to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Here are a few of the critical points anglers should keep in mind as the process proceeds:

•Trout survive summer temperatures in the Spokane River by seeking refuge where cool aquifer water seeps into the stream. Releasing too much warm water – up to nearly 80 degrees – from Post Falls Dam dilutes and reduces the critical “cool water refuges” downstream.

•The Sierra Club’s insistence on minimum flows higher than 600 cfs from Post Falls Dam unwrapped a settlement agreement that had been reached by dozens of other stakeholders, including the fishing group. Without consensus, the issue flops into the hands of FERC, where fishing is likely to be at the bottom of the priority list.

Without consensus, Idaho and Washington fisheries agencies could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars for urgently needed fisheries research, monitoring and mitigation.

•Avista has let this community down with a performance in the dam relicensing process that’s been as muddy as the presentation made at the forum by Bruce Howard, the company’s relicensing point man.

Avista got a lot of press for working with anglers in the relicensing of Cabinet Gorge Dam. But the Clark Fork River has bull trout and the Spokane River does not. Without the hook of the Endangered Species Act, Spokane River anglers aren’t catching Avista’s attention.

Dams have killed most of the Spokane River’s fishing heritage. Society usually locks up killers who show no remorse.

What to do: A tip of my favorite fishing hat to the anglers who showed up at the Spokane River forum. Let FERC and Avista know you’re concerned about the river and its fishery.

Don’t set anchor. Keep casting for answers. Demand solutions.

Observations on access: Some anglers are rightfully concerned about the lack of boat access to the Spokane River.

I fish from a personal pontoon boat and I find the river quite accessible. Those who prefer to fish from drift boats have a different opinion. Fine.

But be careful, however. More access to bigger boats could open a can of worms.

•More drift boats on the river would mean more guides on the river. Under Washington’s nearly non-existent regulations for outfitters, nearly anybody can buy a guide’s license and there’s no limit to the number of guides on a given water.

•Trailer access would open more stretches of the river to jet skis and other craft. This is a critical point for those who are pushing to provide access points from Maple Street area downstream into Riverside State Park. Spokane County Sheriff’s marine deputies don’t support access for anything by carry-on boats to this portion of the river, and anglers should be wary of it, too.

One person at the angler’s forum referred with disdain to “those yuppie kayakers” having more access than fishermen.

More open-minded anglers would recognize that local paddlers don’t take away fishing access, they expand it. For example, it was the Spokane Canoe and Kayak Club that first stepped up to demand that Barker Road reconstruction plans don’t eliminate the current boat access to the river.

Latest from Sprague Lake: With fisherman nearly ignoring Sprague Lake in recent years, the Washington Fish and Wildlife Department is considering a proposal to treat the lake with rotenone and restart the fishery, with an emphasis on trout.

Sprague is one of the region’s most productive waters for fish, but few anglers are attracted to the lake’s current bounty of walleye and carp.

Anglers and Sprague businessmen likely would back the proposal for a late-fall rehab if they think back to the fishing bonanza of the 1980s, when the lake was treated and restocked with trout, bass, bluegills, crappie and catfish.

The first meetings to seek public suggestions could be scheduled as early as late March or April.

Stay tuned.