April 21, 2017 Capital Press BOISE — Treasure Val- ley irrigators are using this year’s extraordinary water supply as an example of how additional storage capacity could benefit the Boise Val- ley. “Additional storage is not a new topic and one that really needs more than just a study on; it needs to hap- pen,” Treasure Valley Water Users Association President Clinton Pline said in an opinion piece released to the media this week. TVWUA represents about 320,000 acres of irrigated land in southwestern Idaho. Total precipitation in the Boise River Basin set a re- cord this year and runoff into the system’s three reservoirs is expected to total 2.5 mil- lion acre-feet in 2017, well above the average of 1.3 mil- lion acre-feet. The Boise River system’s Arrowrock, Anderson Ranch and Lucky Peak reservoirs have the combined capacity to hold 950,000 acre-feet of water. Pline pointed out that 600,000 acre-feet of water has already been released from the reservoir system this year to prevent flooding and an additional 2 million acre-feet of expected runoff has yet to reach the reser- voirs. “The bottom line (is that) flooding could get a lot worse for Treasure Valley residents as warmer tem- peratures emerge,” he said. According to Brandon Hobbs, project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of En- gineers’ Boise field office, the Boise River is running at 8,500 cubic feet per second at Glenwood Bridge, an offi- cial measuring site. That has caused minor flooding in some areas. Hobbs said there is a 10 percent chance the river could exceed 10,000 cubic feet per second this year, which would best the pre- vious record of 9,800 cfs and cause more significant flooding. During a 100-year flood event, the river would reach 16,600 cubic feet per sec- ond. Additional storage ca- pacity would help prevent flooding in the Treasure Val- ley ” since we would be able to capture more water and allow less to pass through or be released downriver for flood control,” Pline said. It would also provide more water for urban and ru- ral irrigation uses, he added. “As our population expands in the valley, there will be more of a demand for irri- gation water from all inter- ests.” The Treasure Valley’s population of 646,000 is projected to reach more than 1 million by 2040. Idaho Water Resource Board Chairman Rog- er Chase agreed that this year’s plentiful water supply demonstrates the possible benefits of additional stor- age capacity in the Boise basin. “We certainly recognize the need for more places to store more water in the Trea- sure Valley and we are sup- portive of efforts to do that,” he said. A Corps study released last year determined the ben- efits of raising Arrowrock Dam by up to 70 feet, which would create 100,000 acre- feet of storage, did not equal the cost. Chase said the study was focused heavily on flood control, and he believes it didn’t put enough emphasis on the economic benefits of having that much more wa- ter. “I was disappointed that the Corps wasn’t able to move forward with that proj- ect,” he said. “But we are still looking at ways to (in- crease capacity).” By ERIC MORTENSON Capital Press Federal wildlife research- ers killed 737 invasive barred owls in 2015-16 in an ongo- ing experiment to determine if removing them will aid the recovery of Northern spotted owls, the bird whose threat- ened status was at the center of the Pacifi c Northwest tim- ber wars. Spotted owl populations have continued to decline rapidly despite environmen- tal lawsuits, protection under the Endangered Species Act and logging restrictions in the old growth timber habitat they favor. Barred owls, which are larger, more aggressive and feed on a wider variety of prey, have taken over spotted owl territory throughout their range in Oregon, Washington and Northern California. Scientists with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Geological Survey, partnering with the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, agreed to an experiment: Kill hundreds of barred owls in the Cle Elum area of Washington, the Ore- gon Coast Range and Klam- ath-Union-Myrtle areas of Oregon and on Hoopa Valley tribal land in Northern Cali- fornia. In Oregon and Washington, fi eld crews shot 642 barred owls using 12 gauge shotguns and captured one owl alive, turning it over to the Oregon High Desert Museum in Bend. In Northern California, where early research by the late Low- ell Diller of Humboldt State University documented that spotted owls reclaimed nesting areas after barred owls were removed, researchers killed 95 of the competitors. High stakes Ranchers and farmers in the Pacifi c Northwest have a stake in Endangered Species Act and wildlife restoration projects undertaken by gov- Northern spotted owl study areas * Area (acres) 1. Cle Elum Treatment Control 149,250 165,560 20 The owl removal progress report: http://bit.ly/2nMGOKY Wenatchee The late Lowell Diller’s 2013 article about the ethical dilem- ma facing wildlife biologists taking part in the barred owl removal project. http://bit. ly/2pLE4Kh Bellingham (Results for March 2015-Dec. 2016.) Study area and treatment type Online CANADA VANCOUVER ISLAND 5 Spotted Barred owl sites owl sites 46 31 2 113 110 101 1 Olympia 2. Coast Ranges Treatment Control 149,990 268,105 45 58 106 176 3. Klamath/Union/Myrtle Treatment Control 193,480 172,475 84 78 144 124 *A fourth study area is in Northern California where barred owls are being removed from Hoopa Valley tribal land. The spotted owl was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species act in 1990. The two main threats to this owl are habitat loss and competition from the barred owl, a non-native species. umbia River C ol 101 84 97 26 22 2 26 20 126 Eugene Bend OREGON 20 5 3 Study area type Treatment (barred owls removed) N ernment agencies. They of- ten referred to the potential rangeland restrictions that might accompany an ESA listing for greater sage grouse as “the spotted owl on ste- roids.” They’ve also dealt with wolves spreading into the four states and attacking livestock. Northern spotted owls were listed as threatened under the ESA in 1990, which greatly reduced logging in the Pacif- ic Northwest, especially on federal land. Their continued decline could result in their being listed as endangered, which might bring even more restrictions on human activi- ties in the woods. So far, nothing has worked. The Northwest Forest Plan set 82 Portland 42 Alan Kenaga/Capital Press Yakima WASHINGTON Vancouver 101 Sources: U.S. Geological Survey; U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service 90 5 Ocean By SEAN ELLIS 5 Biologists: Too soon to know whether killing barred owls helps spotted owls Pacific Irrigators use plentiful water year to push for storage CapitalPress.com 25 miles Medford Control (no barred owls removed) CALIF. aside 18.5 million acres of the older forests that spotted owls prefer, “But then the barred owl emerged as a threat capa- ble of sweeping through the entire range of the Northern spotted owl,” researcher Diller wrote in a 2013 article. Barred owls are from the East Coast and appear to have moved west over the decades, following development. They are 15 to 20 percent larger than spotted owls, which Diller called “the human equivalent of a heavyweight going up against a middleweight.” Working on forest land owned by Green Diamond Re- source Co., and with federal permission, Diller and fellow researchers killed dozens of barred owls over fi ve years and documented the return of spotted owls. The work had startling results. Spotted owls “rapidly re-occupied” areas where barred owls were re- moved, Diller wrote. In one case, a female spotted owl returned to a nesting site sev- en years after she’d been last seen. Overall, Diller’s work showed “removal of barred owls in combination with hab- itat conservation could slow or even reverse population de- clines at a local scale.” ‘Sophie’s Choice’ Researchers don’t know if that success will be repeated. “It’s way too early to say,” said Davie Wiens, a raptor ecologist with USGS. Dill- er’s work was “defi nitive ev- idence” that spotted owls’ de- cline was reversed on Green Diamond Resource land, but conditions elsewhere are much different, Wiens said. The Ore- gon Coast Range, for example, has a much higher density of barred owls, he said. Even if it does work, land managers might be required to revisit areas and shoot more barred owls to keep them at bay. Lingering in the back- ground is whether wildlife biologists should be killing barred owls at all. “It is gut-wrenching,” said Wiens, the USGS raptor ecol- ogist. “It is for all of us.” He said barred owls are an apex predator that has “com- pletely taken over” spotted owl habitat. “This experiment is a way to get a handle on that.” Lowell Diller, who died in March, once called it a “So- phie’s Choice” dilemma. “Shooting a beautiful rap- tor that is remarkably adapt- able and fi t for its new envi- ronment seems unpalatable and ethically wrong,” he wrote in Wildlife Professional maga- zine in 2013. “But the choice to do nothing is also unpalat- able, and I believe also ethical- ly wrong.” If human action such as logging caused major alter- ations to spotted owl habitat, and development paved the way for barred owls to move west, “Don’t we have a soci- etal responsibility to at least give them a fi ghting chance to survive?” Diller asked. 16-1/#4N