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