COMMUNITY
THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 2021
BAKER CITY HERALD — A3
“I don’t like cold weather but I hope we get a lot of
snow. I’ll plow snow every day if I have to.”
— George Chandler, Baker Valley rancher, who’s hoping
for a snowy winter, which would help replenish Phillips
Reservoir
rapid, albeit temporary, glut
of meltwater that fl ows into
rivers.
Their anecdotes are cor-
roborated by statistics.
Phillips Reservoir reached
a maximum active stor-
age volume this spring (not
including the 5,000 acre-feet
of dead storage) of just 16,632
acre-feet, on April 26.
In many years the reser-
voir holds more than 40,000
acre-feet in late April. Even
in 1988, when the reservoir’s
level plummeted in the fall,
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald
it was holding about 26,000
This image taken from a drone on Tuesday, Aug. 17, shows Mason Dam and the expanse of shoreline exposed as
acre-feet the fi nal week of
Phillips Reservoir has receded this summer.
April.
“It doesn’t take long to get
rid of that” amount of water,
Chandler said, and that was
indeed the case in 2021.
Continued from Page A1
Worse still, farmers needed
Numbers also illustrate the
reservoir water earlier than
severity of the drawdown.
By JAYSON JACOBY
usual due to the aforemen-
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
As of Wednesday Aug. 18,
tioned lack of spring rain, and
PHILLIPS RESER-
the reservoir’s “active storage”
persistent wind that leached
VOIR — A brisk wind that
volume was 479 acre-feet,
much of the sparse moisture
which is less than 1% of its
feels more like October
from the topsoil.
storage capacity. That’s the
than August is whipping
Rainfall at the Baker
lowest volume since the fall
up whitecaps and pushing
City Airport for the fi rst
of 1988, when the reservoir
the two lengths of fi shing
six months of the year — a
reached a minimum of 449
line into curves, but the
period that includes what are
acre-feet on Nov. 1.
Foersterling brothers are
statistically the two wettest,
unperturbed.
There is, however, more
May and June — totaled 2.44
They’re concentrating on
water in the reservoir.
inches. That’s 43% of average.
the rod tips, waiting for the
The active storage fi gure is
“We just don’t seem to get
telltale twitch.
the amount of water poten-
the rains like we used to,”
And hoping that the fi sh
tially available for irrigation.
Ward said.
The reservoir’s offi cial capac-
on the other end of the
Then came the June heat
ity for irrigation is 73,570
line, below the choppy sur-
wave.
acre-feet, according to the
face of Phillips Reservoir, is
“It was the perfect storm,”
Multiple factors contribute Ward said — although in
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation,
a yellow perch.
to reservoir’s depletion
which built Mason Dam.
Fred Foersterling, 78,
this case it was the absence
Both Chandler and Ward
and his brother, Terry, 72,
The reservoir can hold an-
of storms that caused the
blame a combination of
both of Baker City, don’t
other 17,000 acre-feet — up
problems.
factors, which happened to
begrudge the autumnal
to a total of 90,570 — for fl ood
With much more water
coincide over the past year, for fl owing through Mason Dam
chill on this Tuesday
control.
the possibly unprecedented
morning, Aug. 17.
But the reservoir was also
than was coming in from the
depletion of the reservoir.
Not during a summer of
designed with what’s known
Powder River, the reservoir
The trouble started almost receded rapidly, dipping below
record-breaking heat.
as “dead storage.” That’s wa-
a year ago.
With the torrid tempera-
ter that won’t drain from the
10,000 acre-feet by June 29,
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald
In the fall of 2020, Phillips which happened to be the
tures that have predomi-
reservoir by gravity. The dead
Terry Foersterling, right, with a just-caught yellow
dropped to about 5,500 acre- 103-degree day at the airport.
nated since late June, the
storage for Phillips is 5,000
feet in November, so there
brothers haven’t hauled a perch at Phillips Reservoir on Tuesday morning, Aug.
acre-feet, and that water is
By the end of July the res-
17. Terry and his brother, Fred, also of Baker City, are
was a lot of space to fi ll.
boat to Phillips Reservoir,
the reason the reservoir still
ervoir’s active storage volume
The biggest source of water was below 3,000 acre-feet.
their favorite fi shing hole, frequent anglers at the reservoir.
looks like, well, a reservoir.
to refi ll the reservoir isn’t
even once.
Chandler said that
In that bellwether year
water at all — it’s snow.
“It’s so doggone hot we
although the dead storage
Valley reservoirs, as well as the Powder
1988, the reservoir didn’t drop
Winter snowpack in the
haven’t thought about getting out in the
capacity has likely been
River in between, due to warm water and
below that threshold until
mountains is the largest
boat and cooking in the middle of the day,” low water levels that threaten fi sh, the
reduced some by silt accumu-
Sept. 6.
reservoir in the region. As
Terry said.
lation over the past 53 years,
Foersterlings say that hasn’t affected their
that snow melts in the spring Banking on blizzards
“And come up here today and almost
that water, since it won’t
angling.
With the reservoir so
it fl ows into the streams and
wish you had more clothes on,” said Fred,
drain by gravity, means the
There’s no limit on perch anyway.
diminished, even a bountiful
rivers that replenish reser-
reservoir’s level can’t drop
who’s clad in a plaid fl annel shirt as the
Neither the persistent heat, nor the
snowpack this coming winter
voirs.
much farther.
brothers sit in a pair of folding chairs a few drought that has contributed to the res-
The snowpack was actually probably won’t be suffi cient to
On Tuesday, the main
feet from water’s edge.
ervoir dropping to its lowest level in more
refi ll Phillips.
about average in the upper
source of water entering the
The Foersterlings, who are fi shing
than 30 years (see related story on this
But a skimpy snowpack
Powder River basin, the head-
reservoir — the Powder River
with worms, hope to attract perch rather
page), has dissuaded the Foersterlings from
waters for its namesake river could make for even more dire
than rainbow trout because, they say, the
— was fl owing at a rate of 39
driving to Phillips a couple times per week.
conditions in 2022.
and other streams that feed
hatchery-raised rainbows tend to have
cubic feet per second.
They said the severe drawdown of the
“I don’t like cold weather
Phillips Reservoir.
rather fl accid fl esh in the warm water of
Some reservoirs, including
reservoir hasn’t had any noticeable effects
but I hope we get a lot of
The problem, Chandler
Thief Valley along the lower
late summer.
on fi shing.
and Ward agree, is that most snow,” Chandler said. “I’ll plow
Powder River near North
Fred said he prefers perch and other
“Sometimes they bite, sometimes they
snow every day if I have to.”
of that melted snow soaked
Powder, have no dead storage,
warmwater species, including crappie and don’t,” Terry says with the nonchalance of
Ward also wouldn’t com-
into the ground rather than
so when they’re drained — as
bass.
the frequent angler. “You just never know.”
plain about a repeat of the
trickling into the reservoir.
Thief Valley has been most
One day last week he said he reeled in 25
The brothers have noticed that there are
“The creeks never ran like 2016-17 winter, when snow
perch, two trout, two bass and two squaw- fewer motorboats on the reservoir, since
years in the past decade — all
depths topped two feet in
they normally do,” Chandler
fi sh.
that’s left is the river in its
the main boat ramps are all stranded well
Baker City and the tempera-
said.
Although the Oregon Department of Fish about the water.
original channel.
He and Ward attribute this ture at the airport plummeted
But dead storage capacity
and Wildlife has suspended daily fi sh catch
“We have seen a lot of paddleboards and
in part to cold nights that pre- to 24 below zero in early
in Phillips isn’t available to
limits through Oct. 10 for Phillips and Thief kayaks,” Fred said.
dominated this spring, which January.
nourish crops.
But he’d like to see heavy
slowed the snowmelt and
And that means irrigation
allowed much of the water to rain fall in October or Novem-
from the reservoir, with the
Valley Irrigation District’s
30,000 acres of land, mostly
almost 326,000 gallons.)
ber, before snow starts piling
leach into the soil.
exception of small volumes
fi ve directors.
in Baker Valley, with rights to
But in 2021 the reservoir
up.
Another factor was the
for livestock, is over for the
When water is plentiful
stored water.
provided just 0.4 of an acre-
That would start refi lling
lack of signifi cant rainstorms.
year, and a meager year
— a rarity over the past 15
(One acre-foot of water
foot per acre, Ward said.
the reservoir, making for a
it was, said Mark Ward, a
years, Ward said — Phillips
would cover one acre of fl at
“That’s the lowest allocation Heavy rain, especially when
smaller hole to fi ll come the
coupled with relatively mild
Baker Valley farmer and, like can supply 3.5 acre-feet of wa- ground to a depth of one foot. we’ve ever had,” he said.
spring of 2022.
Chandler, one of the Baker
ter for each of the more than The measurement is equal to
The previous record was 0.5 temperatures, can cause a
RESERVOIR
Low water doesn’t deter anglers
L OCAL B RIEFING
Lien, Paige Pearce, Laura
Price, Jayme Ramos,
Corrina Stadler, Mitchell
Stephens
Locals earn dean’s
erage of 3.5 or higher on a
list honors at Eastern 4.0 scale while completing
Oregon University
at least 12 hours of graded Halfway
LA GRANDE — More
than a dozen Baker County
students were among the
556 named to the dean’s list
for the spring 2021 term at
Eastern Oregon University.
To qualify, students must
maintain a grade point av-
coursework.
Baker City
Kayley AhHee, Alayne
Bennett, Koedi Birming-
ham, Boston Colton, Ashley
Dyke, Kirsten Esposito,
Isabella Evans, Elijah
Jay & Kristin Wilson, Owners
2036 Main Street, Baker City
541-523-6284 • ccb#219615
Madison Morgan
Baker students
graduate from EOU
LA GRANDE — Baker
County students earned
degrees during the 2020-21
academic year at Eastern
of an acre-foot, about 15 years
ago, Ward said.
Although Ward said farm-
ers who grow higher-value
crops such as potatoes typi-
cally have wells for irrigation
rather than relying solely on
reservoirs, the paltry supply
from Phillips trimmed yields
from some of his family’s
crops, including peppermint.
Ward said they used “the
bare minimum” of irrigation
water on their mint, which
contributed to a lower-than-
usual yield of mint oil — the
most valuable part of the crop.
(He said they also made
hay from mint.)
The bigger culprit in the
low oil yield, though, was not
a lack of water but rather an
abundance of another ele-
ment — heat.
“We learned that mint does
not like 100-degree heat in
June,” Ward said, referring to
the record-setting heat wave
in that month’s fi nal week,
when the temperature topped
out at 103 degrees at the
Baker City Airport.
Although Chandler also
laments the scant amount of
irrigation water this year, he
also remembers the era before
Mason Dam was built.
Chandler, who graduated
from Baker High School in
1965, recalls a summer when
the Powder River ceased fl ow-
ing through Baker City.
Oregon University.
in Business
Bachelor of Science in Mul-
• Laura Price, Bachelor of tidisciplinary Studies and
Baker City
Science in Health and Hu-
Elementary Education
• Rochelle Adams,
man Performance
Bachelor of Science in Early
• Joanie Sells, Bachelor of Haines
Childhood Education
Chelsea Blatchford,
Science in Early Childhood
• Kayley AhHee, Bach-
Bachelor of Science in Lib-
Education
elor of Science in Business
eral Studies/2 EOU Minors
• Alexandria Wachtel,
Administration
• Erin Blincoe, Bachelor
of Science in Anthropology/
2192 Court Avenue, Baker City • 541-523-5357
Sociology
• Makenna Huggins,
Services Provided:
Master of Business Admin
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