Evaluation of Management of Water Releases for Painted Rocks Reservoir, Bitterroot River, Montana, 1983-1986, Final Report.

Spoon, Ronald L.

doi:10.2172/901543

Cited by 3 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…A similar observation was made in the Bitterroot River where low streamflows resulted in decreased numbers of juvenile brown trout, but did not significantly effect numbers of adults (Spoon 1987) .…”

Section: Reach 1: Headwaters To Lincolnsupporting

confidence: 73%

“…Pool seeking behavior associated with low streamflows has previously been observed in the Bitterroot River (Spoon 1987).…”

Section: Reach 4: Monture Creek To Belmont Creekmentioning

confidence: 69%

“…Brown trout YOY appear to prefer root/brush borders over rock borders (Spoon 1987). Above Nevada Creek the rock borders were not generally available and sampling was confined more to the root/brush borders.…”

Section: Young-of-the-year Samplingmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Preliminary fisheries inventory of the Big Blackfoot River

Peters¹,

Spoon²

1989

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A fishery inventory of the Blackfoot River from headwaters to mouth was conducted during 1988 to evaluate angler concerns of a declining fishery in recent years. Sampling of young-of-theyear trout throughout the mainstem, repeating fish population surveys conducted in the headwaters during the early 1970 's, establishing three new population inventory sections, conducting a voluntary creel census, and evaluating species of special concern in the river were completed in 1988. Fish populations in the Blackfoot River vary greatly in terms of species composition and overall fish density. The differing fisheries of the Blackfoot River are a product of habitat characteristics, recruitment sources, and human influences such as environmental degradation and fishery exploitation. Fisherman concerns over a declining fishery are centered in the middle and lower reaches of the river, from roughly Nevada Creek to the mouth of the Blackfoot River. This report addresses possible reasons for angler dissatisfaction, and identifies potential management strategies to remedy fisheries problems in the Blackfoot River. Special consideration was given to effects of the current drought and resulting record low stream flows on fishing opportunities. Fishery management tools including stock enhancement (naturally or artificially), harvest regulation changes, and habitat improvement appear to have potential to improve low fish densities in some reaches of the river. Due to the complexity of the fishery, and the factors that influence it, no single management tool is likely to be successful in correcting problems. In addition, future fish management decisions should consider specific reaches of river which vary in fisheries potential. Given that fishing pressure continues to increase, more restrictive harvest regulations will likely be necessary to maintain catch rates and abundance of spawning aged fish. This is particularly true for the native trout species, cutthroat and bull trout, present in the Blackfoot River. 11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank the officers and club members of the Blackfoot Chapter of Trout Unlimited that organized and successfully funded our operations for completing this work. Many donors contributed above and beyond license fees which resulted in the successful fund raising campaign. A special thanks to Dennis Workman for assembling initial work plans, budgets, acceptance of added regional fisheries responsibilities and encouragement to all parties to get this project started. Thanks are extended to the field and office workers, Dave Dickson and Eric Priest. Their dedication in all phases of this project have created an end product this year far beyond what v;e initially expected to obtain. This project was funded by the Blackfoot Chapter of Trout Unlimited and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

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Section: Reach 1: Headwaters To Lincolnsupporting

confidence: 73%

“…Pool seeking behavior associated with low streamflows has previously been observed in the Bitterroot River (Spoon 1987).…”

Section: Reach 4: Monture Creek To Belmont Creekmentioning

confidence: 69%

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Preliminary fisheries inventory of the Big Blackfoot River

Peters¹,

Spoon²

1989

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“…Both rivers have been extensively studied by the DFWP to determine relations between flow levels and fishery quality. A recent study examined the effect of management of Painted Rocks Reservoir releases on the trout fishery in our study section of the Bitterroot River (Spoon 1987). Currently, the DFWP is developing specific minimum instream flow recommendations for the entire Upper Missouri River Basin, which includes the Big Hole.…”

Section: Study Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An additional perspective on Big Hole flows is provided by Nelson^ who estimates that most people quit floating at flows of 500 to 600 cfs. Spoon (1987) provides an extensive evaluation of the biological impacts of instream flows in the Bitterroot, * Nelson, F.A., personal communication, biologist, Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, Bozeman, MT, 1989. focusing on the effects of water releases from Painted Rocks Reservoir on the West Fork. He reports a wetted perimeter-based estimate of minimum instream flows for the "dewatered section" (our study section) of 402 cfs.…”

Section: Preferred Flow Levelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economic value of instream flow in Montana's Big Hole and Bitterroot Rivers

Duffield¹,

Brown²,

Allen³

1994

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Recreation benefits of instream flow: Application to Montana's Big Hole and Bitterroot Rivers

Duffield¹,

Neher²,

Brown³

1992

Water Resources Research

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Allocation of water between instream uses such as recreation and consumptive uses such as irrigation is an important public policy issue in the western United States. One basis for identifying appropriate levels of instream flows is maximization of net economic benefits. A general framework for estimating the recreational value of instream flows was developed and applied to Montana's Big Hole and Bitterroot rivers. The paper also provides a synthesis of methods for interpreting covariate effects in dichotomous choice contingent valuation models. Precision of the estimates isexamined through a simulation approach. The marginal recreational value of instream flow in these rivers is in the range of $50 per acre foot (1 acre foot equals 1233.5 m 3) for recreation at low-flow levels plus $25 per acre foot for downstream hydroelectric generation. These values indicate that at some flow levels, gains may be achieved on the study rivers by reallocating water from consumptive to instream uses. sured the participation effect described by the first term in (2), while applications by Walsh et al. [1980], Daubert and Young [1981], and Boyle et al. [1988] correspond to the concurrent effects of instream flow on the quality of the recreational experience (second term in equation (2)). Johnson and Adams' [1988] model is an example of a model examining lagged effects, corresponding to the third term in(2). It is possible that only one or two of the three terms may be empirically significant for a given resource. However, it is also possible that all three effects may be important. To the extent that the signs on the partial derivatives are positive in the streamflow range of interest, an implication of this framework is that previous estimates of recreational instream flow values may be conservative.

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Evaluation of Management of Water Releases for Painted Rocks Reservoir, Bitterroot River, Montana, 1983-1986, Final Report.

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Preliminary fisheries inventory of the Big Blackfoot River

Preliminary fisheries inventory of the Big Blackfoot River

Economic value of instream flow in Montana's Big Hole and Bitterroot Rivers

Recreation benefits of instream flow: Application to Montana's Big Hole and Bitterroot Rivers

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