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Show Page 12. UINTAH BASIN STANDARD. January 14, 1987 Better habitat created Rock Creek project first phase of a pilot project to improve the Fisheries in Rock Creek on the Duchesne Ranger District, Ashley National Forest, has just been completed. fishermen-shou- ld Fish-abe better off because of the project. The project came about through the efforts of an InterAssessment Biological agency Team (IABAT) composed of biologists from National Forests, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Utah The nd Division of Wildlife Resources, and private consultant hired by the Utah Water Conservancy District. Because of the construction of the Upper Stillwater Dam on Rock Creek, the team of experts sought to mitigate the loss of angler days by improving the fisheries habitat. Structures, some experimental, were designed by Dr. Ray White, of Trout Habitat Specialists, from Bozeman. Montana; work was accomplished by a Forest Service crew lead by Bill Wall, range technician for the Duchesne District Bob Hurley, the Ashley Forest fisheries biologists, was on hand during project construction to provide technical expertise and direction. Currently Rock Creek has few natural pools and limited hiding over for trout. Winter survival for planted fish is low. To develop habitat, the team used rock and log sills, cabled tree revetments, boulder placement, and overhanging deflectors. Although these structures have been used occasionally on other streams, "To our knowledge, none have been used on a stream of this size, with a high stream flow of over 2.000 cubic feet per second (cfs) during spring runoff and a minimum flow of 0 cfs, says Rob Huriey. The four types of structures are being monitored in this pilot vide the most benefits to the hnhilal will he used in the rest of the river when the dam is completed. Rock Creek Canyon is typical of streams on the south slope of the Uinta Mountains. Successful structures in the test may also be applied to lhse streams, when funding becomes available. Besides creating pools and hiding cover, the biologists also sought to decrease stream braiding by concentrating the water flow into one or two channels where hahils is best. Ureen trees, cabled to the bank along unstable areas of the stream, provide hiding cover for small fish, slow the stream velocity. and help stabilize the bank. The green trees are chosen over dead snags because ' of their resiliency and durability. To perform the construction work, a crew of four plus three hcnvy equipment operators completed the two stretches of river. Total cost of the project was KR0.000. Most of the boulders were qua rried from the dam site and heavy equipment was provided by the Forest' Service to haul them to the project site. Bill Wall said that the challenge for the crew was to interpret the ideas, bringing them from the concept stage into ahj project to determine cost effectiveness and benefits to the fishery. Monitoring will be conducted by the IABAT over the next five years. The monitoring program will consist of to determine fish biomass; creel census to determine fish harvest (actual fish caught); establishing iAnd using photo points at each structure to. determine changes over time; and conducting Binns Habitat Quality Indices Studies to measure the changes in habitat quality as a result of the project. The test structures are spread e out over two sections of the stream. Structures that pro one-mil- One special challenge on the project wbs the building of a tree sill in an area where the stream was 95 feet across. The crews needed a tree at least 12 feet in length, so it could be anchored into each bank. No such trees were available, so they cabled two 70 foot logs together and used them for the sill. Another challenge was the building of the overhanging deflectors. According to Hurley, these artificial structures simulate overhanging banks. To make the construction crew them, placed a large log in the stream at the angle desired for water Rock habitat Creek with will he able improved to sustain a natural reproducing trout population, without the need for expensive annual planyear-roun- d tings. "Rock Creek should provide an excellent fishery if the pilot structures succeed." says Hurley. "If all goes well with our project, the public will be seeing additional structures in other similar streams in Utah." A fish management plan for Rock Creek is currently being developed by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. This plan will utilize natural reproduction and may call for the reintro-ductio- n of Colorado River Cutt-hrotrout, the only trout species native to the Uintah Basin. deflection. Smaller logs were placed perpendicular to the large log and a shelf was built using additional logs parallel to the foot large log. This created a overhang. The entire structure nt l-- Cougarettes compete against all schools turned from the Cyprus compe-titidin December, where the girls took first place in military, second in dance and second in The Union Cougarettes will travel January 17, to compete in the Rocky Mountain Drillteam competition, one of the hardest competitions of the year, officials n say. It will be held in Salt Lake at the Salt Palace, where teams from all over the state will be competing in 1A, 2A, 3A, and 4A school divisions. The Cougarettes will compete with the 2S division in military, dance, prop and novelty. In case some of you arent familiar with the terms novelty . and prop, "novelty is a humorous dance with facial expressions. The Cougarettes have chose to be garbage men and dance with 32 gallon garbage cans. Prop" is a dance in which the girls use some sort of prop, such as chairs or hats. The Cougarettes will be using gold-focovered rolling pins with black and gold streamers at one end. The girls will perform their marches for the judges throughout the day. The first and second place winners in each category will perform, for an audience that night. The Cougarettes recently re il electro-fishin- g . . reality. City, 65-7- into the was then secured slreamhed and rebar and covered with large boulders. The four types of structure are expected to last a minimum of twenty years. By that time, hopefully, biologists expect the river to adapt to its new look. Pools and established stream channels should remain intact. Willows and other vegetation should flow in stabilized along the stream bank. ' - prop. They also took the second place sweepstakes trophy over all including the 3A and 4A teams. The Cougarettes would like to thank all the boys who went along to help with props at Cyprus and the boys who will be going to Rocky Mountain with them. The girls would also like to wish the Union Basketball team good luck this Saturday when they take on Wasatch, since they will be in Salt Lake and unable to perform at the game. The Union Cougarettes are: President, Shelley Prichard, Historian, Jill Goodspeed, Secretary, Keri Osmond, Drill Mistress, Stephanie Harms ton and Anissa Green. Members include;-AllisoLefever, Ginger Buxton, Michelle Brown, Danielle White, Heather Shelly, Angie Birchell, Shawna Win ter ton, Heather Stevens, Shelly Rich, Tara Bowen, Brenda Buchanan, and Amy Frandsen. Their advisor is Shari Bradley ; and Manager, Kelley' Kynaston. n artificial log and rocks were stragetically Creek to improve the fisheries habitat. placed The work was done by Bill Hall and Bob Hurley, Duchesne District personnel. LOG SILL-- The in Rock (Photo by A. Matejko. Aihley N.F.) Chamber Continued from page 9 . several national rural electric committees in addition to various civic organizations and church positions. Millett is the father of right children and is married to Shirley Hurston Millett He attended ' and the Pacific Coast Ranking School. Chamber director Ted Daugherty said Millett will give ah upbeat encouraging talk on the Basin and motivate the Chamber members during this economic USU slump. ' Musical entertainment will also enhance the fine meal, motivating speaker and good company which will be at the annual gala of the Chamber. Pennzoil Continued from page 9 expected by the company. Howe and Turner both stated they were impressed with the reWe finery here in Roosevelt look at the safety record as an indicator of the management of a refinery and this one has a good record,1 Howe said. He also said he had been impressed with the whole workforce. Turner said the Basin is surrounded with Pennzoil operations. They have a branch operation in Salt Lake City that use to be called Peerless Oil. They have acquired a distributor in Grand Junction,' and have operations in Bob Hurley crosses the artificial log sill built across Rock Creek. (Pholo by A. Malejko, Ashley N.F.) Merrill J. Millett, Chamber dinner speaker. - Rock Springs too. Pennzoil has the number one market share of oil purchases in the Rocky Mountain area, Turner said This was aided by the Lube concept Pennzoil started in Salt Lake City back in 1970s. Turner said he started working with this idea and has seen it grow to be 67 percent of the national business. Pennzoil sells one of ever five caqB sold,! he said., , You will be seeing more about Pennzoil in TV commercials, Turner said. They have a new commercial with Arnold Palmer running now and also have the talents of Rick Mears (a race car driver who won the Iiidy 500 in and other spokesmen. 1982) Ten-Minu- . Turner said they annually spend of their budget on advertising. Other operations the company one-sixt- h has included exploration, sulfur mines in West Texas, off-sho- re packaging and processing plants, a whole range of automotive items( from Gumout products to lube oils), 675 gas stations (mostly in Ohio, West Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania, COUGARETTES The Union High Drillteam wilj be traveling to the Rocky Mountain Drill team competition January 17. The girls who will compete for Union include: President, Shelley Prichard, Historian, Jill Goodspeed, Secretary, Keri Osmond,' Drill Mistresses, Stephanie Harmston and Anissa Green. Members include Allison LeFever, Ginger Buxton, Michelle Brown, Danielle White, Heather Shelley, Angie Birchell, Shawna Winterton, Heather Stevens, Shelly Rich, Tara Bowen, Brenda Buchanan, Amy Frandsen. Their advisor is Shari Bradley and manager Keeley Kynaston. KVEL AM 920 KUIN FM 93 We have a large selection of craft supplies, painting tole Free Classes with Supplies Treasures Country 159 East 100 So. Roosevelt and proudly presents the Fifth Annual Vernal supplies, wicker, ceramics, wood, balloon bouquets, floral and finished gifts. Michigan), etc. Howe mentioned a bit of legal information for the new employees. Pennzoil has gotten an Sll billion judgement against Texaco recently. They are still pursuing the legal steps of appeal in this case but Howe said he feels confident that Pennzoil will get a favorable decision from the Texas Appeals Court one of these Thursdays, but he doesn't know which Thursday (the appeals court hands down their decisions on Thursdays). It will then go to the Texas Supreme Court and possibly to the U.S. Supreme Court before being settled. The Pennzoil contingent spend a full day in the Basin and flew out the next morning. ss nmflSTEBS' QlteOEceDf? Saturday, January 7:30 p.m. the Uintah at High School Auditorium Admission $3.00 Family $10.00 Patron $10.00 Chi Idren under 12 free 17 Dr. Richard J. Howe, Presi- dent and CEO of Pennzoil. Phone News Items 722-513- 1 |