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Show DWR Feels Pinch Of Budget Programs of the Division of Wildlife Resources are feeling the same financial pinch as those in other departments of Utah state government noted local Conservation Con-servation Officer Norm McKee on Monday as he explained the importance im-portance of conservation pools to future fishing in Utah. McKee said that conservation pools represent one of the most economical ways of guaranteeing good fishing in the state. He said that the DWR is "doing its best to hold its buying power so that it can continue to negotiate for important new conservation pools locally." "Everything costs so much more," declared McKee, "that the DWR is simply trying to hold its own in maintaining the most important programs which have been initiated : in recent years." He said the state has two types of water, those which it owns outright and those in which it has established conservation pools.. Waters owned outright in Garfield County are Pine Lake, North Creek, Barker, Lower Narker, Flat Lake, Long Willow Bottoms, and Round Willow Bottoms reservoirs all of which were paid for and built by the DWR more than 20 years ago. DWR has full control of these waters and thus can protect the fish stocked in them. At other reservoirs throughout the state, the DWR owns only a percentage per-centage of the total water which is also used for irrigation. Water in those reservoirs can be drawn down for irrigation purposes only to the maximum which DWR owns. Those remaining waters, called conservation con-servation pools, serve to protect the fish that have been planted. By carrying the fish through the winter conservation pools, DWR doesn't have to stock so many (Continued on Page Budget ceezed catchable-sized trout every season before the season opens. Instead, the division can stock fingerling trout and let them grow naturally to catchable size by the following year. By concentrating on raising and stocking fingerling trout in reservoirs, reser-voirs, DWR expects to avoid serious problems. Unless, however, the division can be guaranteed adequate water in reservoirs, it will be forced to stock catch larger fish more often. of-ten. The increasing cost of raising fish in hatcheries to catchable size could then force reductions in the number of fish stocked. Thus, the need for conservation pools, wildlife officials claim. I The DWR has conservation pools in over SO reservoirs across the state, ranging from a tiny 4.9 surface sur-face acres at Foy Lake, San Juan County to the massive 1,600 surface acre pool at Scofield Reservoir in Carbon County. In Utah, by climatic standards an arid state (recent years excepted), water doesn't come cheap. DR resources must vie with agriculture, livestock, mining and other interests to obtain the water necessary for effective, long-term fisheries management for public recreation. The state first began purchasing conservation pools almost 50 years ago. In 1938, the State Department of Fish and Game purchased such a pool in Gooseberry Reservoir in Sanpete County for just under $10,000. This pool still exists today and has ensured an ongoing trout fishery at the popular central Utah fishing spot for two generations. Over the years, Utah has become the acknowledged pioneer and leader in acquisition of conservation pools for fisheries management. To date, the state has invested about five million dollars in such pools. But with the cost of water steadily rising, the Division of Wildlife Resources may have problems continuing the conservation pool program. The Energy and Natural Resources Committee, chaired by state Senator Fred Finlinson and Representative Willard Garner, last week reported favorably on draft legislation that would grant the Division of Wildlife Resources a modest license fee increase In 1989 and revenue bonding authority. Passage of the legislation would allow the Division to raise funds for . new conservation pools and for other critical wildlife programs. George McLaughlin, a fisheries biologist for the Division of Wildlife Resources, sees conservation pools as a vital aspect of the state's fisheries management program in both wet and dry years. Says McLaughlin, "In most years reservoirs don't get down to the conservation pool, and in turn we have the use of the extra water for fish. By the same token, in dry years we don't lose the fishery or at least we don't lose as many as we would in a total breakdown." |