Rich McIntyre is the managing partner of Crystal Consulting Group in Hailey and director of the Wood River Legacy Project.
By RICH MCINTYRE
The recent fish kill in Elkhorn Creek was big news in the valley, and led to understandable expressions of outrage and surprise by valley residents. I understand the outrage, but candidly, 150 trout dying in Elkhorn Creek should come as a surprise to no one. Unless action is taken, it is a snapshot of things to come.
Unfortunately, it is not unique. Last year I witnessed a fish kill on Indian Creek, with dead fish floating around the culvert where it intersects the bike path (and for the record, despite my conservation work, I do not run around looking for fish kills). Fish kills on tributary streams happen with some regularity, and unless leadership is shown, it will accelerate. It is only a matter of time before it happens on the Big Wood, at which point the story will go regional and the economic fallout will begin. (Are the outfitters and guides in the audience listening?)
For a valley that depends so heavily on the Big Wood River and tributary streams, we are remarkably cavalier in protecting them. The folks at Wood River Land Trust have been educating valley governments and residents for years on the sensitivity of our waters, on the obvious need for meaningful riparian setbacks and the need to protect one of the cornerstones of our economy, the wild trout fishery. Their fine work and salient points all too often fall on deaf political ears. Claims of encroachment on private property rights, government intrusion and loss of property value are raised as reasons to allow the status quo to continue. Threats of legal action and the prospective fallout hamstring the willingness of local governments to do the right thing. Existing regulations are not enforced (the cottonwood removal along the Big Wood, riparian setbacks and water theft being obvious examples) and fines—when assessed—are laughable.
The vast majority of urban fish kills are related to five causes: high water temperatures from lack of riparian shading and/or siltation, poor water quality (usually resulting from water over-enrichment from lawn fertilizers—for an example, take a look at the ponds at virtually any development in the valley), and pesticides or herbicides. It was obvious immediately to me that either herbicides or pesticides were the culprits in this fish kill.
Walk Elkhorn Creek and consider what you see: lawns, lush and green, virtually to the edge of the stream. A lack of deciduous trees to shade the water. On-stream ponds that heat up the water. "Riparian" areas that are no more than lawns with decorative plants. Then, of course, there is the Elkhorn golf course, where untold amounts of fertilizer are applied on an annual basis, to say nothing of herbicides and pesticides.
It is time for the valley governments to step back up to the plate, to strengthen and enforce existing laws. Lawns and treeless ponds are not riparian areas. Fertilizer and herbicides should be banned within 100 feet of open waters—including ponds. Riparian areas do not exist in 25-foot strips, especially when they are nothing more than words and/or landscaped lawn extensions. The lack of enforcement of existing riparian regulations is an outrage that directly affects the health of the wild fishery, as does the pathetic fines occasionally leveled against those who violate the public trust.
Private property rights stop at the point at which they adversely affect that which belongs to all of us: the waters of the state and the fish that live in them. It is up to the valley governments, certainly, but nothing changes until you stand up and demonstrate that the time for change has come. When that happens, and only when that happens, does real change become possible.
Editor's note:
Several state agencies are investigating the fish kill in Elkhorn Creek on May 31. While preliminary evidence suggested the cause might have been the use of herbicides and algaecides by a private contractor working for the golf course, no final determination of the cause has been made.