Examining Colorado’s Drought Through Fly-Fishing and Trout Populations
Randy Hicks does not ski, yet he tracks the snowpack closely each winter. Snowpack was below average in Colorado during the 2017-2018 season. As the owner and manager of Rocky Mountain Anglers, a fly fishing shop in Boulder, Colorado, Hicks knew his business in the fishing industry would be directly affected by these below average numbers.
“Precipitation, snowpack and moisture are all inherently important to good tourism and part of our business is tourism based,” Hicks explained. The high fly fishing season for tourists is during the summer, and in a drought year, fly shops suffer from decreased tourism and guided trips.
He also knew this wasn’t just one bad year, but part of an ongoing warming trend.
Across the state, experts have been watching Colorado’s climate warm, which in turn, impacts the outdoor industry including skiing, fly fishing, and other sports.
Warmer conditions could harm Colorado’s tourism business, which generated $1.28 billion in tax revenue in 2017, according to Colorado.com. “If you’re planning a vacation and notice the fires on Colorado, you might look at an alternate place to go. And as the state gets drier, we see more fires,” said Hicks.
“We should be concerned. This could absolutely be the new normal going forward,” said Jim Pokrandt, the community affairs director at the Colorado River District. “Things are warming and precipitation patterns are changing from carbon loading.”
Guides Are Fishing for Trips
Of the 86 million tourists Colorado attracted last year, many were fly fishers. Fly fishing guides take clients out on fishing trips and when it’s a below average snowpack year, their jobs are negatively impacted.
Usually, Rocky Mountain Anglers fishing guides take clients to the Wild Basin, a high mountain lake sitting at 8,500 feet of elevation, in early August. Before that, the water is too cold to fish. This year, the Wild Basin was fishable an entire month early, on July 4th.
“We were seeing a lot more guided trips staying higher in elevation looking for cooler water,” said Brian Harris, a manager and guide at Rocky Mountain Anglers. “The first thing that’s going to hurt a fish is elevated water temperatures.”
“The fishing itself can be less than ideal or underperforming if you fish areas where the water levels are low and water temperature is high,” said Hicks.
Harris can recall multiple times when he couldn’t take clients where he wanted to and had to settle for an area with better water conditions. Not only did fly-fishing guides have to go to higher elevations to avoid these undesirable conditions, but they also had to adjust the times and durations of guided trips.
“We had to take more half-day trips that started earlier in the day and also ones that started in the evening. We didn’t do a whole lot of guiding locally from noon to four or five p.m.,” said Hicks.
These are called voluntary restrictions that Colorado Parks and Wildlife Services recommended to anglers across the state.
This summer’s Voluntary fishing closures recommended that anglers stay off streams between 2:00 p.m. to midnight or when the water temperature exceeded 68 degrees Fahrenheit to protect the trout. This was a direct result of low water flows and high water temperatures.
“We were seeing water temperatures in the high 60’s as early as late June when you normally wouldn’t see them until August,” said Andrew Hope, a fly fishing guide for Front Range Anglers and member of the University of Colorado fly fishing club.
Eventually, the guides at Front Range Anglers had to carry thermometers while fishing and were asked to test the waters frequently.
Fish in Hot Water
Colorado Parks and Wildlife aquatic biologist Kendall Bakich recalls the peak runoff occurred earlier this year than at least the last 10 years, maybe longer. This can have a direct impact on trout spawning season, which is the time period from when the females lay their eggs and the males fertilize the eggs up until they hatch several months later.
Pokrandt from the Colorado River District explained that lower stream flows combined with hot temperatures cause temperature pollution, which trout are intolerant to. They cannot survive in the hot water temperatures and seek out deeper and cooler pools in streams. Pokrandt mentioned that since 2002, Colorado has only had four above average snowpack years. The rest have been average or below.
Low water levels hurt fish in many ways. There is less dissolved oxygen in the water, there are fewer bugs that fish eat, and not as much space for the fish to swim in. Shallow water warms faster and can kill the fish if they become trapped. If these conditions continue, Bakich said trout would have decreased resistance to disease, increased stress, and loss of habitat.
“Think of a trout in warm water like a stick of butter. In colder water temperatures, that butter will stay chilled and solid like it does in the refrigerator. But if you let it sit out all day, think about it like a fish in 68 degree water, it feels like you are holding a warm melting stick of butter,” said Hope, Front Range Anglers guide.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife aquatic biologist Bakich recalled specific instances from the 2018 summer, stating, “we saw brown trout just laying on the bottom of the river because the water temperature was too hot. The fish behavior was changed because of these temperatures. Trout are sensitive to temperature changes.”
Water flow is measured by cubic feet per second, or cfs, and one cfs equals about seven and a half gallons of water per second. There are stations all over the state that take cfs measurements continuously throughout the day.
When snowpack is average or above average, Boulder Creek flows at a rate between 100 and 300 cfs during the summer months. But, according to the United States Geological Survey webpage, this summer it was below 100 cfs until May. It only spiked above 300 cfs in June and lowered around to 100 cfs again in mid-July, which is dangerously low.
“Water is probably going to be our most precious resource if it isn’t already. Within a population that is expanding along the Front Range like it is, water is extremely important,” said Hicks, Rocky Mountain Anglers owner.
Bigger Impacts on Colorado’s Climate
Don Anderson, hydrologist and instream flow coordinator at Colorado Fish and Wildlife Services says, “we had an extraordinarily dry year in Colorado, especially on the western slope. The stream flows we saw were the lowest since 2002.”
Stream flows start with snowpack in the winter months. Colorado should get 75 to 90 percent of its snowpack between November and March.
When snowpack falls above average, the snow takes longer to melt, creating a more steady and consistent flow of water into rivers throughout the duration of the summer. When winter snowpack falls below average, less water is produced from snow melting, causing a decreased flow of water being added to streams all summer.
Pokrandt, community affairs director at the Colorado River District, said even though snowpack is the main factor for a dry summer, rainfall also plays a role. Boulder’s average precipitation, which includes rain, snow and hail, is at its lowest since 2012.
Rocky Mountain Anglers manager and guide Harris would agree. “I think it’s global warming. It’s a trend we can physically see. I’ve stayed in one area and watched it and I can see things change, so the short answer is climate change.”
The peak flows of water from snowpack happen earlier in the year and by the time August comes around, there is not much snow left to produce water. This makes streams drier and shallower, which heat up more quickly.
“Across Colorado, spring snowmelt now comes one to four weeks earlier than it did three decades ago,” a report from the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization found. This causes temperatures to be warmer earlier and shifts the peak fishing time for the entire fly fishing industry.
“You see your peak flows happen earlier in the year and runoff is a more condensed event,” said Hicks. “The water is at a reduced volume that warms faster, giving you overall higher water temperatures.”
Tom Chart, program director of endangered fish species at Colorado Fish and Wildlife Services, suggests fires are adding to the problem. Colorado had already had 1,585 recorded wildfires in mid-August, 2018 that had burned over 431,600 acres of land. Wildfires create ash and sediment in the soil and when that gets into the streams, it actually changes the pH of the water and is extremely dangerous to the fish and other aquatic inhabitants.
The Bottom Line
According to the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization, temperatures have been higher in the past 41 years than in all of the 20th century. This suggests that this is a bigger problem; the Earth is warming. The same study also found snowpack levels have decreased since 1950, also an impact of warming climate conditions.
“If these conditions continue, there could potentially be closures on the streams for angling,” said Hicks. “Guided trips were down this year. Some of the people who we see come year after year, we didn’t see.”
Not only is the fishing industry affected by drought conditions, but so are local economies. According to The Denver Post, the drought and wildfires in Colorado economically impacted the small town of La Veta, Colorado. If dry and warm conditions continue, negative economic impacts will add up across the state in many industries that rely on healthy streams and lakes for their success.
“I’m absolutely worried. We’re in a natural resource dependent industry, a lot of people in our state are,” said Harris, Rocky Mountain Anglers manager and guide. “We’ve seen years like this before, but I’m worried that it won’t kick back. When I’m 80, I want to watch people fish the same rivers that I once did.”
