Flaming Gorge is easy on the eyes. But recent news of this wonderful lake is hard on the heart to those of us who love it so much.
This spectacular lake region dominates southwest Wyoming and is one of my family’s favorite places in the Cowboy State. We kept a boat there for more than ten years, and the memories are vivid for many reasons.
Now it is under a real threat. The federal government says it wants to drain off a third of its water. Downstream, as part of the Colorado River Basin system, two giant reservoirs, Lake Powell and Lake Mead, are literally drying up. To keep them full enough to power their electrical generators, more water is needed.
The feds want to take 1 million to 1.5 million-acre feet out of the lake, a third of its capacity.
To its peril, it’s Wyoming to the rescue, as Flaming Gorge gets drained, possibly affecting two other upstream reservoirs, Fontenelle and Seedskadee.
The lake is a 91-mile-long wonder, offering completely different experiences as you head south from the Firehole area of Rock Springs to the vast flaming red canyons of Utah, hence the name.
On Wyoming’s side, you have wide-open spaces surrounded by desert hills covered in sagebrush. Antelope, deer, coyotes, and other high plateau critters are always watching.
When you get south to the town of Manila, Utah, the landscape turns into twisting canyons with towering walls. Bald eagles, Osprey, and bighorn sheep are your companions as you glide through waters that plunge more than 400 feet deep.
Those Wonderful Salmon
The whole place is a fishing paradise, with its prize being the kokanee salmon, an amazingly tasty fish.
Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz had a detailed story about the plight of the Gorge and its marinas and fisheries. He quoted Tony Valdez, owner of Buckboard Marina, who said that until recently he expected a typical drawdown of about 500,000 acre-feet.
Then word came from federal officials that the drawdown could soar to 1,500,000 acre-feet, and possibly more. That could be devastating for the reservoir’s kokanee salmon population, Valdez said.
A massive drawdown could destroy the kokanee’s spawning areas, just as Flaming Gorge was beginning to establish a self-sustaining population without relying on stocking.
“Their spawning areas will be completely gone by October. So again, there will be no spawning kokanee here,” he said.
Because they draw anglers from all over the region, kokanee are economically valuable. Valdez noted that in 2003 they were valued at about $75.98 per fish, with stocking costs of roughly two cents per fish.
A 2003 study estimated about 4.1 million repeat-spawning kokanee in Flaming Gorge across Wyoming and Utah. Split evenly, that’s about 2.05 million fish per state, representing roughly $189.95 million in value at that time.
Adjusted for inflation, that figure now exceeds $225 per fish.
The potential loss of kokanee, along with reduced access to boat ramps and other impacts from a major drawdown, would hit small businesses and the regional economy hard.
“This is an economic disaster. It’s crazy,” Valdez said.
“They’re going to take the water, there’s no stopping that. But how is that going to affect us as small business owners?”
Powell in 1869
The famous one-armed explorer John Wesley Powell named the area long before it was a lake, calling the canyon “Flaming Gorge” because of its vivid red rock walls.
In 1869, Powell both enjoyed and endured one of the great adventures in American history. He departed from Expedition Island in Green River, followed the Green River as it joined the Colorado, and ultimately traveled all the way through the Grand Canyon.
Today, that 91-mile-long gem, stretching from Green River, Wyoming, to Flaming Gorge Dam in Utah, remains one of the most beautiful geographic wonders in the West.
In 1968, this national recreation area came into being about ten years after the dam was started to contain the voluminous Green River. This was 99 years after its discovery.
And now, once again, Wyoming finds itself in a familiar position, being asked to give up something precious for the good of others downstream. Maybe that is part of our character. Maybe it always has been.
But it is fair to ask: at what point does helping others begin to hurt ourselves?
Because Flaming Gorge is not just a reservoir on a map. It is a way of life. It is small businesses. It is families. It is memories, mine included.
And once something like that is drained away, it is a whole lot harder to ever fill it back up again.
Bill can be reached at Bill@cowboystatedaily.com
