Lake Roosevelt Administrative History

Wildlife Management

The Park Service is not the lead wildlife-managing agency for Lake Roosevelt; the tribes and the state share this responsibility. LARO does not take an active role, outside of protection of wildlife and its associated habitat, largely because of lack of funding and management emphasis. As Karen Taylor-Goodrich, LARO's first full-time resources management staff, put it, "The state and the tribes still do not believe that we have jurisdiction, but sometimes they'll let us play with them." Over the years, the Park Service has requested assistance from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife on wildlife problems. [56]

The creation of Lake Roosevelt flooded many acres of prime wildlife habitat (riparian land that provided browse, water, and nesting sites). It also created a barrier that few large migratory animals could cross. Some of the area had been a game reserve, but the state eliminated the land north of the dam from the reserve in 1941. Although some species of wildlife such as bats, swallows, and diving ducks probably did benefit from the creation of the reservoir, the overall effects were detrimental to wildlife. The loss of 73,000 acres of wildlife habitat caused initial estimated losses of some 1,700 white-tailed deer, 1,100 beaver, 87,300 mourning dove, 400 Canada geese, and other indicator species. Some 350 species of wildlife were affected. Most of the mammals and birds that use the reservoir area do not stay within the NRA boundaries since it is such a narrow strip of land along the lake. Exotics may be introduced to NRAs, and in the Lake Roosevelt area, ringneck pheasant, Merriam turkey, and bobwhite quail were introduced by the 1960s. [57]

Park Service regulations allow hunting on NRA lands. As at other reservoirs administered under a cooperative agreement, state agency officials set seasons and bag limits and enforce hunting laws. The Park Service retains the right to close certain areas such as campgrounds to hunting in order to protect visitors or resources. As one LARO employee commented at a meeting, "we just don't like to have Park visitors have their heads blown off with a twelve gauge shotgun in front of the visitors' center." [58] Although most hunting is actually done on adjacent public lands, hunters seeking deer, upland birds, and migratory geese and ducks have traditionally used LARO's campgrounds and other facilities as a base for their hunting trips. [59]

In the 1940s and 1950s, LARO's biggest wildlife challenge was protecting trees from beavers. Beavers were falling and girding apple trees at Hawk Creek as early as 1943 and also damaging trees at Fort Spokane. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommended a live trapping program, and this was instituted on the Spokane Reservation in 1947. Tree trunks at Fort Spokane were treated with a beaver repellant spray, and the animals were transplanted away from the area. This appears to have solved the problem. Some "pests" have been killed at LARO, such as marmots living underneath historic structures at Fort Spokane. Other problem species have included Columbia ground squirrels, yellow jackets, bats, river otters, badgers, and pigeons. [60]

LARO field staff began collecting wildlife observation data using the Park Service "Natural History Field Observation" card system in 1960. The first known LARO research program on wildlife of the area was a goose pasture project conducted in 1969. Its purpose was to improve the grazing areas for Great Basin Canada Geese; increasing LARO's goose population, it was believed, would improve the hunting potential for geese. This was done in cooperation with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, which provided seed and fertilizer for the areas chosen by LARO staff. Adjacent landowners planted and fertilized the grain. (Ironically, geese are now considered a problem at some of LARO's swim beaches and other developed sites.) Small research projects concerning wildlife at Lake Roosevelt were conducted in the 1970s, such as a study of yellow-bellied marmot in eastern Washington and a Columbia Basin-wide study of the effects of fluctuating lake levels on plant and animal communities. [61]

The CCT and STI brought together the various wildlife-managing agencies in the mid-1970s and proposed a five-year study of the fish and wildlife resources of Lake Roosevelt, with funding coordinated through Reclamation, as mitigation for the displacement of wildlife along the river caused by Grand Coulee Dam. Congress asked a committee of representatives of various agencies, including the Park Service, to answer four specific questions and to determine the merit and scope of such a study. Reclamation developed a study plan for evaluating and implementing mitigation claims by both tribes for fish and wildlife losses they had incurred on the upper Columbia. As part of this plan, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife prepared a wildlife proposal for a three-year study. In response to the draft Reclamation report, LARO staff questioned the Park Service not being named a member of the advisory committee that would evaluate and coordinate the program because it was not considered a wildlife agency. [62]

The Northwest Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act of 1980 prescribed that measures be implemented to protect, mitigate, and enhance fish and wildlife affected by development and operation of hydropower projects on the Columbia River System. At the request of the NPPC, the parties reviewing the Grand Coulee Dam project moved into the mitigation planning phase for wildlife rather than debating in detail the extent of the losses. The resulting report on wildlife protection, mitigation, and enhancement planning was prepared by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife with guidance by a number of agencies (but not the Park Service). [63]

The 1986 wildlife mitigation plan was based on the goal of protecting the same number and kinds of Habitat Units (acres of optimum quality or prime habitat for a given species) as were lost due to the creation of Lake Roosevelt. The plan provided a balance of mitigation benefits among the state and the tribes. Land or management rights to some seventy-three thousand acres needed to be acquired and then the land had to be managed to perpetuate its use by wildlife. In addition, identified bald eagle territories and communal roost sites needed to be protected or enhanced. The program would benefit shrub-steppe wildlife such as grouse, protect and enhance bald eagle habitat and encourage nesting, and protect critical big-game winter range and riparian lands. The funding was to come from the BPA. [64]

The NPPC amended the 1986 proposal in 1989 to require that wildlife mitigation goals be developed using a public and local government review process. The Park Service, as an Interested Party, reviewed draft goals prepared by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Substitutions were made for some of the original indicator species. This program would address a portion of the total identified wildlife losses for Grand Coulee Dam over the next ten years. In 1993, the BPA signed an agreement to distribute $45.5 million among the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, CCT, STI, Yakima Tribe, and Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation as a five-year settlement for wildlife mitigation in Washington. [65]

The Park Service was concerned that it might not have equal consideration in funding for future wildlife mitigation projects under this program. The agency unsuccessfully sought consideration as a fish and wildlife management agency entitled to special status under the Northwest Power Act. LARO staff continued to work on project proposals and implementation that would qualify for BPA funding, including enhancement of bald eagle nesting and winter habitat; wildlife habitat enhancement along the lower Kettle River; and development of a peregrine falcon breeding program. As LARO Assistant Superintendent Kelly Cash commented, "If we want an NPS proposal for wildlife mitigation — i.e., habitat improvement on NPS administered lands — then we must be prepared to assemble the proposal, & to coordinate with others & lobby for approval." [66] The only mitigation project on LARO-managed land that has received BPA funds to date is the peregrine falcon program. LARO natural resources management staff also participated in local advisory committees and in the NPPC's interagency Wildlife Working Group for several years, but this is no longer a priority for the park. LARO converted a park ranger position to a Resource Management Specialist, partly to coordinate Park Service involvement with NPPC wildlife mitigation. [67]

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 required that the Park Service identify all threatened and endangered species and their critical habitats within the boundary of each park unit. Each park then had to develop a management plan in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, prepare a recovery plan, and implement monitoring. Although for many years it was thought that no threatened or endangered species were resident at LARO, by 1998 it was known that six such protected species might occur in or near the recreation area: the endangered gray wolf, peregrine falcon, woodland caribou, and the threatened bald eagle, bull trout, and grizzly bear. LARO staff cooperated with other agencies in implementing endangered species recovery plans and also took the lead on two such projects. [68]

The first project proposal that LARO staff submitted to the NPPC was designed to establish one breeding nesting pair of peregrine falcons for the Lake Roosevelt area, using existing public lands. The project was initially suggested by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife; that agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the CCT cooperated with LARO in developing and implementing the long-term management plan. The ten-year project was funded beginning in fiscal year 1992. The Park Service contracted with the Peregrine Fund to release falcon fledglings for five years, 1993-1997, followed by several years of population monitoring to be conducted by LARO staff and other area biologists. By 1997, a breeding pair was successfully nesting on Banks Lake, so the project was considered successful. As of 2000, there are approximately eight more nests in eastern Washington than when the program began. LARO staff prepared a site bulletin, slide show, and park newspaper articles to interpret the project to the public. [69]

LARO staff also took the lead, at the request of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in developing bald eagle habitat management guidelines for the Lake Roosevelt area. The bald eagle is listed as a threatened species in Washington. The Pacific States Bald Eagle Recovery Plan included a proposal to protect key habitat and establish several nesting territories along Lake Roosevelt. Under this plan, LARO personnel monitored the nesting populations of the area through an annual survey. A series of interagency meetings on the issue in 1991 helped improve interagency exchange of information in general. A study completed in 1995 for Reclamation found that the number of eagle nests and of young fledged had increased almost every year since bald eagles were first documented nesting on Lake Roosevelt in 1987. In 1997, the CCT conducted a productivity study of nesting bald eagles and found seventeen known nesting sites, which was still below capacity. LARO, other agencies, and the tribes continued surveying the wintering eagles along the lake and monitoring active nests during the breeding season. LARO staff prepared a site bulletin that highlighted popular viewing areas for bald eagles. [70]

Starting in the late 1980s, LARO staff began to manage the Kettle River area as wildlife habitat, as suggested by the Soil Conservation Service. As conceived at that time, the plan was to try to control noxious weeds and other exotic plants and provide winter range for deer. In 1992, LARO submitted an application to the NPPC for funding for a baseline inventory of public lands along the lower Kettle River in preparation for wildlife enhancement projects. This has not yet been funded by either the Park Service or BPA. Although this area is one of Lake Roosevelt's largest wetlands, it does not meet federal criteria as a jurisdictional wetland. LARO's Chief of Resource Management at the time believed that political questions concerning whether or not the Park Service is a fish and wildlife management agency and the appropriateness of its seeking wildlife mitigation funds were the reasons for the lack of support for the proposals. [71]