Meanwhile, Colorado just finished the period of unlimited fishing on the Antero Reservoir, where about 5 million sportfish — mostly trout — had been stocked since 2020. Typically, the daily trout limit there is four.
The reservoir, which is operated by Denver Water, is being drawn down for the summer, to redirect water to another reservoir where less will be lost to evaporation. The Antero Reservoir has the highest rate of evaporation in the utility’s system because it’s shallow and broad. Denver Water said it will save the equivalent of 2,500 Olympic swimming pools by moving water out of the reservoir.
“The public came, they fished and now public access is closed off. The draining is beginning,” said Kara Van Hoose, a public information officer at Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
Van Hoose said fish biologists are using screens to direct the remaining fish to certain parts of the reservoir. Plans for what to do after that are still up in the air, but Van Hoose said biologists might use a technique called electrofishing to stun some of the fish with an electric current then move them to other bodies of water.
Even if that happens, some fish won’t make it.
“Once the reservoir drains, there will be fish left over, but it’s the circle of life — that’s really good food for our raptor population, coyotes and raccoons,” Van Hoose said.
She added that the Antero Reservoir was last drained in 2015 for maintenance, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife held a “fish salvage” then, too. It was drained as a response to drought in 2002, when there was a brief open fishing period.
Utah, too, has increased the number of fish people are allowed to take from two reservoirs — the Crouse Reservoir to the east of Salt Lake City and the Nine Mile Reservoir to the south.
Across the West, runoff from snowpack accounts for about 53% of the water supply, research suggests. But this year, most of the snowpack in Western states was gone by mid-May, according to the National Integrated Drought Information System.
Four states — Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico — reported their lowest peak snowpack levels ever. In Colorado, 100% of the state is in drought and about 40% is in “extreme” or “exceptional” drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
By mid-May, 62 of 73 of Oregon’s snow-monitoring locations were at or approaching historic lows. About 96% of the state was in drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Climate models predict a continued, long-term decline of snowpack as the effects of climate change intensify.
