NMWF appreciates The Daily Time's commitment to accuracy on its editorial pages and the opportunity to set the record straight.
NMWF is a nonprofit, statewide sportsman's conservation organization that works to protect hunting and fishing opportunity, wildlife and habitat. Yes, we are concerned about habitat changes in the San Juan River due to increased siltation and lower water flows. NMWF believes these problems should be taken seriously to ensure a healthy long-term future for the trout fishery.
For those reasons, NMWF is calling for comprehensive studies of the river, including studies to determine the contribution that oil and gas development is making to the sedimentation problem, as well as possible solutions.
The San Juan River is valued by sportsmen across the country and is an economic engine that pumps an estimated $38 million into the New Mexico economy annually. The San Juan still is today a world-class trout fishery that is well worth the visits that anglers continue to make
However, the San Juan is changing due to the combined effects of increased siltation and lower flows since 2002. The U.S. Geological Survey estimated oil and gas development was causing at least a 13 percent increase in sedimentation back in 2002, noting that the "É results of this study are biased toward the lower end of the range of erosion rates."
Since that study, there has been a near doubling of oil and gas wells in the San Juan Basin. But perhaps more important, the U.S. Congress in 2005, under the influence of powerful special interests, said that most new wells drilled on public land no longer have to follow Clean Water Act standards standards that were created to reduce storm water runoff and the associated sedimentation it causes.
To date there has been no analysis of how habitat improvement measures to restore grasslands and ground cover from the effects of past over-grazing and fire suppression could help to reduce erosion rates and sedimentation in the river.
New Mexico Department of Game and Fish population estimates show a decline in rainbow trout in recent years despite an increase in stocking rates of rainbow trout fingerlings during the same time period. Fortunately, this has been balanced out with a corresponding increase of brown trout, according to the population surveys.
Is this change in fish populations linked to observed habitat changes? N.M. Department of Game and Fish has not attempted to answer that question.
Clearly it is time for the wildlife and public land management agencies that we fund with our hunting and fishing license fees and tax dollars to take more proactive measures to understand and address the issues facing the San Juan River.
It also should be pointed out that the lower river flows since 2002 were designed to facilitate large future water withdrawals for downriver projects, and are not just about protecting endangered fish, as was asserted by Noon's simplistic statement that "one fish is hurting another."
NMWF does not agree with those who say that a gradual degradation of the trout fishery is inevitable, or that anglers should simply throw up their hands and accept low flows and increased sedimentation in the future. NMWF believes that oil and gas drilling on public land and San Juan water withdrawals should be mitigated with plans and actions to protect the trout fishery.
Finally, NMWF welcomes the participation of the oil and gas industry if it decides to join the fight to save the San Juan Basin and its trout fishery with comprehensive conservation measures.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has contributed important funding that will be used to help fix an artificial berm at Rex Smith wash that is exacerbating sedimentation problems, and the Department of Game and Fish formed a working group that is now also recommending a comprehensive study of issues facing the San Juan.
This is not an easy issue to solve. It involves many state and federal agencies, a powerful and important oil and gas industry, and the state's most popular trout stream. But that is no excuse for ignoring real problems facing the future of the river.
The next step is clear, we need the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish to lead the way toward an independent, comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of what is affecting the river and a plan for what can be done to protect its future.
NMDGF will not be able to solve all the issues on its own, but as the agency entrusted with management responsibility for our wildlife, the Department of Game and Fish can and should lay out a path for what needs to be done with all parties working together.
The San Juan River still is a world-class tailwater fishery. For the sake of New Mexico sportsmen and others, we want to keep it that way.
Jeremy Vesbach is Executive Director of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation.
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