Dworshak Prime, But Crowd Stays Aways Full Of Water And Kokanee, Reservoir Is Still Plagued By Visions Of Drawdowns

Cruising up the North Fork of the Clearwater River backwaters last week, one couldn’t imagine why Dworshak Reservoir is perhaps the most under-used major boating playground in the Northwest.

The waters are boiling with a record number of kokanee - more than twice as many adult fish than any other year has produced since the fishery emerged in 1980.

The larger number of kokanee spells smaller sizes, averaging only about 8 inches. But savvy anglers are having little trouble catching 25-fish limits.

The reservoir is filled to the brim with mountain runoff that trickles down from as far away as the Montana-Idaho border. Yet vast bays of calm water have been undisturbed by water-skiers.

Fewer than 30 of the 105 campsites at Dworshak State Park were occupied last week.

Even fewer campers were taking advantage of the 100 or so free boatin campsites that line the timbered shores for 53 miles behind towering Dworshak Dam.

Spokane, the nearest metropolitan area, is a three-hour drive from Dworshak. But even the closer Lewiston-Clarkston and Moscow-Pullman populations seem to be ignoring the hidden treasure in their back 40.

“It’s the drawdowns,” said Mike McElhatton, Dworshak State Park manager. “At the end of last season, the water level was down 115 feet and people think that’s what the reservoir still looks like. I’ve had locals call who don’t realize the reservoir is full.”

“It’s a shame to see this go unused,” said Stu Kestner of Riverside Sport Shop in Orofino. “Word will get out and lots of people will come for the Fourth of July. Then who knows.”

Indeed, federal officials have suggested the reservoir could be lowered up to 80 feet this summer, depending on runoff and water flows needed for flushing endangered ocean-bound salmon down the Snake and Columbia rivers.

Neither the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the dam, nor the National Marine Fisheries Service, charged with saving the salmon, can be specific about the forecast.

“In July, the need for withdrawals is determined almost on a day-to-day basis depending on weather,” said Randy Ryan, Corps project manager at Dworshak. “You can get forecasts on our daily recorded message line. But boaters have to know proper anchoring techniques when the level is dropping, or they could wake up with their boat high and dry on the beach.”

“Under the worst conditions last year, the water level could drop almost 3 feet in a day,” said Jim Kosciuk, Corps resource manager.

Said Kestner, “Even before they started manipulating water for salmon, there was no such thing as normal behind a hydropower dam.”

The drawdowns don’t cause a shortage of water in the reservoir, which ranges up to 630-feet deep. The problem is the impact drawdowns have on the reservoir’s 184 miles of shoreline.

At full pool, Dworshak’s water level is 1,600 feet above sea level. Minimum pool is 1,445 feet. But a drawdown of 10 or 15 feet begins exposing a steep, bare and unsightly shoreline that makes access to campsites difficult.

Drawdowns have the advantage of collecting most of the drift wood onto the shores, leaving the water clear of debris for boaters.

But the drawdowns haven’t settled well with traditional Dworshak boaters.

In 1992, the last year before the summer salmon recovery drawdowns began at Dworshak, the Corps counted 300,000 visitor days of use at the reservoir. When the shock of an 80-foot drawdown hit in 1993, the number of visitors plummeted by 50 percent.

“We don’t have the figures, but we’re sure it was even worse last year when the water went down 115 feet,” Ryan said. “It was dead out there.”

Uncertainty over the drawdowns have idled the four pontoon boats once offered for rent by Dworshak Excursions, owned by Jerry and Jessica Olin of Orofino.

“We can’t afford the insurance to operate for part of the summer,” Jessica said.

The reservoir’s only marina services went out of business several years ago and boat gas hasn’t been available at Dworshak ever since.

Ryan said boat gas should be available at Big Eddy marina in early July.

Aside from discouraging camping at the boat-in campgrounds, drawdowns also have discouraged use at the drive-in fee campgrounds at Dent Acres and Freeman Creek.

This will be the first year that most of the 20-mile road has been paved from Orofino to Dent Acres, one of only two boat launches usable at any reservoir level likely to occur this summer.

Big Eddy, the only all-levels boat launch, has been re-equipped with moorage slips for the first time since a wind storm wiped out the old docks two years ago.

Meanwhile, Idaho Fish and Game biologists aren’t sure why Dworshak is stuffed with a half a million adult kokanee this year.

But it appears that dramatically fewer kokanee have been flushed through the dam in recent years because of a low snowpack in 1993-1994 and research on the depth at which water would be withdrawn through dam selector gates, said Tim Cochnauer, department fisheries manager in Lewiston.

Also, salmon recovery plans have forced the Corps to withdraw water in summer when kokanee are dispersed. Traditionally, water has been withdrawn during winter, when kokanee are most likely to be flushed out of the reservoir, he said.

Some locals still dream back to the 1960s, when the North Fork was a river instead of a reservoir and boasted world-class salmon and steelhead runs.

In 1971, the last fish run went up the river as the last great log drive came down.

Dworshak was built against the recommendations of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service because the Corps deemed it the most cost efficient way to harness the North Fork for power production.

It’s two decades later and the region’s boaters and anglers still aren’t quite sure how to use the unpredictable resource they got in return.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Boating at Dworshak Following are water levels at which Dworshak Reservoir launch ramps are usable: Big Eddy……..1,445 Bruces Eddy Large……..1,555 Small……..1,480 Freeman………..1,535 Dent…………..1,484 Canyon…………1,577 Grandad………..1,539 Dworshak contacts Daily recorded information on Dworshak water levels and release rate forecasts: (800) 321-3198. Dworshak Dam Visitor Center, (208) 476-1255. Dworshak State Park, (208) 476-5994. Fishing info: Riverside Sport Shop, (208) 476-5418.