Meeting called to order by this year’s chairperson Claudia Cottle

Committee business
• Last year’s minutes were reviewed. Copies of the minutes for the last 2 years can be found on the www.bearlakewatch.com web site.
• The goals of the Preservation Advisory Comm. were reviewed.
• Next year’s meeting will be on Wed. April 5th, 2006. It is moved back one day to allow Connely to review the April 1st NRCS forecast numbers and deduce the allocation. BRWUA will be next year’s chair.

Bear Lake Eco-Symposium report – David Cottle
• The symposium sponsored by the Preservation Advisory Committee, Utah State Univ., the Bear Lake Regional Commission and A River Runs Through Us was a successful venture.
• There were 41 speakers and 160 attendees including 40 students
• Most of the symposium presentations were recorded and are available on the www.bearlakewatch.com web site.
• BLPAC made $684 from the symposium. BRWUA is holding the money.
• Areas uncovered that need additional focus include several scientific studies, adopting a holistic or basin wide view, reconnecting agencies with local residents and jointly working on ways to minimize the effects of drought.
• The conclusions were:
o There is lots of knowledge about Bear Lake but in lots of different locations. Find out how to use it more effectively!
o Conservation works! Cooperation, coordination and communication (plus some timely rains storms) saved the day
o The value of the Bear Lake Settlement Agreement – it help get the irrigators organized, gave us a forced water savings plan and gave the people of Bear Lake rights.

Jack Barnett commented that BLPAC should make sure that it gets the USGS reports being prepared on their Bear Lake Catchment Basin studies.

Middle Bear River Restoration Project – Rob Bundy
- The levee separating St. Charles Creek and Spring Creek from the rest of the refuge has been completed. Remaining work includes finishing the levee surface and sides, adding water control structures and replanting the levee. Benefits include: all the water from these creeks enters Bear Lake; the water quality entering Bear Lake is improved; the Cutthroat Trout and their fry(little trout) spawning in the creeks cannot get lost in the marsh and end up downstream in the river. This project will be completed this fall.
- Other projects around the refuge include the Bunn Lake project which will isolate the west half of the refuge from Mud Lake, stream bank restoration on the big arm of St. Charles Creek and Spring Creek and two wetland area improvements

Endemic fish project – Bryce Nielsen
There are plans to create additional habitat for endemic fish by making a rocky reef.

Marcus Gibbs - There is a Dept. of Fish & Game meeting in Montpelier on May 18 -19

Noxious Weed project at Bear Lake – Kelly Allen
The Utah Dept of Sovereign Lands in conjunction with Mick Crockett of the Rich Co. Weed Control will begin a program this summer to eradicate the tamarisk that are growing on the exposed lake bed. They hope to get the Boy Scouts involved and will assist local landowners in removing larger plants. Homeowners should pull the plants making sure they get the tap root, then pile them up, dry and burn the piles. This fall, after the first hard freeze, the remaining tamarisk will be sprayed with a chemical treatment. It will be a multi year task. Volunteer groups should contact Kelly or Mick at 435-793-5575. High school service clubs might also be a good source of volunteers. The Bear Lake Regional Commission has some money from PacifiCorp to assist in this effort.

Automation and the upper division – Jack Barnett
2004 was the worst year on record for water users.
Bob Fotheringham from Utah Division of Water Rights has led the charge to automate the Bear River. Automation has happened quickly – beginning only last year. The Woodruff / Randolph area is fully automated and online giving real time stream flows and diversion flows. The Cokeville area should be online soon. PacifiCorp and Bear River Water Users are starting to automate the lower division diversions and the reservoir levels (except Bear Lake) will be automated. In 2004 it was taking up to a week to get data to run the water models. The real time data will lead to better water management.
The Bear River Commission was awarded a $700,000 grant from the EPA for the Bear River Watershed Initiative. It has four areas of focus – create a watershed information system to house all water quality/quantity data, model the river system to track pollutants, evaluate water pollution trading and disseminate information about the system to the public.
Woodruff Narrows Reservoir started (on April 6th) to release 100 cfs more than the inflow. They will stop the excess release so the reservoir fills to the proper level as runoff flows decrease. This is the first time Woodruff Narrows has used a “planned filling”. It is a benefit of the automation and communication with the local irrigation community. It may mean extra water into Bear Lake.

Town of Bear River water application – Sue Lowry
The town of Bear River is trying to work with Evanston to get some original Compact water rights from the Sulpher Creek reservoir.

An Irrigators Overview of 2004 & Plans for 2005 – Charles Holmgren
Some farmers made it through the 2004 irrigation season OK but many suffered. Most planted different crops – ones that used less water or didn’t use late water. Lots of farmers left ground unplanted or planted reduced acreage. Bear River Canal Co. did not plant 10,000 acres. Some applied for crop insurance and then had to battle for the benefits. If it hadn’t been for the rains on Memorial Day and in early Sept. it would have been much worse. The close coordination with PacifiCorp really helped stretch the water as far as it would go. They even shut off the pumps at Lifton for 3 weeks in June when the demand for storage water (from Bear Lake) was low. As it was, everyone had reduced incomes.
For 2005, the Bear River Canal Co. had to estimate in mid March what their water allocation would be so they could make decisions whether or not to apply for crop insurance. Their guess was 50 to 70%. In some places, they have already had to decide what they are going to plant.
The BRWUA is working closely with the local Soil Conservation Districts on conservation measures. This requires identifying areas where savings would result, applying for grants and if approved, completing the work. It nearly always means some money out of the farmers pocket. One project involves putting PAM in the canals to reduce the water loss and improve their efficiency.

BRWUA
Carly Burton now represents the Bear River Water Users Association.

Small Pumpers – Jim Watterson
The Utah small pumpers are organized and starting to divide their share of the yearly allocation amongst themselves. They have seated the Board of Directors, hired a secretary and are incorporated. The represent about 100 pumps. They are working with Utah Division of Water Rights on ways to automate so real time data can be input into the water model.
Steve Meek said the Idaho small pumpers also organizing but are not as far along in the process.

Water Supply & 2005 Allocation – Connely Baldwin
The snowpack in the Smith’s Fork and Thomas Fork drainages is slightly below normal but did not melt in March like last year. Water from these drainages relates more directly into water into Bear Lake during drought years. The outlook for runoff below Bear Lake (in the Cache Valley drainage) is above normal and much better than last year. This should keep the natural flow to the lower Bear higher and reduce the demand by the lower canals for storage water, at least early in the season.

Forecast peak elevation of Bear Lake for 2005 is 5907 ft.

2005 Irrigation Allocation is 141,000 acre ft. or 61% of normal.

Carly Burton also compared this year’s numbers to 1980 and 1993, both were big runoff years. The critical element is when the demand for storage water starts. In 1993, the lake level went up 5 feet.
PacifiCorp will make a news release about the allocation and forecast lake level.

Discussion of pros & cons on additional storage

Dave Cottle said that as long as Idaho and Wyoming were studying additional storage sites on the river, why didn’t the three states support a combined study to evaluate all options for additional storage, better flood control and better water quality.
Mark Gibbs discussed off main stem storage sites evaluated by Last Chance Canal Co.
Warren Collier, Trout Unlimited, discussed the migration of Cutthroat Trout in the middle Bear River to spawning areas in the tributaries and the need for careful review of any storage or dam.
Conrad Michaelson, Bear Lake Co. Commissioner, discussed the 4 county (from 3 states) effort to have flood control sites above Bear Lake evaluated by the US Army Corps of Engineers. He noted that future economic growth around Bear Lake depended upon a supply of water.

Suggestion for future meetings

Claudia Cottle suggested a fall symposium on improving the efficiency of water use in the Bear Lake / Bear River system. It could include discussion of the state plans for additional storage and ways to improve flood control.
Randy Budge made the observation that “water follows money”. Maybe future BLPAC meeting should concentrate on topics like economic development, study of a water bank / rental pool in the BL / BR basin and discuss the benefits and drawbacks of adjudication.