Once parched refuge now may be too wet

Tuesday, Feb. 18, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Water slowly coursing through the Lahontan Valley via canals, reservoirs and drainage ditches is backing up and flooding the wetlands at Stillwater Wildlife Refuge, causing officials to wonder if the increase will slow down in time to allow early nesting birds to settle and breed this spring.

"We're taking in about 150 percent of capacity," said Dan Walsworth, refuge manager.

Of approximately 1,780 cubic feet per second being released from Lahontan Dam, all but about 400 cfs is being shuttled into the desert, other reservoirs and past the refuge directly into the Carson Sink. The remaining 400 cfs is going into Stillwater, according to Bill Henry, a wildlife biologist with the Fish and Wildlife Service at Stillwater.

All the water is good for flushing out the marshes and getting rid of salts, Henry said, but too much water can pose a problem for birds if it continues into spring.

"We don't want floods in the nesting season," Henry said. "Wetlands are wet, but if you get five feet of water, you don't have the same life zones."

Without the same life zones, birds may not have the shelter and food needed for a successful breeding season.

"Timing is everything," Henry said. "Come April we're going to have some negative impacts."

The movement of water into the refuge is controlled by how much water the Lahontan Reservoir is releasing and by the capacity of canals throughout the Lahontan Valley, Walsworth said.

"There are a lot of arteries but not a lot of veins," he said. Many arteries deliver blood to tissues, but few veins drain away the used blood. In flood years like this one, poor circulation causes some problems which have resulted in deliberate bleeding of water from the system into open desert areas.