Tuesday, March 30, 2004 | 9:42 a.m.
Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4084.
WALKER LAKE -- Unsuspecting passersby on U.S. 95 as it snakes between this little town and the lake of the same name might very well believe this is one of the healthiest areas in the state. Walker Lake is immense and picturesque, the state's second-largest body of water to Lake Mead and one that entertains campers and fishermen alike.
But as anyone who has lived in Nevada (and has read the periodic horror stories on the lake near Hawthorne) knows, Walker Lake has been the focal point of an ecological tug of war. Its needs have not always coincided with those of its neighbors.
Looks are deceiving and the lake has seen better days.
"It's a pond compared to how I remember it as a kid," said a local resident and fisherman, Danny Moss.
If Moss had been alive 15,500 years ago, Walker Lake -- or Lake Lahontan, as its predecessor was called -- would have stretched well beyond what the eye could see. It's estimated that Lake Lahontan covered all of what is now Hawthorne, which is 5 miles from Walker Lake's current southern shore.
In more recent times, the lake receded 125 feet during the 1900s to a surface elevation of 3,954 feet.
Near the Sportsman's boat launch on the northern side of the lake are markers that indicate the lake's elevation in assorted years, and the one that marks the waterline in 1908 is about a quarter mile from today's shore.
That said, Walker Lake remains a wonderful sight and would seem to be enjoying a return of its vibrancy after supposedly "bottoming out" nine years ago.
"Everyone's trying real hard to find a solution," Moss said of the effort to restore the lake and the many groups that are working toward that goal.
He said the proof was in the fishing, and a Saturday tournament at the lake produced countless cutthroat trout weighing 3 and 4 pounds. Moss said he has fished throughout the Northwest and that the trout taken from Walker Lake "are the best tasting in the world."
He added that 8 pounds is now a big fish for the lake and that 28 pounds is the record; cutthroat trout is the only species of fish in the lake.
Further improvements are in store after the events of last week, as the U.S. Ninth District Court ruled in favor of a temporary transfer of water to the lake and Gov. Kenny Guinn announced the Nevada Department of Wildlife will receive the 13,588 acre-feet of water it had requested to aid the lake.
"It's a stopgap measure," said NDOW director Terry Crawforth. "We felt it was critical to act. It's a temporary shot in the arm that (the lake) needs."
Of course if the lake was left to its own means, legal intervention wouldn't be necessary.
"Without the interference of man upstream, Walker Lake would not be endangered today," said another NDOW expert, Mike Sevon, the regional supervisor of fisheries.
Moss called the battle for water in and around Walker Lake an ongoing struggle between preservationists and farmers as far away as California. Two-thirds of the water that originates in the Sierras doesn't make it to Walker Lake as it once naturally did, due to agriculture and reservoir needs.
"For water to reach Walker Lake, we need 120 percent of the normal (winter) precipitation in the mountains," said Guinn's spokesman, Greg Bortolin.
He called the multiple facets of legal maneuvering pertaining to the lake "a very complicated matter" and directed a caller to Kelly Clark in the NDOW's Reno office, who, in turn, sent the caller on to Jim Shaw, who has the title of federal watermaster for the Walker Lake district.
Each attempted to explain the behind-the-scenes scenarios that are at play, although Clark added that some of the environmental and Indian groups may have a self-imposed "gag order" in effect.
That gag order may explain how Moss said the Paiute Indians to the north (at Schurz) had agreed to sell their water/irrigation rights for this year to the federal government without that decision as yet becoming official or announced to the public.
What is public knowledge is Guinn's announced decision that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will provide a $2.3 million grant for new infrastructure at the Mason Valley Wildlife Management Area near Yerington. Mason will be drained and reconfigured, and water that had previously been detained there will soon flow directly to Walker Lake (at least through October, as per the Ninth District Court's order).
I told everyone along the line that I wasn't looking to write the definitive story on Walker Lake, only that I was looking for some perspective and/or support for my personal view that the lake was looking good and maybe doing better than is sometimes advertised.
"Well, the lake is dying," Bortolin corrected, pointing to its excessive salinity and alkalinity.
And the Paiute Indians were back in court Monday, looking to resolve some other aspect or related issue to their alleged water rights.
So maybe everyone isn't in perfect harmony or on the same page when it comes to caring for the lake. Maybe the divisiveness will be costly.
Maybe Walker Lake will become another Lake Mead, with its noticeable drop in elevation a constant sore spot for even the most casual of observers.
But if Danny Moss, who, like his father and grandfather before him has lived his entire life in close proximity to Walker Lake, is encouraged by what he has seen (and tasted), the efforts to restore the lake have been successful even if it will never return to its complete, natural luster.
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