The Courier
NEWS
News from the Heart of Idaho Camas • Lincoln • Gooding
February 14, 2024
Vol 48 Num 7
Dietrich Takes District Championship February Water Supply Outlook
Last Friday, the Dietrich Blue Devil Girls took the District Championship with a 47 to 38 win over the Richfield Tigers. This Thursday (Feb. 15) the Devils will be at Nampa High School for their first game of the State Tournament against Rockland. The 1AD2 Championship game will be played at the Ford Idaho Center on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. All of the polls favor a matchup between Dietrich (#1) and Kendrick (#2) with a slight advantage to the Kendrick Tigers. Boy's District tournaments began Monday. In the 3A division, Filer is #1 followed by Kimberly, Buhl and Gooding. The 3A championship game will be played on February 21st (location TBD). The 2A championship is a best-of-three between Wendell and Declo with their final game on either February 20th or 22nd. Last night, Camas played Richfield and Dietrich played Hagerman. The winner of those games will advance to the 1AD2 Sawtooth Conference Championship game tonight (February 14th) in Gooding at 8:00 p.m. The Boy's State Tournament will be held February 29 thru March 2nd with 3A at Meridian High School, 2A at Capital High School, and 1AD2 at Caldwell High School.
Kokanee Fishery Improvement at Anderson Ranch Reservoir
The 2020 kokanee season in Anderson Ranch Reservoir proved to be one of the worst on record, with dismal catch rates and poor overall fishing conditions. The cause of this slump was simple. The Anderson Ranch Reservoir kokanee population has traditionally been self-sustaining, requiring little hatchery supplementation. High runoff events in 2017 that flushed many young kokanee out of the Boise River system coupled with higher levels of angler harvest on adult fish limited an entire age-class of young kokanee from entering the fishery. Fast forward three years to 2020 and the 3-year-old fish that generally make up the fishery in Anderson Ranch Reservoir weren’t there for anglers to target. However, since 2020 the kokanee fishery has shown consistent signs of improvement. Fishery management targets for the Anderson Ranch Reservoir kokanee fishery are an angler catch rate of 0.5 fish per hour of fishing and for kokanee to average over 12 inches in length. To assess whether these goals are being met, Idaho Fish and Game... continued on page 6...
The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Idaho has released the February Water Supply Outlook Report. On February 1, snowpack and water year total precipitation conditions mirror each other with well below normal conditions observed north of the Snake River Plain and above normal conditions to the south. Wet, cold storms came through Idaho in mid-January and were responsible for the majority of Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) gains we saw last month. After this arctic front passed, basin-wide SWE stagnated from reduced precipitation and warmer than normal temperatures during the last part of January. Increased freezing levels meant precipitation often fell as rain rather than snow. “Every basin saw some improvement in snowpack conditions in January,” said Erin Whorton, Water Supply Specialist for NRCS Idaho. “The Snake River Plain remains the dividing boundary between basins with below or above normal snowpack. The snowpack is well below normal in all basins north of the Snake River Plain (53 to 81%) and well above normal to the south (105 to 132%). The bottom line is, north of the Snake River Plain and in the Snake River headwaters, the snowpack at the majority of the snow measurement sites (both SNOTEL and snow courses) is below the 20th percentile. These basins are experiencing a snow drought.” For information on specific basins, streams, and reservoirs, please view the full report online at: February Water Supply Outlook Report. Streamflow, snowpack, and precipitation data for each basin, as well as replacements for the daily, ready-toprint maps of SWE and total water year precipitation are available on the Idaho Water Snow Year to Date Survey Precipitation Website. Percent NRCS 1991-2020 Median