Humans aren’t the only beings sweltering during this heat wave; those bearing fins, fur and feathers also must find a way to cope with the sauna-like conditions.
Fish and Wildlife managers say the high heat can cause a variety of problems for a wide range of species, including those coveted by hunters and anglers.
Fish
Some states, like Oregon and Montana, have either closed some trout fishing streams or implemented hoot owl hours that restrict fishing to cooler parts of the day. Idaho has stayed away from such restrictions under the belief that the fish are self-regulating when temperatures soar.
“The fish are less motivated to bite when it’s hot,” said Lance Hebdon, chief of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game’s Fisheries Bureau. “On the flip side of that, anglers are less motivated to fish when it’s hot.”
Joe DuPont, regional fisheries manager for the department at Lewiston, said the agency’s decades of snorkel data on rivers like the St. Joe does not show that trout abundance declines during hot summers. DuPont said rivers like the St. Joe, Lochsa and North Fork of the Clearwater are intact, and fish can migrate upstream to search out cooler water.
“Most of our cutthroat streams are well connected, and at this point they can get to the temperatures they need,” he said.
The high temperatures are affecting the release of hatchery fish into some small lakes and reservoirs. Hebdon said if the temperature of water in hatchery trucks is considerably cooler than surface temperatures in lakes and reservoirs, the agency is opting not to release the fish.
DuPont said the agency anticipated the hot spell and was able to release some fish early. In other situations, he said the agency is holding on to fish and will outplant them later in the summer or fall, or release them in lakes and reservoirs with cooler water temperatures.
Both men advised people who choose to fish in rivers with catch-and-release regulations, or who target fish such as white sturgeon that can’t be kept, to follow standard catch-and-release practices.
“Fight the fish fast; keep them in the water,” said DuPont. “We do have in our regulations recommended things to do.”
Idaho’s catch-and-release steelhead fishing season opened Thursday. Most of the early fishing is concentrated in the Clearwater River where water temperatures are in the high 50s. But some fishing occurs in the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater rivers where the cool flows from the Clearwater sink below the warmer water of the Snake River. Steelhead hang out in the deeper, colder water.
“Our recommendation is to bring them in fast and release them quickly and not have them sitting in that hot water for long periods of time,” DuPont said.
Wildlife
Toby Boudreau, chief of Idaho Fish and Game’s Wildlife bureau, said the scorching weather can reduce food available to everything from upland game birds to big game animals like deer and elk.
“These very unseasonably high temperatures we are experiencing, combined with a lack of rain, is definitely reducing the amount of forage in the hills which will impact an animal’s weight,” Boudreau said. “They will have lower quality body condition come the fall. Ungulates, especially deer, go into the winter with all of their food stores on their backs. It will likely result in some reduced survival.”
Upland game birds may have less food available and have trouble finding adequate water, Boudreau said, and the hot weather could lead to poor huckleberry crops, which bears depend on.
Diseases like blue tongue and epizootic hemorrhagic disease, which can hammer deer herds, could be a problem. The diseases are prone to popping up in late summer and early fall during drought years as ponds and other water sources dry up. The receding water lines that leave a ring of mud provide breeding habitat for gnats that carry the disease.
The hot and dry weather also increases the risk of wildfire.
“Although wildfires can be beneficial to wildlife in the long term, they can also be a detriment in the short term,” Boudreau said.
But he noted it’s possible, even if unlikely, that rain and cooler temperatures could reverse current trends.
“We have had dry Junes and wet Augusts in the past decade,” he said.
Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.
