BPA Project Number:  1995-015-06
BPA Project Title:  Duck Valley Reservoirs Fish Stocking and Operations and Maintenance

Contract Title:  Duck Valley Reservoirs Fish Stocking and Operations and Maintenance

Contracting Contact Name: Edmond Murrell
Contracting Contact Title: Director
Technical Contact Name:  Rick Edwards
Company / Agency Name:  Shoshone-Paiute Tribes (Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Dept)
Street Mailing Address:  Duck Valley Indian Reservation
P.O. Box 219
Owyhee, NV 89832
Phone / Fax:  (208) 759-3246 / (208) 759-3248
edwards.richard@shopai.org

Financial Contact Name:  Alicia Blossom
Financial Contact Title:  Finance Officer
Company / Agency Name:  Shoshone-Paiute Tribes
Street Mailing Address:  Duck Valley Indian Reservation (Finance Dept.)
P.O. Box 219
Owyhee, NV 89832
Phone / Fax: (208)-759-3100  ext. 201 / (208)-759-3102

Project Goal

The Duck Valley Reservoirs Fisheries and Operations and Maintenance project is an ongoing resident fish program designed to enhance subsistence fishing opportunities for Tribal members of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes.  In addition to stocking rainbow trout in Mountain View, Lake Billy Shaw, and Sheep Creek Reservoirs, the program also intends to afford and maintain healthy aquatic conditions for fish growth and survival, to provide superior facilities with wilderness qualities to attract non-Tribal angler use, and to offer clear, consistent communication with the Tribal community about this project as well as outreach and education within the region and community.


Project Background

The Lake Billy Shaw Project began in 1988 with a feasibility study (Kleinfelder 1988); an Environmental Assessment was completed with a FONSI and the project proceeded to the design phase, finished in 1997 by CH2MHILL.  The dam, reservoir, and associated structures were constructed and completed in 1998 by Western Construction to provide additional fishing opportunities for members of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes and to address Northwest Power and Conservation Council (NWPCC) Fish and Wildlife Program measures 10.8C.4 and 10.8C.7.  The project was completed ahead of schedule and with no additional costs for completion.  The reservoir was initially filled in the spring of 1999, and the borrow areas were reseeded in the fall of that same year.  Water quality and peizometers have been monitored since 1999, and activities to enhance the shorelines have been conducted since 2000 (including native plant transplanting, exotic plant removal, invertebrate sampling and transplanting, exclosure fencing, etc.)  

The Lake Billy Shaw Operations and Maintenance (O&M) project went through the peer review with CBFWA (1998) and was recommended for funding in 1999.  The project again went through a peer review by CBFWA and the ISRP in 1999 and was recommended for funding in 2000, 2001, and 2002 and was recommended by the Middle Snake Province, the Council, and CBFWA for the 2003-2005 funding cycle.  

Lake Billy Shaw reservoir opened October 1, 2002 as a trophy fishery.  Previously, funds from BPA project 1988-156-01, Resident Fish Stocking, furnished sterile rainbow trout for Lake Billy Shaw as well as viable rainbows for Mountain View and Sheep Creek Reservoirs; however, in August 2003, the Resident Fish Stocking and Lake Billy Shaw O&M (BPA project 1995-015-00) projects were combined.  Mid-performance period, the O&M contract title changed to "Duck Valley Reservoirs Fish Stocking and O&M" (still BPA Project 1995-015-00), contract and performance language were changed to include O&M and fish stocking for all three reservoirs, and a line item to purchase fish for all three reservoirs was added to the budget.  The Duck Valley Reservoirs Fish Stocking and O&M project is referred to as "DV Fisheries."

Work to be continued includes:  
1) Operations and maintenance of Lake Billy Shaw reservoir (LBS): maintaining stock watering ponds, fish screens and spillway gates, roads, vehicles, equipment; 12 miles of perimeter and canal exclosure fencing, maintenance of the delivery system to sustain the reservoirs, including hauling and compacting soil at low or disturbed sections of the systems, monitoring and maintenance of the fish screen diversion structures, and maintenance of the operation of the dams and structures associated with the dams, removal of domestic livestock on an as-needed basis, removal of exotic plant species, transplanting native plant species, maintaining planted vegetation, weekly peizometer readings, maintaining toe drains and lake drains located in dam.
2) Operations and maintenance of Mountain View and Sheep Creek reservoirs: maintain equipment and vehicles, planting native riparian vegetation, maintaining planted vegetation, determine sources of turbidity within Sheep Creek Reservoir and developing and sufficiently implementing mitigation plans, expanding and maintaining camp facilities,
3) Monitoring and Evaluation at Lake Billy Shaw, Mountain View, and Sheep Creek reservoirs: weekly water quality sampling, weekly water level readings, creel surveys, invertebrate sampling, stocking fish and managing subcontracts with fish suppliers, wildlife recordings, photo point file maintenance, tagging stocked and native fish.
4) Public outreach, information dissemination, and community education
5) Reporting through Pisces with status reports, Statement of Work, annual report, budgets, and other attachments.

New work will include the establishment of an updated M&E plan, mitigate turbidity at Sheep Creek Reservoir, improvements/repairs made to camping facilities. Travel included for this project will include local travel for supplies, meetings with regional fish managers and scientists, and travel for CBFWA Resident Fish Committee meetings, travel for training.

Introduction of invasive species (increased potential as more fishermen visit the trophy fishery) that could impact the fishery is of utmost concern to the Tribe.  The Tribe is working with the States of Nevada and Idaho to construct two boat cleaning stations in the vicinity of the reservoirs in the Spring of 2012.

Project Location

The projects associated with the DV Fisheries program fall within the Reservation boundaries.  The Duck Valley Indian Reservation encompasses approximately 289,820 tribally owned acres equally straddling the Idaho and Nevada border, and there are approximately 1,800 enrolled Tribal members.  The Reservation is in the Middle Snake Province and both the Bruneau and Owyhee subbasins.  The Reservation is both remote and isolated; the closest town centers are Elko, Nevada and Mountain Home, Idaho, both approximately 100 miles from the Reservation's small town of Owyhee.  These are also the closest areas to buy supplies for projects.

Project areas within the Reservation include Mountain View, Lake Billy Shaw, and Sheep Creek Reservoirs.

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE MAJOR ACTIVITIES DURING THE FIVE-MONTH EXTENSION