Pelican Lake is an important regional fishery that has seen its usage decrease in the last decade. In addition, in the last creel done there (2010-2011), shore anglers comprised only 13% of the total fishing effort spent there. The main reason is lack of accessible and fishable shoreline habitat for those anglers. Typically, shore anglers represent a nearly equivalent percentage of effort as boat anglers (e.g., Steinaker shore anglers provided 42% of the effort while boat anglers provided 46% of the effort), but at Pelican that year, boat anglers provided 53% of the effort, shore fishermen 13% and the rest were ice fishermen, which is an extremely large disparity. We really need to increase fishing opportunities at Pelican Lake, but especially shoreline fishing opportunities and this is a great place to start.

The goal for this project is to increase the number of hours anglers spend fishing at Pelican Lake. As mentioned previously, we have a real lack of shoreline fishing at Pelican Lake and therefore, increasing and improving opportunities for shoreline fishing should help us to reach this goal. This project should increase shoreline fishing opportunities for anglers by allowing them to get into fishing locations without having to fight off huge stands of bulrush.

Threats and risks to not doing this project are not necessarily ecological, they're more related to lack of fishing opportunities for a already under-served group of anglers (shore fishermen). However, bulrush will continue to become thicker and thicker around the lake if we do nothing. We have seen this in Google Earth images over the last decade. If this is the case, future attempts at knocking it back will be even more difficult. I will note that even with this project, the vast majority of the hardstem bulrush around the lake will remain and will continue to provide habitat for nesting waterfowl and forage for waterfowl, beaver, muskrat, and cattle.

Increasing angler access was identified as a need in the Pelican Lake Management Plan, which was drafted with the help of agency partners and a group of representative anglers over the winter of 2016-2017. The mission of this management team was to, "Work to restore and sustain Pelican Lake as a Blue Ribbon fishery by improving water clarity, effectively eliminating invasive Common Carp, and balancing the ecological health of Bluegill and Largemouth Bass." The vision was to "Restore Pelican Lake to its nationally recognized memorable Bluegill and quality Largemouth Bass fishery." In order to reach our vision, we identified numerous actions that needed to take place. One of them was to increase angler access at Pelican Lake. This project tackles the "fishery" aspect as fish in a lake are not necessarily a "fishery" until the angling component is introduced.

Upon meeting with Forestry, Fire, and State Lands, the BOR, and the BLM in February 2019, it became clear that project partners would like to see a non-burning option pursued initially. Given the water management at this lake, we can knock back bulrush in patches and flood roots before the following growing season. It may be just as effective to pursue non-burn methods as burn methods given the water management here and without the same liabilities. This project will knock back an overabundance of fuels around the lake but with mechanical means, not with fire, at least not this year. We will target our efforts at potential angler access points where there is public access and a desire to fish. There are structures and roads in these locations (camping and day use areas on the south, roads on the north and east side locations) and the treatment could help to reduce potential for unwanted fires in the future.

This project will not affect water quantity or quality.

We are working with Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Land Management, and Forestry Fire and State Lands to develop a burn plan and implement the burn, although this was postponed until 2020. In 2019, we will just pursue mechanical treatments of bulrush removal to see if these methods will be as effective. The BLM will still complete NEPA for mowing and raking and FFSL/BLM will still develop the burn plan, just taking 1.5 years to complete it rather than 0.5 years to complete it. Through this process, landowners around the lake will be contacted. No 404 permitting, cultural surveys, or ULT surveys are required as the affected area is under the Pelican Lake high water mark and excavation of roots will remove the soil completely off-site (clean excavation) and not return any material to any wetland area around the lake. Per a conversation with Jason Gipson (March 8, 2019 at 3:00 pm), a 404 permit is not required as the treatment areas are all under the high water mark and all mowed material will be sidecast, crunched down in place, or completely removed from the site and not placed into any wetland areas. All excavated material will be completely removed off site.

2019 methods will include mowing and raking of specific areas that are identified as highest priority for angler access. The NER Habitat crew will mow for one week and the Salt Lake Habitat crew will rake/excavate roots for two weeks. This will occur in the fall when the ground is nearly frozen but before the snow flies. The irrigation company typically begins filling the lake November first so some of the bulrush may be inundated. These areas will be avoided and equipment will remain on dry/frozen ground. Crews will treat as large a swath as possible given the time allotted to each treatment. That area will be measured for future information/planning. The lake will fill overwinter, inundating bulrush roots and these areas will be monitored for regrowth the following year. We will also begin developing the burn plan in 2019; however, if we do decide to burn the area, this will not happen until fall 2020. We have divided the lake into three target areas. The first is the east side by the highway. The second is on the north side from the BLM-owned peninsula to the end of the access road. The third is on the south side from the eastern edge of the campground to the western edge of the camping areas. Mowing will begin along the highway and proceed for four days. If crews are able to finish this area, equipment will be moved to the north side of the lake to begin work on the BLM peninsula. Mowed bulrush will be removed as feasible to minimize vegetation decay overwinter. The raking/excavation will occur on the south side of the lake and will proceed until that area has been completely raked. If that area can be completed, crews will move to the north side and finish the BLM peninsula. Raked/excavated material will be removed to the dump. This work will be completed by mid-December. The irrigation company refills Pelican Lake with winter water so any remaining roots will be inundated with water before the next growing season. These two treatments will be compared and evaluated and future angler access treatments will be planned according to the results.

Burning bulrush is new to us so we will keep a close eye on the bulrush over the next couple of years to see how it responds. We'll essentially have three "treatments," although only two the first year. We'll have a mowed area, an excavated area, and then potentially in 2020, a burned area. We will monitor re-growth via photo points over the first growing season and this will help us determine whether we can do less effort (just mowing or just excavating vs. including burning) or if we need to do the maximum effort (mow + burn + excavate). The lake will be visited and points photographed each month from April through October 2020. We will have photopoints in each treatment area and will develop a method for monitoring bulrush density. Whichever treatment has the best result (least amount of re-growth) over the following year is the one we'll implement in the long-term to ensure angler access well into the future. If there are two treatments that perform equally effectively, we'll choose the cheaper treatment.

Our partners in this effort include the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Forestry Fire and State Lands, Ouray Park Irrigation Company, and the private landowners around the lake. At this point, the agency participants have met once twice and have decided to proceed with non-burn methods first. The federal agencies will work on the NEPA for the project which will include all potential treatments over the maximum extent (all of the bulrush around the lake) even though we will not burn all the bulrush around the lake in any one year. Ouray Park has been approached about a burn and is receptive. Partners will approach the landowners as we work through the burn plan over the next few years.

Because we are uncertain which "treatment" will be most effective, we will use the 2020 monthly monitoring results when identifying future fire management around Pelican Lake. Please see the "Monitoring" section for further information. In addition, Pelican Lake is once again on the creel calendar for 2020-2021 (though depending on how well the fishery returns post-rotenone, we may push this back a year or two). In this creel, we'll once again determine the contribution of shore vs. boat anglers to the overall fishing effort spent at Pelican Lake. We'll be looking to see a more equitable distribution between the two, although I doubt we'd see the two fishing types ever be completely equal. Success in this effort would be to see shore angling increase to 30% of the overall fishing effort.

In addition to providing angling opportunities to non-boaters, increasing shoreline access should also increase opportunities to harvest bass and bluegill from Pelican Lake, which has been identified in the management plan as being important for the overall maintenance of the "Memorable" bluegill fishery. A Memorable bluegill fishery is one where the average overall size is large (typically 7" or more) and the maximum size is regularly in the 9" range with a few individuals approaching or exceeding 10". The idea behind this is that harvest reduced competition and opens up resources in the niche. The management team discussed the option of stocking a highly predacious species in Pelican to help with this, but if we can increase usage and harvest, a new species wouldn't be necessary.

01/01/2020

06/01/2020

2020

This project was not completed. The funds from this project were used to help construct the coanda screen, which was deemed the higher priority.

This project was not completed. The funds from this project were used to help construct the coanda screen, which was deemed the higher priority.

This project was not completed. The funds from this project were used to help construct the coanda screen, which was deemed the higher priority.