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Okanogan Water Future


Tunk Valley & Exempt Wells


Introducing dancing sharp-tail grouse, water scarcity, and a looming water crisis.


The annual springtime phone calls to the ranchers, from the wildlife biologist, started in the 1980’s. The call was a request for access to ranch land, to count sharp-tail grouse.


In April of 1992, with an eight-month-old baby strapped to her back, landowner Nancy Soriano, curious to see what all the fuss was about, asked to join the bird count. They started at 5:30 a.m. to search the Tunk Valley shrub steppe. The temperatures were below freezing.


The Tunk Valley, at dawn in the early spring, was a revelation.  The Valley was like a giant amphitheater, resonating and alive with birdsong of the many migratory songbirds that arrive in the spring. 


The sharp-tail grouse do not sing.  They are Dancers. 


The humans could hear the drumming of the little grouse feet long before they could see them.  The ground becomes a percussion instrument. As much noise as the sharp-tails made, great care was needed to avoid being detected by the dancers. A stealthy approach was essential or the grouse would vanish into the grass and shrub, and no count could be made. (photo courtesy of Gregg Thompson)


Now, twenty years later, the baby in the backpack is in college and the sharp-tails are truly vanishing -- from the planet.  


Sharp-tail grouse used to be the most common game bird in the state.  Washington Fish and Wildlife recently estimated that only 700  sharp-tails remain in the entire state.  They are now found on only 2.8% of their historic habitat, in just three counties:  Okanogan, Douglas, and Lincoln.  They have been extirpated from Ferry, Stevens, Pend Oreille, Spokane, Chelan, Kittitas, Grant, Adams, Whitman, Yakima, Ben Franklin, Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield, Asotin and Klickitat Counties.  (source:  Washington Draft Sharptail Grouse Recovery Plan).   (click on graph to enlarge)


Tunk Valley supports what is considered the most important sharp-tail population remaining in the state, outside of the Colville Reservation.


In 1998 the State of WA listed sharp-tail grouse as a Threatened Species.  Twice, these grouse have been candidates for listing as Federally Endangered.


Sharp-tail Grouse have already been completely extirpated in other states where they used to be common.


About Grouse.


Many species of grouse inhabit the western United States and Canada, including sage grouse, rock ptarmigan, and others.  Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse were once the most abundant game bird in Washington; now it is the rarest of the six subspecies of sharp-tailed grouse in North America.   


The survival implications of a bird with a nickname of ‘prairie chicken’ cannot be avoided:  most grouse species, including sharp-tail, have been in decline for a hundred years or more.   The problem is habitat loss, primarily due to conversion of native grasslands to agriculture, and isolation of the few remaining populations.  In Washington there are but 8 small and isolated breeding populations occupying 3 percent of historic range.  


Major efforts are underway to re-establish sharp-tailed grouse populations in the eastern Washington’s coulee country. 


This is where the cattle come in.


Prairie meets sky at Jim and  Nancy Soriano’s ranch located in Tunk Valley -- a remote, 4000 ft. elevation, high box canyon, east of the Okanogan River.  The Valley is surrounded by public lands and the Colville Confederated Tribal reservation, which is a neighbor to the south and east.  


Nancy and Jim Soriano raise grass-fed beef on their ranch, keeping the herd to a sustainable size compatible with wildlife, including sharp-tail grouse. Like many ranchers in the Okanogan, they sell their cattle to the increasing numbers of discerning consumers who demand that their beef does NOT come from a feedlot.


Water is Habitat, Water is Life.


The two major habitat requirements of Sharp-tail grouse are huge amounts open space and healthy riparian habitat for the winter.


While the Soriano Ranch finds itself capable and willing to share acreage with sharp-tailed grouse, a larger problem looms. 


Tunk Valley is arid.  The average precipitation is under 11 inches per year, with 85 percent evapo-transpiration.  During a drought that began in 1917, the Tunk Creek (as well as springs and wells) went dry. Homesteaders abandoned the valley, largely accounting for why the Valley’s land use has been grazing ever since. The only source of water for Tunk Creek, which runs the length of the valley, is precipitation. There are no aquifers containing ancient water.  (click on map to enlarge)


In the spring, streamflow can briefly run as high as 50 cubic feet per second (cfs).   By contrast, in July through September, the average streamflow is only .2 to .02 cfs.


Tunk Creek’s riparian zone, a tangle of willow, alder, birch, aspen and chokecherry, provides critical winter food for the Tunk Valley sharp-tailed grouse population.  Grouse survive by feeding on the buds of deciduous trees found only in riparian areas.  The importance of healthy riparian habitat for sharp-tail grouse is evident in the purchase by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) of riparian habitat along two miles of Tunk Creek.  Water weaves through the intimate ecology of the creek and subirrigated riparian areas scattered throughout the 53,000 acres of the valley.


Groundwater also supplies the few homes in the valley, as well as the cattle.  The Soriano well provides significantly less than it did when it was drilled over twenty years ago.  The Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) stated in 1974, that there was barely enough water in Tunk Valley to support domestic needs of the approximately 25 homes in the Valley at that time. 


Water conservation is absolutely essential to ensure enough for the most basic of uses – drinking, culinary, and livestock needs. 


Water at Risk.


Tunk Valley is 73 square miles, and the largest contiguous block of shrub steppe habitat in Okanogan County. But Okanogan County’s zoning map reveals a big surprise:   Okanogan County proposes zoning the 53,000 acres into 1 and 5 acre parcels – a potential development nightmare.   Sharp-tail grouse could not withstand such fragmentation of their habitat and intensive land use.  


But there’s an equally important question – where would the water come from to serve hundreds of new homes and businesses?  Tunk Creek and its aquifer system do not contain enough water to serve even modest population increases in the valley.  This land is dry.   New homes, which would inevitably utilize new wells, would quickly suck the water, and the life, out of the valley.  


Washington state uses the “prior appropriation” system (first in time, first in right) to allocate water, and all users must obtain a water right from the state.  But there’s an exception to that requirement for small domestic wells.   Thus it is possible that new homes in Tunk Valley would simply drill their water supply wells without any oversight from the state to protect existing water rights and the public interest.  That public interest includes protecting sharp-tail grouse winter habitat along Tunk Creek.  State Law requires the protection of this State Threatened Species and its habitat.


The County is also required to protect the Tunk Creek and streamflow as it provides habitat for spawning steelhead, which are protected federally as an endangered species.


Fortunately, the Washington Supreme Court issued a common sense ruling in August 2011 regarding the linkages between land use and water supply.   Counties must assure that water is available when they approve new subdivisions and building permits.   That means that Okanogan County must assess Tunk Valley’s water resources and cannot allow new development if water supply is not adequate.   


Counties are a long way from implementing the Court’s new ruling, and there are rumors that developers may seek a new law reversing the court decision.  That would be a real shame, because if a stream or aquifer does not have enough water to serve new growth, then that’s a fact that needs to be acknowledged and respected. 


So far, sharp-tailed grouse still dart and flutter and strut through Tunk Valley.   Water, a key ingredient for their survival, still flows in Tunk Creek.   With vigilance, and proper water management, may it ever be so.



Sources:


Connelly, J.W.  2010.  Habitat Needs and Protection for the Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse in Washington with Emphasis on Okanogan County.  Dept. of Biological Sciences, Idaho State University, Pocatello. 


Hays, D.W., M.J. Tirhi and D.J. Stinson.  2008. Washington State Status Report for the Sharp-tailed Grouse.  Washington Dept. of Fish & Wildlife, Olympia.


Schroeder, M., et al. 2010.  Re-Establishment of Viable Populations of Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse in Washington:  2010 Progress Report.  Washington Dept. of Fish & Wildlife, Olympia.  23 pp. 


Stinson, D. W., and M. A. Schroeder. 2010. Draft Washington State Recovery Plan for the Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Olympia. 150+ viii pp. 


Sumioka, S.S. and R.S. Dinicola.  2009.  Groundwater/Surface-Water Interactions in the Tunk, Bonaparte, Antoine and Tonasket Creek Subbasins, Okanogan River Basin, North-Central Washington, 2008.  U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2009–5143, 26 pp.

 


 

Tunk Valley Website Contents:


  1. -Rush for Water

  2. -Over-appropriation

  3. -Sharp-tailed Grouse

  4. -Documents

  5. -Slide show: Tunk Valley


Links:


  1. -Exempt Wells Overview

  2. -Exempt Wells - Kittitas County

  3. -Exempt Wells - Stockwater Loophole

  4. -Exempt Wells - Family Farmers

  5. -Exempt Wells - 2008 Proceedings

  6. -Supreme Court decision: water and Kittitas County


Contacts:


- CELP:  info@celp.org

  1. -Nancy Soriano


Okanogan Water Future

  1. -Water Overview

  2. -Methow River - MVID

  3. -Similkameen River


Tunk Valley. Click on map to enlarge.
Tunk Valley, Okanogan County.
Tunk Valley is home to Sharp-Tailed Grouse.
New wells, more pumping, threaten Tunk Valley water availability for senior water users and wildlife.


Nancy Soriano, rancher of pasture-fed, organic cattle who is leading efforts to protect Tunk Valley water.