![]() ![]() On that day the hills released and let rip an earthen bulldozer that crossed and dammed the Gros Ventre, creating Lower Slide Lake. Eventually you pass the cataclysmic debris of the Jlandslide. As you drive, the road twists and winds in serpentine fashion, slicing through dusty hillsides of crumbling stone and sand. You get to the Gros Ventre by coasting eastward past Kelly and into the arid hills adjacent the Tetons. More important, radio-tagging studies show that already, adult cutthroat trout are migrating into the upper Gros Ventre in early winter, presumably to spawn. By October of 2013 estimates suggested there were 157 fish of that size per mile."Įffectively, the population base of small fish tripled, and so did the usable river miles upstream of the old dam site. ![]() Gipson stated that, "In September of 2007 we estimated only 42, 5- to 9-inch cutthroats per mile. According to Rob Gipson, regional fisheries supervisor for Wyoming Game and Fish, the dam was "a very effective partial barrier to upstream movement of smaller cutthroat, sculpin, and dace." He said larger fish were able to jump a decrepit section of the dam, but smaller fish were not.Įlectrofishing population estimates before and after the removal clearly demonstrated a positive effect on the cutthroat population. But access to the nursery area had been partially blocked by the Newbold. Apart from its perfect spawning gravel habitat, hot springs in the river upstream from the Newbold Dam historically provided a thermal advantage during the winter, which increases the likelihood of survival and enhances growth for juvenile cutthroat. The Gros Ventre is a critical tributary of the Snake. ![]() Removal of the Newbold Dam has already dramatically increased the numbers of small cutthroat in the Gros Ventre, and in the long run should help sustain native trout populations in the main stem Snake River. And today, cutthroat trout run freely from the trickling headwaters of the Gros Ventre to the main stem of the Snake River. Its recent removal was orchestrated through a joint venture between Trout Unlimited and the Grand Teton National Park. By that time, the flour mill had burned down, and the dam was re-purposed to irrigate surrounding agricultural land. It was built to support a flour mill in 1917 and was later rebuilt in 1937. The dam was a rickety barrier, comprised of logs and rocks. Just south of Kelly, the Newbold Dam stretched across the Gros Ventre until it was removed on March 19, 2013. But until 2013, those fish were thwarted from reaching almost 100 miles of spawning habitat. Kelly rests on the shores of the Gros Ventre River (pronounced grow-vont) just east of Grand Teton National Park, and in its waters resides an exceptionally healthy population of native cutthroat trout. Blooming vegetable gardens rest amid walls of hand-cut cord wood, essential to make it through the winter. Its denizens have a penchant for living green. It's a warm, quiet vortex comprised largely of yurts. The hamlet of Kelly, Wyoming is decisively funky. ![]()
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