The reputation of what is generally considered Idaho’s premier and nationally renowned fly fishing destination has taken a beating after three years of drought, but Silver Creek could get its groove back this season as abundant water fills its channels.

With the fishing season opening this weekend, anglers hope the resurgence draws brown and rainbow trout to bite artificial flies dancing on the stream’s mirror-smooth surface. The area, which attracted luminaries such as Ernest Hemingway in the 1940s, also is a prime spot for birders and nature enthusiasts.

“I think we certainly were seeing the effect of the drought on the creek,” said Silver Creek Outfitter’s guide Bret Bishop. “What I’m hoping is that this year with better flows, we’ll see the fish spread out.”

The approximately 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) of fishable water is divided into the Nature Conservancy’s publicly accessible Silver Creek Preserve, a private ranch with pay-to-play rules, and a public section managed by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

Bishop said low water forced fish from much of the preserve last season, likely to deeper water where the creek was dredged on the private ranch, leaving much of the preserve empty of anglers during prime fishing season. Work at the ranch also included putting in a fish passage at a century-old irrigation dam.

Fish will likely be back this weekend, Bishop said, and the Nature Conservancy is preparing for an onslaught of anglers at the creek about 50 miles south of the resort towns of Ketchum and Sun Valley. Sunny Healey, preserve manager, said she expects up to 100 people at a free public barbecue Saturday.

“It’s opening day, and people haven’t been able to fish for six months,” she said. “And it’s supposed to be a very beautiful weekend.”

The water flowing through the creek is at 226 cubic feet per second, more than double the average. It’s also well above the 35 cubic feet per second recorded last September. Healey said water temperatures pushing 70 degrees and a low dissolved oxygen content in the creek last year were bad for fish.

While this year is looking good, scientists say the long-term outlook is less clear because the 86-square-mile Wood River Valley aquifer system that feeds the creek is under increasing pressure from population growth.

Jim Bartolino, a ground water hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said the problem is most evident in dry years when less water goes through canal systems and less melting snow refill the aquifer and when ranchers are forced to pump groundwater.

“It’s kind of a triple whammy,” he said.

But things are changing as farmers and ranchers switch from flood irrigation to more efficient sprinkler systems that result in less water seeping into the ground and making its way to refill the aquifer.

Ranch owner Nick Purdy sells annual club memberships to fish the creek through his property but said he only discusses rates with potential clients.

Access to the state-owned section downstream is free, but Bishop said fish have been scarce in that area in recent years. It’s possible that cooler water flowing out of the deeper areas on Purdy’s ranch could improve fishing, Bishop said.

Bartolino, the hydrologist, also fly-fishes Silver Creek, trying to fool savvy trout that require nearly invisible fishing lines and artificial flies mimicking the insect hatch.

“I’m a horrible fly fisherman, and fishing Silver Creek is hard,” he said. “I just primarily enjoy the aesthetics of being out there.”

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Organizers of a wolf- and coyote-shooting contest in east-central Idaho say they’re looking at other parts of the state for similar contests on U.S. Forest Service land following a federal court ruling.

“Having this lawsuit out of the way and having this legal precedent, we will probably consider it a lot greater now,” Steve Alder, Idaho for Wildlife’s executive director, said Tuesday.

U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Bush said Idaho for Wildlife didn’t need a permit from the U.S. Forest Service to hold the contest.

He ruled that Idaho for Wildlife’s Predator Hunting Contest is not a commercial event because it doesn’t charge participation fees and under Forest Service regulations doesn’t need a special use permit.

Because a permit isn’t needed, Bush said, the Forest Service isn’t violating environmental laws or its own policies in allowing the event as environmental groups contended in a lawsuit.

Bush also ruled that Idaho for Wildlife didn’t need a permit under a Forest Service requirement for non-commercial use by large groups because group gatherings didn’t occur in the forest, but in the town of Salmon.

Alder said the group is looking at possible derbies in other national forests in northern Idaho, noting possible towns include Sandpoint, Bonners Ferry and Orofino.

He said no specific plans have been made.

Amy Baumer, spokeswoman for the Salmon-Challis National Forest, didn’t return a call from The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Andrea Santarsiere, senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, said environmental groups plan to discuss a possible appeal of the ruling at a Friday meeting.

“We were disappointed that Judge Bush looked at (the derby) as any other day of hunting in the forest,” she said. “We think it’s dramatically different.”

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has also been caught up in the lawsuit. Idaho for Wildlife initially received a permit for the contest from BLM in mid-November 2014, but the federal agency rescinded that decision less than two weeks later following a lawsuit by the environmental groups contending the approval violated environmental laws.

That portion of the lawsuit was resolved in February with a settlement agreement requiring the BLM to notify the groups during the next three years if the agency receives a permit application at its Idaho Falls district office for another predator hunting contest.

Idaho for Wildlife held the Predator Hunting Contest on private property and U.S. Forest Service land, but not BLM land, in December 2013 and January 2015 on land outside Salmon, Idaho. The environmental groups say the remote and rugged area in east-central Idaho is considered key for a sustainable wolf population in the state.

Participants in the two predator contests reported killing some coyotes but no wolves. The group, citing lack of wolf-hunting success, didn’t hold the contest the last two winters.

“I know how difficult it is to wolf hunt,” Alder said. “You don’t see them. It’s really a challenge.”

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Endangered Snake River sockeye salmon will be moved from a southwest Idaho hatchery because flood waters from the nearby Boise River are threatening the facility, officials announced late Wednesday.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game said that starting Thursday some 4,000 fish will be removed from the Eagle Fish Hatchery west of Boise and trucked to the Springfield Fish Hatchery in eastern Idaho.

The hatchery holds broodstock that produce future generations of fish.

Snake River sockeye teetered on the brink of extinction in the early 1990s. They’ve been the focus of an intense recovery program centered at the Eagle Fish Hatchery after being listed for federal protection in 1991.

Officials say the primary fear is floodwater reaching electrical pumps needed to keep oxygenated water circulating.

“Fish and Game crews have placed sandbags around buildings and electrical pumps that supply water to the hatchery,” the agency said in a statement. “However, if power is lost for an extended period of time, the hatchery’s sockeye could be in jeopardy.”

The facility also has a genetics lab that works to make sure hatchery-produced fish have genetic diversity so future generations can eventually sustain a wild population. Adult fish returning from the ocean travel 900 miles up the Columbia, Snake and Salmon rivers to high-elevation Sawtooth basin lakes in central Idaho.

The hope is that the hatchery-raised fish and the returning fish will spawn future generations. The ultimate goal is a self-sustaining population of wild fish returning to Idaho.

“(The hatchery) is obviously very critical as part of the long-term plan to recover those fish,” said Russ Kiefer, a fisheries biologist with Fish and Game.

That goal took a hit in 2015 when warm water in the Columbia River Basin killed 99 percent of returning adult fish, with only 55 completing the journey. A trap at a Snake River dam captured another 35 sockeye salmon. Of the 90 total fish, five were released into Pettit Lake to spawn naturally and 85 went to the Eagle Fish Hatchery for artificial spawning.

The fish rebounded with better conditions in 2016 when 567 sockeye returned to the Sawtooth Valley in central Idaho.

Young fish produced by broodstock at the Eagle Fish Hatchery are taken to the Springfield Fish Hatchery to be raised to a larger size and then released in central Idaho to start the trip to the ocean.

Fish and Game plans to release about 735,000 juvenile sockeye salmon into Redfish Lake Creek in about a month, Kiefer said.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A federal lawsuit filed by an environmental group seeking to force federal agencies to analyze whether about two dozen dams operating in Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Montana are harming bull trout has been dismissed.

U.S. District Court Judge Marco Hernandez in a ruling last week said federal agencies took action after the lawsuit was filed in July that met demands made by Montana-based Alliance for the Wild Rockies, meaning there was no need for the lawsuit to move forward.

The lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation sought to force the agencies to complete consultations with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on how to operate the dams in areas designated as critical bull trout habitat.

Specifically, the lawsuit contended the agencies failed to write biological assessments for many of the dams pertaining to bull trout and required following the 2010 designation of critical habitat for the species in the four states and a small portion of Nevada.

The federal agencies in their motion to dismiss the lawsuit said those consultations have now been started or reinitiated for all the dams.

“We are thrilled that the agencies finally did what they were supposed to do in 2010, which was to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service to ensure that these dams don’t harm bull trout critical habitat,” Mike Garrity, executive director of Alliance for the Wild Rockies, said in a statement.

The lawsuit also included the Bonneville Power Administration, but Hernandez dismissed that agency from the lawsuit after ruling the court didn’t have jurisdiction. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has exclusive jurisdiction over such claims against the BPA, Hernandez said.

The lawsuit named 26 dams that include the four large dams that span the Columbia River where it forms the border between Oregon and Washington state. Four Snake River dams in Washington state are also named. Idaho and Montana have two dams each named in the lawsuit, and additional dams are listed in Oregon’s Willamette Basin, which feeds into the Columbia River.

The ruling dismissing the lawsuit also removed four of dams, all in the Willamette Basin, because they didn’t have critical bull trout habitat.

The next step in the process is for the consultations among the federal agencies to be completed followed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service producing biological opinions about whether the dams are harming bull trout in critical habitat.

The timing for that process isn’t clear. Timothy Bechtold, an attorney representing the environmental group, said Wednesday that if no biological opinions appear after a year, a lawsuit might be filed against Fish and Wildlife.

“The Fish and Wildlife Service looks forward to continuing our ongoing consultations and other bull trout conservation efforts with our partners, including US Army Corps of Engineers, Bonneville Power Administration and Bureau of Reclamation,” the agency said in a written statement.

Michael Coffey of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Scott Lawrence of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers didn’t immediately return calls on Wednesday.

Bull trout evolved with salmon after the last ice age and preyed on young salmon and salmon eggs. But bull trout have declined along with salmon, and they were listed as threatened in the lower 48 in 1999. Bull trout now only occupy about 60 percent of their former range.

Threats to the cold-water species include warming water caused by climate change, isolated populations, hybridization with non-native brook trout, and competition from non-native lake trout, according to experts.

“The Fish and Wildlife Service looks forward to continuing our ongoing consultations and other bull trout conservation efforts with our partners, including US Army Corps of Engineers, Bonneville Power Administration and Bureau of Reclamation,” the agency said in a written statement.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by environmental groups involving a wolf- and coyote-shooting contest in Idaho as part of a settlement agreement that requires federal officials to notify the groups if another contest is planned.

The agreement on Wednesday follows several years of court skirmishes between the groups and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management involving Idaho for Wildlife’s Predator Hunting Contest.

“This cruel, unethical and ecologically damaging contest should not occur on any lands, but particularly not on public lands belonging to all of us,” said Andrea Santarsiere, senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity.

Idaho for Wildlife initially received a permit for the contest from BLM in mid-November 2014, but the federal agency rescinded that decision less than two weeks later following a lawsuit by the environmental groups contending the approval violated environmental laws.

In the settlement on Wednesday, the BLM agrees that it rescinded the permit as well as various decisions in an environmental process leading up to the permit. The agreement also requires the BLM to notify the groups during the next three years if the agency receives a permit application at its Idaho Falls district office for another predator hunting contest. The BLM must also pay $20,000 in court costs.

Sarah Wheeler, a BLM spokeswoman, didn’t return a call from The Associated Press on Thursday.

Idaho for Wildlife held the Predator Hunting Contest on private land and U.S. Forest Service land, but not BLM land, in December 2013 and January 2015 on land outside Salmon, Idaho. The environmental groups say the remote and rugged area in east-central Idaho is considered key for a sustainable wolf population in the state.

Participants in the two predator contests reported killing some coyotes but no wolves. The group, citing lack of wolf-hunting success, didn’t hold the contest the last two winters. But Steve Alder, the group’s executive director, said on Thursday the group would look at possibly holding one in January 2018 following Wednesday’s court action.

“I think we’ll have to consider having some more contests down the road,” he said, noting the group has no definite plans. “We don’t know that we’ll call it a wolf hunt or not because of the crazy wolf nuts. It brings them out in hordes.”

He also noted the “dismal results” the contest has produced for wolf hunters and said future contests, if held, might instead focus on coyotes and jackrabbits.

On a related front, a decision on a separate lawsuit environmental groups have against the U.S. Forest Service involving Idaho for Wildlife’s predator contest is pending.

The predator hunts in late 2013 and early 2015 were allowed on public Forest Service land after a federal judge said organizers didn’t need to get a special permit from that agency.

Environmental groups are challenging that ruling. Arguments were made in federal court on Jan. 11, but the court hasn’t yet announced a decision.

Besides the Center for Biological Diversity, other environmental groups participating in the BLM lawsuit were Cascadia Wildlands, Kootenai Environmental Alliance, Project Coyote, Western Watersheds Project and WildEarth Guardians.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho officials are in preliminary discussions with the U.S. Forest Service on possibly buying federal public lands.

State Forester David Groeschl of the Idaho Department of Lands told Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter and other members of the Idaho Land Board on Tuesday that the state is eyeing timberland that the federal agency has previously proposed for possible sale or exchange.

Groeschl said the state is also identifying potential Forest Service lands not previously considered for sale.

“It is a longshot,” Groeschl said after the meeting, noting the Forest Service would have to go through its planning process and could even require U.S. lawmakers to take action.

“We want to keep our options open, whether it’s private, state or even potentially federal lands,” Groeschl said.

The U.S. Forest Service didn’t immediately respond to phone messages from The Associated Press.

Idaho received 3.65 million acres of endowment land at statehood in 1890 that generates money, mainly for public schools. The state has about 2.44 million acres left, and the Land Board has a constitutional responsibility to manage that land to maximize financial returns over the long term.

In recent years, the Land Board has been selling residential cottage sites and commercial real estate holdings. The cottage sites proved problematic in the Land Board’s constitutional requirement to maximize profits, and the commercial real estate caused fierce criticism of some Land Board members amid concerns the state was unfairly competing with private businesses.

In May, the board adopted a new strategic reinvestment plan calling for using money from the sale of commercial real estate and residential cottage sites to buy resource-producing lands, meaning timberland and farmland. So far, the board has been more interested in timberland.

“I think we’re probably better, in my experience, at operating timberland than we are farms,” Otter said after the meeting.

Currently, the Land Board has about $73 million available to buy land, and is expected once all the sales of cottage sites and commercial real estate are finished to have about $160 million.

The Land Board also discussed a potential obstacle to buying private timberland and farmland in a bill in the state Senate that would require state agencies get permission from county commissioners to purchase land. That means county commissioners could prevent the Idaho Department of Lands from buying land as directed by the Land Board.

“I’m concerned about that,” Otter said. “This has never come up before where the counties or the cities would exercise a veto power over the acquisition of any agency of the state.”

County commissions have generally expressed concern that losing private land to public entities means taking land off tax rolls.

During the meeting, Otter asked Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, also a board member, “How can we override the Constitution with a statute?”

“We can’t” Wasden said.

The bill is currently awaiting a hearing in the Senate Resources and Environment Committee.

It also isn’t clear that enough private timberland will become available on which to spend the $160 million, which Groeschl said could buy about 100,000 acres.

The Land Board has five years from when money is deposited into the land bank to spend it. Unspent money would transfer to the permanent fund where it would be managed by the Idaho Endowment Fund Investment Board.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho officials are in preliminary discussions with the U.S. Forest Service on possibly buying federal public lands.

State Forester David Groeschl of the Idaho Department of Lands told Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter and other members of the Idaho Land Board on Tuesday that the state is eyeing timberland that the federal agency has previously proposed for possible sale or exchange.

Groeschl said the state is also identifying potential Forest Service lands not previously considered for sale.

“It is a longshot,” Groeschl said after the meeting, noting the Forest Service would have to go through its planning process and could even require U.S. lawmakers to take action.

“We want to keep our options open, whether it’s private, state or even potentially federal lands,” Groeschl said.

The U.S. Forest Service didn’t immediately respond to phone messages from The Associated Press.

Idaho received 3.65 million acres of endowment land at statehood in 1890 that generates money, mainly for public schools. The state has about 2.44 million acres left, and the Land Board has a constitutional responsibility to manage that land to maximize financial returns over the long term.

In recent years, the Land Board has been selling residential cottage sites and commercial real estate holdings. The cottage sites proved problematic in the Land Board’s constitutional requirement to maximize profits, and the commercial real estate caused fierce criticism of some Land Board members amid concerns the state was unfairly competing with private businesses.

In May, the board adopted a new strategic reinvestment plan calling for using money from the sale of commercial real estate and residential cottage sites to buy resource-producing lands, meaning timberland and farmland. So far, the board has been more interested in timberland.

“I think we’re probably better, in my experience, at operating timberland than we are farms,” Otter said after the meeting.

Currently, the Land Board has about $73 million available to buy land, and is expected once all the sales of cottage sites and commercial real estate are finished to have about $160 million.

The Land Board also discussed a potential obstacle to buying private timberland and farmland in a bill in the state Senate that would require state agencies get permission from county commissioners to purchase land. That means county commissioners could prevent the Idaho Department of Lands from buying land as directed by the Land Board.

“I’m concerned about that,” Otter said. “This has never come up before where the counties or the cities would exercise a veto power over the acquisition of any agency of the state.”

County commissions have generally expressed concern that losing private land to public entities means taking land off tax rolls.

During the meeting, Otter asked Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, also a board member, “How can we override the Constitution with a statute?”

“We can’t” Wasden said.

The bill is currently awaiting a hearing in the Senate Resources and Environment Committee.

It also isn’t clear that enough private timberland will become available on which to spend the $160 million, which Groeschl said could buy about 100,000 acres.

The Land Board has five years from when money is deposited into the land bank to spend it. Unspent money would transfer to the permanent fund where it would be managed by the Idaho Endowment Fund Investment Board.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho officials are in preliminary discussions with the U.S. Forest Service on possibly buying federal public lands.

State Forester David Groeschl of the Idaho Department of Lands told Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter and other members of the Idaho Land Board on Tuesday that the state is eyeing timberland that the federal agency has previously proposed for possible sale or exchange.

Groeschl said the state is also identifying potential Forest Service lands not previously considered for sale.

“It is a longshot,” Groeschl said after the meeting, noting the Forest Service would have to go through its planning process and could even require U.S. lawmakers to take action.

“We want to keep our options open, whether it’s private, state or even potentially federal lands,” Groeschl said.

The U.S. Forest Service didn’t immediately respond to phone messages from The Associated Press.

Idaho received 3.65 million acres of endowment land at statehood in 1890 that generates money, mainly for public schools. The state has about 2.44 million acres left, and the Land Board has a constitutional responsibility to manage that land to maximize financial returns over the long term.

In recent years, the Land Board has been selling residential cottage sites and commercial real estate holdings. The cottage sites proved problematic in the Land Board’s constitutional requirement to maximize profits, and the commercial real estate caused fierce criticism of some Land Board members amid concerns the state was unfairly competing with private businesses.

In May, the board adopted a new strategic reinvestment plan calling for using money from the sale of commercial real estate and residential cottage sites to buy resource-producing lands, meaning timberland and farmland. So far, the board has been more interested in timberland.

“I think we’re probably better, in my experience, at operating timberland than we are farms,” Otter said after the meeting.

Currently, the Land Board has about $73 million available to buy land, and is expected once all the sales of cottage sites and commercial real estate are finished to have about $160 million.

The Land Board also discussed a potential obstacle to buying private timberland and farmland in a bill in the state Senate that would require state agencies get permission from county commissioners to purchase land. That means county commissioners could prevent the Idaho Department of Lands from buying land as directed by the Land Board.

“I’m concerned about that,” Otter said. “This has never come up before where the counties or the cities would exercise a veto power over the acquisition of any agency of the state.”

County commissions have generally expressed concern that losing private land to public entities means taking land off tax rolls.

During the meeting, Otter asked Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, also a board member, “How can we override the Constitution with a statute?”

“We can’t” Wasden said.

The bill is currently awaiting a hearing in the Senate Resources and Environment Committee.

It also isn’t clear that enough private timberland will become available on which to spend the $160 million, which Groeschl said could buy about 100,000 acres.

The Land Board has five years from when money is deposited into the land bank to spend it. Unspent money would transfer to the permanent fund where it would be managed by the Idaho Endowment Fund Investment Board.

BOISE — It sounds like a big fish story: a plan to create a biodiversity map identifying thousands of aquatic species in every river and stream in the western U.S.

But scientists say they’re steadily reeling in that whopper and by next summer will have the first Aquatic Environmental DNA Atlas available for the public.

Boise-based U.S. Forest Service fisheries biologist Dan Isaak is leading the project and says such a map could help with land management decisions and deciding where to spend limited money and resources.

“It’s kind of the Holy Grail for biologists to know what a true biodiversity map looks like,” he said. “To have that formatted digitally so you can do lots of science with it will be transformative in terms of the quality of information we’ll have to conserve species.”

Isaak said annual surveys could provide snapshots so scientists can see how biodiversity and ecosystems change over time. Because of the project’s immense scale, he said, sample collecting likely will require help from many entities, including citizen scientists.

The map eventually will include everything from insects to salmon to river otters. It’s possible because of a new technology that can identify stream inhabitants by analyzing water samples containing DNA. The technology also can be used to identify invasive species.

That technology is evolving, said Michael Schwartz, the Forest Service’s director of the National Genomics Center for Wildlife and Fish Conservation in Missoula, Montana. Currently, he said, scientists can detect only one species at a time in a stream sample. He said the goal is to identify multiple species in a single test from one sample. A rough estimate for when that might be possible is about a year, he said.

The trove of information has the potential to be so vast that questions not presently imagined might arise.

“Any time science undertakes large projects like this, the payouts can be in directions you don’t expect,” Schwartz said.

Ultimately, he said, the publicly available information could be used by someone with an iPad or other device who could go to a section of river and see what species it contains.

The Aquatic Environmental DNA Atlas for the western U.S. has its genesis in a smaller-scale project called the Bull Trout Environmental DNA Atlas involving five states — Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington — where the federally protected fish is found. That effort, Isaak said, has discovered bull trout in areas where they were thought not to exist.

Isaak also has been working on something called the Cold Water Climate Shield to identify streams that could serve as a refuge for cold water species, such as bull trout, if global warming continues. That map uses millions of temperature recordings going back decades and has expanded to include most of the western U.S. Stream temperatures in lower elevations have risen several degrees over the past 30 years, Isaak said. The DNA Atlas has been confirming the kind of species present as predicted by the Cold Water Climate Shield, Schwartz said.

What scientists ultimately hope to do is combine all the information from stream temperatures, DNA Atlas sampling, topography and weather patterns to get more insights into species distribution patterns and even how entire ecosystems function.

“The data sets can be bigger because computers are bigger,” Isaak said.

Even for Isaak, who is called a visionary by his colleagues, the leaps in technology that make his ideas possible can be mind-boggling.

“It’s just been an ongoing revelation,” he said, recalling 15 years ago using pencil and paper to make streamside observations. “It still seems like magic to me that you can go take a water sample and you have instruments powerful enough to discern what species are present.”