No need to be grebe – federal agencies share water between birds and other obligations

Western and Clark’s grebes (pronounced “greeb,” so forgive the attempted wordplay) have specific needs for nesting and the pool behind McNary Lock and Dam near the Tri-Cities in Washington state can be a good spot. If water levels don’t fluctuate too much, mats of vegetation can grow, which entice the birds to nest on them. However, the pool has a narrow elevation range to support nesting – high water levels can dislodge the floating vegetation mats and wash the nests away.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) doesn’t monitor grebe activities at McNary Dam, as that isn’t part of its normal operations, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) does at McNary National Wildlife Refuge, just downstream. USACE and USFWS are close partners and have been working together to implement operations to support the birds. The agencies tried a similar operation last year but local conditions disrupted the grebes’ nesting plans. The agencies made another attempt this year.

“The McNary National Wildlife Refuge asked us to lower the reservoir elevation and minimize water level fluctuations in the McNary pool for about a month to help support grebe nesting,” said Aaron Marshall, Northwestern Division Reservoir Control Center chief. “The request fits within our normal operating range, allowing us to support the request,” he said. “Our goal is to balance this request with other operational objectives at McNary Dam. It also shows that adaptive management of the system, within our normal operating ranges, can have multiple benefits.”

Rare in this part of Washington, grebes are candidates for listing by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and are a Bird of Conservation Concern for the Great Basin Conservation Region. Twelve of the 14 states where these birds nest have identified them as species of greatest conservation need in their State Wildlife Action plans.

“We were ecstatic to discover these birds nesting at McNary National Wildlife Refuge,” said Steve Kahl, refuge manager. “It’s a great opportunity for our agencies to collaborate toward conserving two species that have very specific habitat requirements in order to nest successfully,” he said.

USFWS made the 2026 request on July 14, and USACE staff found it was an operation the Reservoir Control Center (RCC) at Northwestern Division could support. Natural conditions such as wind and streamflows, alongside sometimes competing operational objectives like navigation safety and hydropower affect the success of this operation.

“There are so many demands for how we manage water throughout the Columbia River Basin, sometimes we have to make difficult decisions,” said Leah Hamilton, Northwestern Division water regulator. “Fortunately, we were able to work with Bonneville Power Administration to find an operation that could work for the grebes and balance other demands on the system,” she said. “We look forward to working with U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and BPA to refine operations to better help the grebes reproduce.”

To date, USFWS observers counted 26 young grebes and 18 nests in the area.

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.