Thirteen years and counting: Least chubs thrive at Tooele Army Depot

Conservation efforts at the Tooele Army Depot (TEAD) have become a beacon of hope for the least chub, a rare species of minnow.

Located in northern Utah, TEAD spans over 43,000 acres and is comprised of the North and South areas. TEAD-N consists of 24,000 acres while TEAD-S, formerly the Deseret Chemical Depot, is 19,364 acres with a buffer zone of 11,000 acres established around the industrial area of the installation.

TEAD, a subordinate of the Joint Munitions Command, supports warfighter readiness through superior receipt, storage, issue, demilitarization, and renovation of conventional ammunition, along with the design, manufacture, fielding, and maintenance of ammunition peculiar equipment.

TEAD's Homestead Pond has become a sanctuary for least chubs, which are less than 2.5 inches long and have white-to-yellow fins and a gold stripe along their blue sides. The average lifespan for least chubs is seven years, and their diet consists of algae and small insects including mosquito larvae.

Least chubs thrive in spring-fed wetland habitats, which provide the necessary conditions for spawning and foraging. Unfortunately, these habitats have been extensively altered or destroyed due to agricultural development, water diversion, and urban expansion.

The earliest scientific descriptions of least chubs date back to 1872. The species has been in decline since the 1940s and was initially recognized as a threatened species in the 1970s. However, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found insufficient data to list them as endangered until a re-evaluation in the 1990s led to a proposed listing, which was later withdrawn due to successful conservation efforts. Currently, least chubs are considered a sensitive species by the state of Utah.

Concept develops, work begins

On a stop at TEAD in 2010, representatives from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (UDWR) and officials of the installation had an informal discussion, and the visitors mentioned they were seeking partnerships to establish broodstock and refuge populations of least chubs.

A requirement was having a small pond with a reliable source of water and accessibility so that surveys could be done at least annually, and members of TEAD's environmental office went to work on figuring out how it could assist.

TEAD's Homestead Pond, which is technically two ponds (east and west), was the perfect spot to try to help least chubs recover. Located in the northern section of the installation, the ponds were used to water livestock in the late 1800s and early 1900s but had remained as dry unused depressions in the ground since the Army obtained the property in May 1942.

In the fall of 2010, a plan was approved, and TEAD personnel went into action. Tumbleweeds that had accumulated in the bottom of the old pond depressions were removed, as was old silt. Using installation equipment and personnel from TEAD's facilities support division, new clay was brought in from an on-site location.

Once the pond base preparations were completed a pipeline was installed using installation labor and parts left over from previous repairs to the installation's irrigation systems.

Water from the overflow of the irrigation system's reservoir was piped 50 yards from the line supplying water to a nearby agricultural field to the east pond which is situated higher than the west pond. A stream bed was created to run overflowing water from the east pond to the west pond. Water that overflowed from the west pond ran into the adjoining agriculture field, which established a wet meadow and additional habitat for birds and wildlife.

Native beneficial plants were also transplanted to Homestead Pond from the banks of Ophir Creek and the Rainbow Reservoir, which are both located at TEAD, to provide protection and prevent erosion.

"Homestead Pond is located behind a fence that controls access to only authorized personnel," said Lonnie Brown, chief of TEAD's environmental management division. "Those responsible for the irrigation system inspect the ponds as part of their routine inspection of the overall water system.

"The habitat growth has been tremendous and now provides the least chubs with protective cover from avian predators," Brown added.

'Stable population'

In Feb. 2011, TEAD and UDWR officials signed a memorandum of understanding, and a partnership began. In Oct. 2011, the UDWR transported 500 least chubs from a hatchery in southern Utah to TEAD. They were released into the east pond, and then they naturally migrated to the west pond.

The UDWR makes no attempt to estimate the number of least chubs, as surveys focus on catch per effort and consistent evidence of reproduction. However, the least chub population at TEAD surely numbers in the thousands and might exceed 5,000.

"We try to get out and survey every year," said Keith Lawrence, who has served as a Native Aquatics Project Leader for the UDWR since 2018. "We conduct the surveys because we want to verify that they are persisting, and to assess whether and to what degree natural reproduction is occurring. If there was no recruitment over a span of years they would eventually disappear, which wouldn't take very long due to their short life span of just a handful of years. That hasn't happened because of a lot of great work that's been going on.

"We've got a stable population, and the habitat is very good," Lawrence added. "I can't emphasize enough how important it has been having this partnership with TEAD. It's been great working with everyone. TEAD is one of just a few sites where we don't have to worry about a potentially detrimental species being introduced there. TEAD satisfies the two critical characteristics that are difficult to find at other refuges, even in nature: water security and bio security from fish and avian predators. It's these types of vital partnerships that have helped prevent the listing of the species."

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