After years of debate, followed by several more years of planning, the Forest Service in June will begin dismantling a series of backcountry reservoirs that date back to the turn of the last century. The purpose: to stabilize and restore the high mountain lakes, which were enlarged by the construction of earthen dams, to something close to their original state.

Three lakes on the south slope - Farmers, White Miller and Water Lily - are scheduled to be restored this summer. Further east, a pair of larger reservoirs - Fox and Crescent - are scheduled for repairs. Altogether, the project calls for 13 lakes to be returned to their natural condition over the next few summers.

"These are reservoirs that were basically built by the pioneers 80 years ago with primitive tools to provide irrigation water," said Mike Elson, acting district ranger for Ashley National Forest. "They were amazingly well built, but they don't meet current dam standards and they are difficult to maintain, especially with the wilderness designation limiting motorized use. So we began looking for a way to move this water to facilities that are more accessible and modern."

Central Utah Project officials, and environmentalists, have long clamored for the High Uintas project.

The CUP - which is funding the project - and its water-users wanted better access, and will now get it, with the water being moved down to Big Sand Wash Reservoir, which is being doubled in size.

"This is going to provide steady lake levels, which will provide better fisheries," says Reed Murray, program director of the CUP. "Conversely, bringing the water down helps agricultural users and Roosevelt city. It's really a win-win situation."

Conservationists, too, sought the project in order to improve habitat. But also for more aesthetic reasons. A man-made reservoir in a wilderness area, they say, is an oxymoron.

"This is a project we've been pushing for decades," says Dick Carter, longtime coordinator with the High Uintas Preservation Council. "The question for so many years was where to put the water downstream. The original thinking was it should be along the Lake Fork or Yellowstone rivers, but it didn't seem appropriate to build a reservoir on a free-flowing river. Big Sand Wash was an alternative everybody could agree on."

Now comes the hard part.

In returning these lakes to their wilderness-quality state, work crews also will have to observe wilderness area restrictions in terms of what kind of equipment they use to do the job.

Mechanical, motorized implements are prohibited, so project workers will be doing restoration work the old-fashioned way - with hand tools and stock-drawn equipment, presumably horses or mules. Just like the dam-builders used.

"What we have to figure out are the minimum requirements to get the job done," says Ken Straley, Ashley National Forest's wilderness program manager. "The dams were built over several seasons, but we can't leave a dam half torn apart. Once we start, it has to be finished."

In addition to basic picks and shovels, crews also will use stock-drawn blades and stone boards, and large steel baskets that collect rocks. Essentially, crews will cut away notches in the dams, bringing the water down gradually to the natural lake levels. Straley expects crews will pack in for six- or eight-day stints, return home for four or five days - then resume until the jobs are finished.

Straley says it may be possible to use "some mechanized transportation to get some of the equipment in, but the objective is to use the least intrusive means possible."

At Fox and Crescent reservoirs, meanwhile, crews will be allowed by special permitting to use helicopters and some mechanized equipment. Forest Service officials call the project to shore up the dams necessary for safety reasons. Unlike the lake restoration project, they say they have been unsuccessful in attempts to transfer the water storage rights.

"We don't have the equivalent of Big Sand Wash to store the water," says Elson, the district ranger. "The only solution is to upgrade the reservoirs and make them safer and easier to maintain."

That part of the project, however, is strenuously opposed by the High Uintas Preservation Council for a variety of reasons.

"It's just flat-out wrong," says Carter, the group's coordinator. "This is going to allow the Forest Service to essentially call these reservoir sites private property. They're not only reconstructing them, but they theoretically will allow motorized activity on a regular basis to maintain them. They're basically being put into the wilderness on a permanent basis."

That squabble aside, Straley and his fellow project team members are relishing the opportunity to finally get going.

"It's a fascinating project," he says. "We've done them before, on the Kamas side, but never in a wilderness area, so it's going to be harder.

"But how often do you get to return something to its natural state? We're taking something that has been substantially operated, in a contrived sense, for many, many years, and sort of putting it back. "It's a rare opportunity."

jbaird@sltrib.com

Uintas under construction

The Forest Service is asking backcountry users this summer to steer clear of Farmers, White Miller and Water Lily lakes, and Fox and Crescent reservoirs, as they undergo restoration and repairs. For specific construction periods and locales, contact the Ashley National Forest at 435-789-1181, or on the Web at http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/ashley.