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JEWELL MOUNTAIN LAKE <br />1/2001 <br />Jewell Mountain Lake is located a half mile west of highway 93 directly across from <br />the entrance into Rocky Flats. It has a surface acreage of 6.87 acres, but is classified as <br />ephemeral. When it was sampled in 1999 numerous painted turtles and a tiger <br />salamander larvae were captured. The presence of the tiger salamander larvae strongly <br />suggest that no fish are present, as they are rarely found together, Until I can determine <br />the frequency of desiccation, and whether the drying is complete, or controllable, we <br />should leave this pond alone. If some water actually remains in most years we could <br />plant some plains topminnows from other sources and they would flourish. Perhaps <br />common shiners, northern redbelly dace, or brassy minnows would be appropriate also. <br />But the plains topminnows would tolerate the most extreme temperature and oxygen <br />depletion conditions which occur when a pond nearly dries up completely, but not quite <br />entirely, so they should be tried first. <br />Any of these fish species should be compatible with the others as far as predation is <br />concerned, but there may be competition for food and space. The turtles and tiger <br />salamander larvae are predacious, but not very efficient, so if fish can survive, they <br />should not be a huge problem.. We could either research the living conditions and water <br />quality for several years, or we could simply make a seed -stock planting of one or more <br />of these fish species and evaluate the success after several seasons have elapsed. <br />