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The Yellowstone River
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| The Yellowstone |
Near the Yellowstone river's confluence with the Missouri are the sandstone bluffs that inspired American Indians to name the river "Yellow rock" or Yellowstone. That is also where William Clark reunited with Meriwether Lewis following his separate exploration of the river.
Why the Conservancy is working here
The Yellowstone is unique among rivers. It has been spared the fate of most other rivers in the U.S.; except for irrigation diversions, it is still undammed. In fact, it's the longest free-flowing river in the lower 48 states. It still does what rivers do best: builds islands for wildlife, carves channels for fish and delivers water to a variety of users throughout the long Yellowstone Valley. Yet many consider the Yellowstone to be among the most threatened rivers in the country.
Threats
The Yellowstone -- which originates near the southwestern border of Yellowstone National Park and runs north to the town of Livingston -- is threatened by housing development and channel modification. Downstream, as the river flows through eastern Montana, some of the warm water fish, like the endangered pallid sturgeon and paddle fish, are in trouble, in part due to the impact of diversion structures for irrigation. Other threats include invasive plants, improper grazing and irrigation practices, and storage dams on some tributaries.
Our conservation strategy
The Nature Conservancy has established a community-based program, based in Billings, to work collaboratively with other conservation organizations and government agencies to develop strategies for protecting the Lower Yellowstone. The Conservancy is working with the Yellowstone River Conservation District Council and the Yellowstone Conservation Forum to develop a process for conserving the river that includes agricultural landowners, recreationists, industry, business, environmentalists and local government.
What the Conservancy has done/is doing
The Conservancy and its partners are working with the Army Corps of Engineers to do a comprehensive cumulative effects study. Once the study provides more data about the threats, the partners will work to develop a set of best management practices for the river and incentive-based cost share programs that promote responsible conservation.
The Conservancy is also working with local irrigators and government agencies to revive the warm water fishery in the lower Yellowstone. One project involves building a fish bypass canal around the Tongue and Yellowstone diversion dam (also known as the 12-mile dam) to allow native fish to reach their traditional spawning and rearing habitat on the Tongue River.
The Conservancy is also working with a similar coalition to remove fish migration barriers at four other irrigation dams on the Yellowstone. A major project would involve contructing improvements for fish passage at the Intake Dam near Glendive, Montana. The Conservancy and this group have been working with U.S. Senator Max Baucus to seek federal support for this project. In the summer of 2006, the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations committee inserted language into its appropriations bill that authorizes the Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation to work together to fund, plan and construct improvements for fish passage at the Intake Dam. The bill allows these two agencies to start spending a portion of their existing and future Missouri River recovery funds on this project, which would modify the existing dam to allow warm-water fish to access their spawning habitat.
These and other fish-passage projects now being considered could ultimately increase fish access to spawning and rearing habitat on more than 415 channel miles of the Yellowstone and its tributary, the Tongue River.
