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Drought shrinking Bighorn Lake
By LORNA THACKERAY
Of The Gazette Staff
It should have been a busy day at Horseshoe Bend, the only developed Wyoming
marina on Bighorn Lake.
The fishing was good, the water clear and the temperature hot.
But one lone fishing boat, far in the distance, had the lake all to itself.
It was probably among the last to be launched this summer from the normally
bustling marina.
The National Park Service pulled its courtesy dock out of the water on July
26 and closed the boat ramp the next evening. The swimming area shut down on
Monday. Water in the lake was so low this year that the main docks had to be
removed in mid-July.
“We were starting to see sandbars, and people were getting stuck," said Bob
Byrne, assistant park superintendent at Lovell, Wyo., on south end of Bighorn
Canyon National Recreation Area.
The concessionaire decided in May that it wouldn’t be worth the expense to
open. No gas or supplies have been available there all summer.
A combination of silt buildup and a snowless winter left Horseshoe Bend in
its worst predicament since 1994, when the Park Service also had to pull its
docks early.
Since 1967, when water began filling the 70-mile-long reservoir, between 40
and 45 feet of silt has clogged Horseshoe Bend, said park Superintendent
Darrell Cook. The silt flows in with the Shoshone and Bighorn rivers and
settles, he said. In dry years, the swimming area disappears, and boat
launching becomes a precarious business.
Ultimately, the best solution may be building a new marina at Barry’s
Landing, a popular boat-launching area a few miles north into Montana, Cook
said. But that’s something to be considered in the long term, he said.
Barry’s Landing has no electricity.
“Bringing in power would cost $800,000 to $1 million," he said.
Barry’s Landing and Ok-A-Beh Marina on the north end of the lake are still
usable and will probably stay open through Labor Day. Both remain busy,
keeping visitor numbers near those of last year. Camping and picnicking are
still available at Horseshoe Bend.
When the water is at a reasonable depth, Horseshoe Bend attracts big weekend
crowds from Montana and Wyoming, as well as an increasing number of tourists.
Over the last three years, the Park Service has added a playground, picnic
pavilions and grass near the swimming beach.
“We have a lot to offer the people of Montana and Wyoming," Cook said.
Meager snowpack in Wyoming mountain ranges that feed the reservoir got the
water year off to a dismal start.
“We have very little inflows coming from the rivers," Byrne said. “The
Bighorn is about a third of normal, and the Shoshone is about a fourth."
Tim Felchle, Montana reservoir operations chief for the Bureau of Reclamation
in Billings, said inflows are at record lows – somewhere around 1,000 cubic
feet per second (cfs). He is planning to begin at midnight Wednesday to
reduce current releases into the Bighorn River below Yellowtail Dam from
1,850 cfs to 1,600 to keep more water in the lake longer. Release will shrink
50 cfs a day until Aug. 3. The reduction is only a little above the 1,500 cfs
absolute minimum needed for survival of the river’s world class fisheries.
The reservoir is dropping about 3 to 4 inches a day. If that continues, the
lake level will fall another 10 feet by the end of August, he said.
The reservoir peaked in June at an elevation of 3,621 feet, 19 feet below its
full level, Felchle said. It stood at 3,613.1 feet on Monday.
“Every day, inflows drop a little bit more," he said. “It seems like it’s
shutting down."
Moisture that bathed much of Montana during June and July was almost a
no-show across the recreation area. Byrne said the only real moisture fell in
a single June storm that brought the lake elevation up 4 feet.
“It was a godsend," he said. “It kept us going as long we have. Without it,
we would have had to close right after the Fourth of July.”
Felchle said the storm on June 12 and 13 made quite an impressive spike in
inflows into the lake. On the 12th, inflows were measured at 2,100 cfs. On
the 14th, they were more than 10,000 cfs. But two days later, inflows were
back to 2,000 cfs.
“Rain doesn’t do anything for streamflows," he said. “What we get in the
rivers is snowmelt. We would have to get a really huge downpour, but then it
goes back down quickly."
One of the normal sources of water for the lake is Boysen Reservoir near
Riverton, Wyo., but it has no water to spare.
“Boysen is in sad shape," Felchle said. “It’s the lowest we’ve seen since
1960. That was the only other year it’s been as low.
“Even if we get a normal runoff (next spring), it’s still not going to fill.
We’re going to have to see a big snowfall or they aren’t going to be able to
send much to us."
Byrne said drought conditions could create other problems this year.
“Fire danger has been running between high and very high, back and forth
every day," he said.
The Pryor Mountain wild horse herd could also feel the effects.
“I think they are going to have a rough winter," Cook said. “We think it’s
going to hurt the winter range. That’s where it will show up – in the
forage."
Mares from the Pryor Mountain wild horse herd cluster in the juniper desert
surrounding the reservoir and graze on the sparse vegetation along the side
of the road. They look healthy and content and don’t seem troubled by
carloads of tourists snapping their pictures. But winter could be a time of
starvation.
Some of the pressure may be relieved this fall. The Bureau of Land Management
is planning a wild horse roundup that should significantly reduce the size of
the herd.
Lorna Thackeray can be reached 657-1314 or at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.
"Never cease in the fight for peace, justice, and equality for all people. Be
perisitent in all that you do and don't allow anyone to sway you from your
conscience.".....Leonard Peltier
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