Friends of the Bighorn River

To help meet irrigation demands, releases to the Bighorn Canal will increase 100cfs, and releases to the river will drop from 10,000cfs to 9,900cfs in 50cfs increments beginning this afternoon and ending tomorrow morning.

Bighorn Lake filled the conservation pool (lake elevation 3,640ft) at approximately 2:15 this morning.

During the last few weeks, Reclamation engineers have done a commendable job keeping river flows steady despite the recent unstable weather, especially since starting with such a high (and unprecedented) early spring lake level.

However, recent torrential rains across the region have necessitated a slight additional release to the river to control the rate of fill of Bighorn Lake. At 5pm this afternoon, flows were bumped an additional 500cfs to bring river releases to 10,000cfs.

Thanks to everyone who called and/or submitted river reports and observations all of which are most helpful and will be passed along to the appropriate agencies.

A very happy Father's Day to you Dad's this weekend!
 

Got word from Reclamation late this afternoon that "recent streamflow measurements conducted by the USGS are slightly lower than the calculated discharges through the Afterbay control structures." 

To sync the calculated discharges with the actual discharges and produce the desired 9,550cfs, an additional 500cfs was released to the river starting at 4pm this afternoon.

Word has come from Reclamation that BIA requested a slight decrease in releases to the Bighorn Canal. That 50cfs reduction was sent to the river today at 3:00pm.

While no major changes are expected, the weekly stakeholders conference call is tomorrow, and anything newsworthy will be reported like always.

Enjoy the nice weather!

ps:  If you been on the river, we appreciate hearing the latest fishing and river conditions, as well as side-channel and bank status. Send your observation to bighornriver.org@gmail.com Thanks!

So long, Mark.

You were one of us, and we'll miss you!