Another Day in Paradise

We got a dusting of snow here in Bozeman last night; beautiful big puffy flakes. I don’t think everyone would agree that is was beautiful though. Every flake adds extra time to spring run off, which promises to be a good one this year. We are currently about 140% of average snow water equivalent in all our ‘local’ mountain ranges. Looks like we’ll see House Rock under water again this year. The Flathead and Kootentai area are in for a rough spring though; both are currently around 170% of average snow water equivalent! Spring runoff is important to maintain the health of our rivers. The high and fast flows purge the system of silt, dead trees, and other detritus that clogs the river. You can have too much of a good thing though. If runoff it too high or runs too long the then runoff can have detrimental affect on the trout themselves but almost more importantly to the insect populations. Don’t be too alarmed though high runoff isn’t unusual we’re just not used to it after so many drought years. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

Snow pack infomation can be found here: http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/reports/SelectUpdateReport.html