All the hysteria over low water and high water temps that flowed out of hoot owl closures over the last few weeks has lost some steam. On Friday evening, MTFWP lifted hoot owl closures for all but one SW Montana river. (Western MT rivers still have some closures) After a few weeks of afternoon temps in the 90s that corresponded with some low flows, hoot owls were in effect for many popular SW Montana rivers. Media hyped the situation with headlines like:
Indeed there are issues with many of our SW Montana rivers, but uninformed media hype that ignores the long term NORMAL of our rivers is a shame.
“Montana’s headwaters are in hot water” and statements like: “ The Beaverhead, Big Hole, Bitterroot, Jefferson, Lower Madison, Ruby, and Sun Rivers are all too hot and too low to sustain trout.” And “And when you consider Montana’s majestic headwater rivers are now too low and too hot for wild trout and salmon — it may well be too late already.”
But the normal “heat wave” SW Montana experiences annually waned and cool, relatively wet weather moved in. Rivers rose and peak water temps dropped significantly. At one of my favorite gages on the Big Hole, both flow and temps are now well above long-term median. In fact, a recent conversation I had with a MTFWP biologist confirmed that there are sections of the Big Hole where fish populations are healthy and have stayed stable for many years.Indeed there are issues with many of our SW Montana rivers, but uninformed media hype that ignores the long term NORMAL of our rivers is a shame.
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