Blackfoot Challenge working to overcome exceptional drought

Laura Lundquist

(Missoula Current) When Potomac rancher Denny Iverson saw last fall’s predictions that Montana’s weather would follow an El Nino pattern, he knew this summer would probably be challenging. But he didn’t know that the Blackfoot River Valley would end up in exceptional drought.

“I’ve followed this El Nino-La Nina cycle for 50 years, I guess. So when I see El Nino coming, our family prepares for that,” Iverson said. “We’re getting through this season. But some of our neighbors aren’t as lucky - they don’t have some of the resources that we have. We’ve got good water rights. But a good water right is only good if there’s water in the stream to fill it.”

Unfortunately, the Blackfoot River hasn’t had the water this summer to fill Iverson’s or any landowner’s water right due to this past winter’s low snowpack, recent low moisture and high temperatures. So members of the University of Montana Climate Office met with representatives of the Blackfoot Challenge at the Milltown pedestrian bridge across the Blackfoot River on Wednesday morning to raise awareness of the drought and the need for water conservation.

Below the pedestrian bridge, the river burbled over the cobbled stream bottom that is rarely close enough to the surface to create a riffle. Along the banks, several feet of white dry rock was exposed showing how much the river had dropped.

Kelsey Jencso, UM hydrology professor and director of the Climate Office, said the Blackfoot River Valley is in “record-setting low streamflow conditions” brought on by drought conditions.

The low snowpack this past winter was also record-setting in some places, and by April 1, the Blackfoot watershed had received only 57% of its average snow moisture. The cool, moist spring weather that followed “wasn’t enough to fill the cup,” Jencso said.

“Montana is the epicenter of drought in the western U.S. right now. The Blackfoot watershed in particular is in D-4 drought conditions,” Jencso said. “The last time we’ve seen drought this severe in the Blackfoot was in 2004.”

D-4 or “exceptional” drought is the highest level of drought where fire risk is extremely high, pasture loss is widespread, crops are destroyed and drought hotlines are in place. The Blackfoot River Valley is the only region of Montana that was placed in D-4 conditions as of last Thursday.

The area surrounding the Blackfoot Valley, from the eastern halves of Missoula and Ravalli counties east into Butte-Silver Bow and Powell counties, is not much better, having been designated as D-3 or “extreme” drought.

“The Blackfoot Challenge and the actions that the farmers, ranchers and residents in the valley are taking are what are going to get us through these record-setting conditions,” Jencso said.

The Blackfoot Challenge is a collaborative volunteer group of landowners and residents in the Blackfoot Valley who work together to preserve the land and watershed. Clancy Jandreau, Blackfoot Challenge Water Steward, said the group developed a plan more than two decades ago to help both landowners and the river deal with drought, but “this year marks the most challenging year we have faced to date.”

In June, the Blackfoot River was already low and the Drought Committee started sending out alerts to landowners, boaters and anglers. The river continued to drop and the committee initiated voluntary water conservation measures on July 11, the earliest date since the plan went into effect. One day later, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks initiated hoot-owl fishing restrictions on the Blackfoot River.

On the evening of July 22, the Blackfoot River flow near the bridge dropped below 500 cubic feet per second, less than half of what the median flow is for this time of year. That triggered mandatory water conservation measures due to FWP and tribal instream flow rights for fish. That’s happened only one other time in the past few decades, but this year, it happened almost a month earlier than it did in 2016.

Jandreau said about 90 landowners participate in the voluntary conservation measures. They’ve estimated that those efforts can equate to leaving as much as 50 cfs in the river. Recently, they’ve working with state hydrologists to more accurately measure how much water they’re conserving for the river.

“Even if we can’t measure it, there are clearly local benefits to tributaries, where just a cfs of cold water can make a difference for a fishery,” Jandreau said.

When the mandatory cutbacks are required, it affects the junior water-right owners first - about 25 of the drought plan participants - and they can be left with no water. So senior water rights owners in the Blackfoot Challenge will often reduce their use to leave some for junior water rights owners.

“This exceptional drought may be unprecedented, but drought in the Blackfoot is not. Over the last 24 years, we’ve experienced drought conditions in 16 of those years, and we as a community have built a collective response that builds our community resilience. It incorporates flexibility in times of need, and it strengthens our social connections through shared sacrifice for shared benefit,” Jandreau said. “That’s not to say that it’s been easy. But it’s only through collective action that we can build the community resilience that’s needed to get through these dry times.”

Iverson said farmers and ranchers can do other things so they don’t need as much water. On his ranch, they’re using different practices to improve soil health so it can hold the water longer, such as rotating fields between grazing and haying. But he also reduced the size of his herd this year by about 15%, so he could meet the demand with less hay. But that affects a rancher’s bottom line.

Fortunately, climate scientists are predicting that this winter will bring a return of the La Nina wetter weather pattern. So next year might be better.

“If you get two years in a row like this, you’re in deep trouble. Some of the rangeland is really hurting. Some of our dryland rangeland - there will be no regrowth this year unless we get some huge rain events,” Iverson said. “But the point is, if you can prepare ahead a little bit, work with the Blackfoot Challenge on drought response, you can get through one year and not struggle too bad.”

Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at lundquist@missoulacurrent.com.