A recent Federal Judge’s ruling gives hope to those trying to return the Yellowstone River back to the last undammed major river in the lower 48. The ruling could also mean good news to approximately 125 long-snouted pallid sturgeon that have been disconnected from their spawning grounds by a historic wood-and-rock irrigation dam that crosses the river in eastern Montana. U.S. Government officials say that the pallid sturgeon risk extinction if their spawning route isn’t restored.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have proposed a new dam with a separate channel allowing the pallid sturgeon to swim around the dam but environmental groups sued to block that plan. Those groups are petitioning to remove the existing wood-and-rock irrigation dam so the pallid sturgeon are free to spawn without any man-made obstacles.
