In a recent Montana Standard newspaper article, John Grant Emeigh reported that 33 ranchers along Montana’s Big Hole River are working together to limit their water usage from the river as it suffers from two years of drought.
A voluntary pact has been in effect since 2006 involving about 90 percent of the ranches affecting the upper reaches of the Big Hole. The river is the year-round home to the rare, fluvial Arctic Grayling. Emma Cayer, state fisheries biologist charged with preservation of grayling, said a combination of river restoration projects and cooperation from ranchers are helping the river through these lean years.
“These ranchers have been incredible about turning water back into the river,” Cayer said in the Standard.
