JACKSON, Wyo. — It was a record setting winter, in the worst way.
As of early April, the upper Snake River basin was enduring its fourth-worst snowpack on record, with just 62 percent of the median. That portends low flows and warmer water in the Snake River and its tributaries, a rough environment for trout, says Matt Bambach, water resources director for Protect Our Water Jackson Hole (POWJH). There’s also less dilution for pollutants, he says, “which impacts both aquatic life and aquatic recreation. It could be a tough summer for river recreation of all kinds.”
Yet, Jackson Hole is better off than most of the West.
Almost every other watershed in Wyoming notched its record-worst snowpack. Colorado is suffering a 26 percent of median snowpack statewide, easily the worst on record. Headlines there preview curtailments to Colorado River water, which the state shares by law with seven other states. There won’t be enough water to meet the river’s legal obligations, and recreation, agriculture, and even municipalities could have water curtailed.
Could we endure that same fate here in Jackson Hole? A pair of events next week may provide some answers
- POWJH’s Tap Into Science series: Monday, April 13 at the Snake River Brewing
- Snake River Headwaters Symposium: Friday, April 17 at the Center for the Arts
By law, just four percent upper Snake River watershed flows belong to Wyoming water users. The rest goes to Idaho, and as with the Colorado River, the Snake is oversubscribed. Keeping an eye on Snake River water usage is the Wyoming State Engineers Office’s Preston Konop. On Monday, April 13, he’ll discuss who has legal access to the Snake’s water in Wyoming, how it got that way, and what that means for landowners, the irrigation system, and the rivers themselves in a drier Wyoming. “There’s not going to be a lot of water this year,” says Konop. “That makes it a good time to understand who does and doesn’t have access to the water.”
Later in the week, POWJH will delve even more deeply into the issues facing our community’s waterway at the Snake River Headwaters Symposium. Where scientists, water users, agencies, nonprofits, businesses, and community members can learn from one another and explore the most pressing issues facing the watershed.
About the Snake River Headwaters Symposium
The event is brought to you by the Snake River Headwaters Working Group, a consortium of some 100 organizations including POWJH. The group was formed in 2023 after a crisis was narrowly averted on the upper Snake. That Spring, the Bureau of Reclamation, who controls Snake River water distribution, proposed cutting flows through Grand Teton National Park to just 50 cfs for seven weeks. The figure, about one-sixth the minimum flow needed to sustain fish and other aquatic wildlife in the critical spring season, galvanized the conservation and recreation communities to demand a remedy. Only several weeks of intense negotiations reaching the highest levels of the Interior Department ensured adequate flows from Jackson Lake Dam. It also spurred the creation of the headwaters group, and says POWJH’s Bambach, “a new space for conversations that haven’t happen before.”
The symposium is headlined by Kevin Fedarko, Colorado River expert and bestselling author of The Emerald Mile and A Walk in the Park. Daytime panels will cover topics from building ecological resilience in the threatened river to finding common ground between recreation, conservation, and community needs. Bambach will lead a panel on measuring and sustaining the river’s water quality.
“How do we monitor the river to know whether it’s safe to swim in and fish from?” says Bambach. “”How do we know if the river is healthy, or if our drinking water is safe to consume? On a deeper level, the imbalances in our way of life often manifest in water quality degradation.”
Bambach points out that even if community members can’t make the symposium, many of the answers to his panel’s discussion can be found in POWJH’s celebrated Clean Water Guide – A Handbook for Protecting and Restoring Teton County’s Vital Water Resources. The guide leads readers through the watershed’s unique history, ecology, and water quality issues before offering numerous tips on how to be a steward of the Snake River ecosystem. Funding for the Clean Water Guide was provided by a POWJH EPA Environmental Education grant.
