Officials address conditions at Hebgen Reservoir, Madison River

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]Northwestern Energy hosted a public meeting on current conditions tonight on the the conditions on the Hebgen Reservoir and what they mean for the Madison River this season. NBC Montana's Noah Coltrane brings us a breakdown of what officials shared.

[00:00:15]Community members in Southwest Montana got a chance to voice their concerns on issues impacting one of the region's most important rivers. Specifically, snowpack and streamflow forecast on the Madison River. Officials say this is a chance for the public to hear what's ahead as spring runoff continues. This year has just been a lot different than that it was really warm all winter long.

[00:00:36]And so most of our snow that we've seen is up at really high elevations. Um this last storm helped with that some.

[00:00:42]But we just haven't seen the snowpack accumulate through the wintertime and a lot of that is because of the warmer conditions through the wintertime. The meeting focused on how the Hebgen and Madison Dams are operated, including how water flows are managed under a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license.

[00:00:58]The biggest concern right now for Hebgen Reservoir and the Madison River is ensuring that we get Hebgen Reservoir completely full this spring.

[00:01:06]And then longer-term concerns is making sure we have enough storage in Hebgen to provide for the Madison River and the support of that fishery downstream to Three Forks. For anglers, outfitters, and conservation groups, fish habitat is a major part of the conversation. Topics also include current river conditions, fish population, and projects sponsored by the Madison Fisheries Technical Advisory Committee. Current conditions are not looking great relative to how much snowpack we have up in the hills.

[00:01:34]That's essentially our fuel for the river system all season long. And right now we're about 50% total of the normal water supply in the mountains. And so we'll be predicting that we're going to have reduced flows most of the summer.

[00:01:47]Officials say managing flushing flows designed to support spawning habitat with recreation projects in the Madison River corridor is challenging, but they are working to find a balance. So, we do generate power down at the Madison Dam, but not coming out of Hebgen.

[00:02:02]But, our goal is to be able to manage the the resource so it benefits, you know, the wildlife, the fishery, recreation, and provides power generation at the Madison. And so, it's a really significant balancing act that we do there to protect all of those resources and the economies that are supported by those. NorthWestern Energy staff and Madison River partners were on hand to answer questions and share information directly with the community.

[00:02:28]We have more information from the meeting on our NBC homepage. That's nbcmontana.com.

[00:02:34]Reporting in Ennis, Noah Coldtrain, NBC Montana.