Stream Characterization

StreamStats is a digital, map-based tool designed to provide information about streamflow and the upstream watershed of any selected point on a stream. The tool can assist in water resources planning and management and support engineering and design projects. In Wyoming, the current capabilities of the application are basin delineations and basin-characteristics.

The Vermilion River is a major tributary to the Lower Clark Fork River in the northwest corner of Montana and is designated as critical habitat for migratory bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout. Historic placer, hydraulic, and dredge mining and large-scale clearcutting (via commercial forestry) in the upper portion of the Vermilion River drainage have degraded the river habitat, increased the...

Lake Koocanusa (Koocanusa Reservoir) is a transboundary reservoir located in southeastern British Columbia and northwestern Montana.

The USGS WY-MT Water Science Center operates streamgages in the Snake River Basin in Wyoming that report streamflow in the mainstem of the Snake River and tributary streams. During the spring of 2022, in cooperation with the Teton Conservation District, thermistors were installed at six sites in the basin to record and report water temperature data. There are currently 12 sites in the basin that...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has collected water-quality samples from selected stream sites upstream from Missoula since 1985.

The Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative is a long-term science-based effort to assess and enhance aquatic and terrestrial habitats at a landscape scale in southwest Wyoming, while facilitating responsible development through local collaboration and partnerships. The WLCI is an interagency working group of partners that is beginning the process of establishing a much larger coalition of...

The WY-MT WSC is collaborating with the Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center to understand the dynamics of streamflows in small, mountain streams during the course of the year, and to describe the amount of variability associated with those measurements. These findings will assist fisheries biologists who are researching temperature and streamflow effects on cutthroat trout and will help...

The role of natural versus human-influenced factors in sedimentation of Littlefield Creek, a small, high-desert creek in south-central Wyoming is currently unknown. In general, there is little empirical information about both hydrologic and geomorphic processes (together described as hydrogeomorphic) in these types of streams. To develop a better understanding of hydrogeomorphic processes, their...

Real-time groundwater streamgages are created at existing streamgages by adding streambank wells (piezometers) to expand the understanding of groundwater/surface-water interaction. The object of this project is to: Identify interactions between the stream and near-surface groundwater Evaluate data to determine annual patterns and changes over time

The Smith River watershed is an important recreational and agricultural area in Meagher and Cascade counties in west-central Montana. Thousands of visitors travel to the area annually to float and fish the Smith River. Additionally, most of the water used to irrigate 36,000 acres of the upper Smith River watershed is withdrawn from the Smith River or its tributaries. During a recent drought...

Organisms that live in the semi-arid prairies in the Northern Great Plains are able to live through conditions of extreme heat, cold, floods, and drought. The fish that inhabit the warm, turbid waters of northern Great Plains streams are indicators of change in these delicate ecosystems, where water quantity and water quality are often precariously close to ecological tolerance limits. In fact...

The Watershed Program in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Wyoming Water Science Center developed regional curves that relate bankfull channel dimensions and discharge to drainage area for hydrophysiographic regions in Wyoming where data are currently lacking. Regional curves are useful aids for estimating bankfull discharge and related channel dimensions at ungaged sites...