Yellowstone River Research Articles

Ecology and Ethnogenesis: An Environmental History of the Wind River Shoshones, 1000–1868

In Ecology and Ethnogenesis, Adam R. Hodge presents a deep history of an Indigenous community too often overlooked by historians. This is a book of remarkable depth that tracks a group of people as they morphed culturally and politically during nearly a millennium. The book focuses on this group’s transformation from the Numu, the Eastern Shoshones, to the Wind River Shoshones over the course of that thousand-year span. Hodge argues that movement between vastly different ecologies prior to arrival of European colonists, as well as the changes to those environments wrought by European colonialism, played key roles in the development of modern Wind River Shoshone society. It is fundamentally an environmental history, showing how one Indigenous society’s environmental context, and their adaptation to ecological changes, shaped their social and cultural structure. “If we hope to grasp [the Wind River Shoshones’] past,” Hodge writes, “it is especially important to explore the interplay between their ancestors and the physical environments that they historically utilized” (3).The focus on the intersection of culture and ecology is well maintained throughout the book but is particularly strong in Hodge’s analysis of changing gender norms and roles within Eastern and Wind River Shoshone society. Hodge provides sensitive and nuanced discussions of polygyny and plural marriage among the Shoshones, arguing that such practices served important economic roles. “Gender complementarity and the practice of polygyny distributed critical labor practices and helped ensure productive Shoshone households and communities” during the high era of the mountain western fur trade in the early nineteenth century, Hodge argues (216–17). Gender is a major theme in this work as, in the author’s words, “ecological interrelationships that contributed to Eastern Shoshone distinctiveness often manifested in the form of gender dynamics. . . . I strive for a ‘genuine incorporation’ of Indian women’s history” (9). In this, Hodge succeeds wonderfully.Ecology and Ethnogenesis could have used another round of editing. This is not merely a matter of aesthetics—though, to be sure, word and phrase repetition can be distracting in the text. Some sentences and paragraphs run on long enough to obscure the central point the author is making, and unnecessarily wordy phrases similarly cloud meaning throughout the book. To cite one example of unnecessarily bulky sentences, in an early chapter Hodge writes: “The far northwestern portion of the Great Plains, a vast area that encompasses the grasslands of present-day Montana and Alberta, situated between the Yellowstone River on the south and the North Saskatchewan to the north, pulled Numic-speaking peoples northward along the eastern foot of the Northern Rockies because it afforded tremendous hunting opportunities” (86). Sentences of this size abound and do not clarify the story Hodge tells. This is a relatively minor drawback, but a noticeable one nonetheless.Adam Hodge’s Ecology and Ethnogenesis is a strong work of history, and the author’s emphasis on precontact Numu society and on the relationship between ecological change and gender history are welcome emphases in a field that too often ignores both. While some dense and occasionally unclear writing may mean this work appeals to a strictly academic audience, it will be of considerable use to any scholar working on the history of the North American West and those who have called that place home.

Falsification‐Oriented Signature‐Based Evaluation for Guiding the Development of Land Surface Models and the Enhancement of Observations

AbstractWe develop a novel framework for rigorously evaluating land surface models (LSMs) against observations by recognizing the asymmetry between verification‐ and falsification‐oriented approaches. The former approach cannot completely verify LSMs even though it exhausts every case of consistency between the model predictions and observations, whereas the latter only requires a single case of inconsistency to reveal that there must be something wrong. We argue that it is such an inconsistency that stimulates further development of the models and enhancement of the observations. We therefore propose a falsification‐oriented signature‐based evaluation framework to identify cases of inconsistency between model predictions and observations by extracting signatures based on a set of key assumptions. We apply this framework to evaluate an ensemble of simulations from the Noah‐MP LSM against observations over the continental United States under the three assumptions of water mass conservation, no lateral water flow, and a sufficiently long period of time. Regions showing inconsistencies between the Noah‐MP ensemble simulations and the observations are located in the western mountainous areas, the Yellowstone river basin, the lower Floridan aquifer, the Niobrara river basin at the north tip of the Ogallala aquifer, and the basins downstream of the Balcones fault zones in Texas. These regions coincide with the sites where both advances in theoretical modeling and new observational data (e.g., from the Critical Zone Observatories) have emerged.

Pipeline pipedreams: Oil spills, pipeline accidents, and the local truths embedding fossil fuels in the Yellowstone River Valley, United States

Climate change and encroachment of human infrastructure have altered the flow regimes and channel morphology of the world’s major rivers. At the same time, expanding pipeline networks continue to transport hazardous materials around and under these changing river systems. The interaction of these phenomena has produced a series of incidents—notably, on the Yellowstone River in 2011 and 2015—when exposed pipelines have been damaged or corroded, releasing oil and other contaminants into rivers with significant ecological, economic, and social consequences. These events have prompted some evolution of policy and best practices; however, the power of the status quo has slowed the pace of policy change, forcing us to also consider justice implications. In this study we employ a qualitative, longitudinal methodology to examine the dominant ‘truth regime’—or collection of truisms that reinforces the status quo—that operates in this context. We analyze the discourse of citizen stakeholders on the Yellowstone River, gathered over three field seasons: 2006, 2012 and 2018. Our findings highlight four components of a truth regime—‘we need oil,’ ‘this is conservative country,’ ‘it’s always been clean,’ and ‘problem solved’—and demonstrate how they are reinforced and challenged over time. While this analysis is limited to the Yellowstone River, the components are likely found in other contexts where human impacts, climate change and policy development overlap.

Flood dynamics dictate distributions of Elaeagnus angustifolia L. (Russian olive) on a riverine floodplain

North American invasions of Elaeagnus angustifolia L. (Russian olive) are still expanding, and hydrochory could be increasing invasion impacts along rivers. Spatial association between riverine flood-inundation patterns and E. angustifolia distributions suggests a link between seed movement potential and invasion patterns in time and space. Using output from hydraulic inundation models, we mapped inundation zones associated with successive flood return intervals within 10.81 km2 of the estimated 500-year floodplain of the Yellowstone River, Montana, USA. We then evaluated spatial relationships among inundation zones and E. angustifolia distribution. Elaeagnus angustifolia was highly spatially associated with frequent flood return intervals: 80% of E. angustifolia exists within a subset of the floodplain predicted to flood every 10 years or less, with the highest occupancy in the 1.5- to 5-year return zones. Within frequently inundated areas, floodplain occupancy of E. angustifolia was distributed in patterns consistent with likely areas of sediment deposition. Thus, existing predictions of invasion timelines are likely to improve with explicit consideration of dispersal opportunities associated with hydrochory during flooding. In particular, if hydrochory is a significant secondary dispersal mechanism, then seed immigration at flood intervals of 5 years or less could lead to substantially shorter invasion lags than currently predicted.

Two Ocean Pass: An Alternative Hypothesis for the Invasion of Yellowstone Lake by Lake Trout, and Implications for Future Invasions

Preventing the interbasin transfer of aquatic invasive species is a high priority for natural resource managers. Such transfers can be made by humans or can occur by dispersal through connected waterways. A natural surface water connection between the Atlantic and Pacific drainages in North America exists at Two Ocean Pass south of Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone cutthroat trout Oncorhynchus clarkii bouvieri used this route to cross the Continental Divide and colonize the Yellowstone River from ancestral sources in the Snake River following glacial recession 14,000 bp. Nonnative lake trout Salvelinus namaycush were stocked into lakes in the Snake River headwaters in 1890 and quickly dispersed downstream. Lake trout were discovered in Yellowstone Lake in 1994 and were assumed to have been illegally introduced. Recently, lake trout have demonstrated their ability to move widely through river systems and invade headwater lakes in Glacier National Park. Our objective was to determine if lake trout and other nonnative fish were present in the connected waters near Two Ocean Pass and could thereby colonize the Yellowstone River basin in the past or future. We used environmental DNA (eDNA), electrofishing, and angling to survey for lake trout and other fishes. Yellowstone cutthroat trout were detected at nearly all sites on both sides of the Continental Divide. Lake trout and invasive brook trout S. fontinalis were detected in Pacific Creek near its confluence with the Snake River. We conclude that invasive movements by lake trout from the Snake River over Two Ocean Pass may have resulted in their colonization of Yellowstone Lake. Moreover, Yellowstone Lake may be vulnerable to additional invasions because several other nonnative fish inhabit the upper Snake River. In the future, eDNA collected across smaller spatial intervals in Pacific Creek during flow conditions more conducive to lake trout movement may provide further insight into the extent of non-native fish invasions in this stream.

Physical characteristics and simulated transport of pallid sturgeon and shovelnose sturgeon eggs

The imperiled pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) and closely related, but more common, shovelnose sturgeon (S. platorynchus) are believed to broadcast adhesive, demersal eggs in the current and over coarse substrate in turbid rivers of the North American midcontinent. It has been hypothesized that eggs settle immediately following fertilization, but field conditions preclude direct observation. We conducted laboratory studies to characterize the diameter, shape, settling velocity, and specific gravity of pallid sturgeon and shovelnose sturgeon eggs. Based on these laboratory measurements, we then modeled the potential fate of pallid sturgeon eggs by considering these physical properties in the context of two field sites where spawning has occurred. Although eggs of pallid sturgeon and shovelnose sturgeon were of a similar size and shape, shovelnose sturgeon eggs had slightly higher specific gravity and settling velocity. For representative hydraulic conditions at documented spawning sites in the mainstem Missouri and Lower Yellowstone Rivers, eggs of both species will likely be concentrated near the bed although some eggs may be distributed throughout the water column. Simulations of egg transport indicate that eggs may be transported up to several hundred meters downstream from spawning locations in the approximate length of time required for eggs to become adhesive. Estimates of egg transport presented here rely on simplifying assumptions about river hydraulics and limited understanding of how eggs interact with the complex substrates and flow near the bed; results highlight the need for additional studies to evaluate the fate of eggs and fertilized embryos of both species.

Riparian Cottonwood Forest Restoration Along the Yellowstone River: A Featured Natural Area in Billings, Montana

Across Montana, dams curtail annual spring floods, depriving riparian cottonwood forests of the regenerative disturbance processes that sustain them. Invasive plant species further disrupt plant communities and ecosystem dynamics. Billings, MT lies along the undammed and iconic Yellowstone River. Spring floods still drive ecosystem change, but invasive species prevent a return to a fully functioning natural ecosystem. Restoring a highly visible natural area adjacent to Montana’s largest city will provide abundant opportunities for education on disturbance regimes, invasive species, and ecosystem processes.

A River Runs By It: How Embracing a River Created Synergy for a Natural Areas Program and Interagency Environmental Education in Billings, Montana

Billings, MT was established in 1882 concurrent with the newly arrived railroad, which displaced the Yellowstone River as the area’s economic engine. For a century, Billings was dominated by ranching, agriculture, mining and refining. As the only major city in 125,000 square-miles, it is now a hub of commerce, education, and medical services. It has recently become a center for natural resource agencies and NGOs. Demand for quality of life amenities and local expertise to provide them has contributed to the rediscovery of the river as an ecological and recreational gem. This interest has led to the development of a Natural Areas management program in city wildland areas.

Improved genetic identification of acipenseriform embryos with application to the endangered pallid sturgeon Scaphirhynchus albus.

We produced pallid sturgeon Scaphirhynchus albus embryos at five pre-hatch developmental stages and isolated and quantified genomic DNA from four of the stages using four commercial DNA isolation kits. Genomic DNA prepared using the kit that produced the largest yields and concentrations were used for microsatellite DNA analyses of 10-20 embryos at each of the five developmental stages. We attempted to genotype the hatchery-produced embryos at 19 microsatellite loci and confirmed reliable genotyping by comparing the microsatellite genotypes to those of known parents. Embryos at stages 5 and 8 did not produce reliable genotyping while those at stages 14, 24 and 33 did. We used the same DNA isolation method on 262 wild-caught acipenseriform embryos collected from the lower Yellowstone River. A total of 200 of the wild embryos were successfully identified to stages 8 to 34 and the rest could not be staged. Using a combination of single nucleotide polymorphism and microsatellite markers, 249 of the wild-caught embryos were genetically identified as paddlefish Polyodon spathula, five were identified as shovelnose sturgeon Scaphirhynchus platorynchus and eight failed to amplify. None were identified as pallid sturgeon. This study demonstrates that early-stage wild-spawned acipenseriform embryos can be genetically identified less than 24 h post-spawn. This methodology will be useful for recovery efforts for endangered pallid sturgeon and can be applied to other acipenseriform species.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MUSEUM IN ANTEBELLUM U.S. WESTERN TERRITORIAL EXPLORATION: UNDERSTANDING THE RELEVANCE OF COLLECTING FOSSILS AND THEIR CONSERVATION TO SOLVING LONG-STANDING GEOLOGIC AND PALEONTOLOGIC PROBLEMS—PART 1

The determination of pivotal moments in the history of a discipline of science can depend on the perspective of the observer. This narrative notes the importance of antebellum institutions in fostering research, research communication, and the potential for fossil conservation. The Smithsonian Institution (U.S. National Museum = National Museum of Natural History) provided a federal umbrella for fossil collection and curation when one was needed. However, along with other institutions, the success record of conserved fossil continental mollusks prior to 1855 is abysmal. Fossils from the first (Frémont in 1843), second (Harris–Audubon in 1843), and third (Evans–Shumard in 1853) expeditions to collect specimens are all now missing. As a clue to the general state of confusion one, terrestrial snail named by Hall and Meek (1855) was misplaced for over a century, but was recently found. Continental molluscan fossils should have served as temporal and environmental landmarks in the construction of geologic maps produced in the 1850s by Hitchcock, Marcou, Rogers, and Hall and Lesley. However, except for the Hall and Lesley map, they did not. Fossil information was published and available, but many fossils were not accessible. The Smithsonian was the recipient of Hayden's fossils and natural science specimens collected in 1854 and 1855. Hayden's fossils and observations resulted in numerous publications, not the least of which were those by Meek and Hayden in 1856 and 1857. For reasons that remain unknown, a number of type specimens (and associated material) used to describe species in 1856 were replaced by Meek in his 1876a monograph, when Meek and Hayden upper Missouri and Yellowstone River species were finally illustrated. Thus, undeclared neotypes have been masquerading as holotypes or members of syntypic (cotypic) series. Meek and Hayden entered the field of western territorial geological studies with only the preconceptions of geology not particularly relevant to what they were about to see. Their claim to fame was not subtle—they published based on observations and specimens. In almost all ways that were important, they were starting from scratch.

Stratigraphic relationships along the monoclinal eastern base of Bald Ridge and northwestern edge of Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin, U.S.A.

ABSTRACT This geologic study is focused on a less than 5 square-mile (ca. 13 km2) tract of public land in northwestern Wyoming, 8 miles (12.9 km) south-southwest of the small town of Clark in Park County. The study area is south of Clarks Fork of Yellowstone River along the eastern base of the topographic feature called Bald Ridge, also known structurally as Dead Indian monocline. Since the Middle Eocene, the study area has been along the northwestern margin of the Bighorn Basin. Prior to that time, the study area existed near the west–east center of the basin. Bald Ridge became elevated late in the Laramide orogeny (no older than the Early Eocene) through east-directed faulting of basement rocks via the extensive Line Creek–Oregon Basin thrust system. As that active faulting occurred, the overlying Phanerozoic strata (Lower Cambrian through Lower Eocene) responded with numerous west-directed, out-of-the-basin thrusts as a new western-basin margin developed along the eastern realm of the newly born Absaroka volcanic field. Most of that deformation occurred after deposition of uppermost levels of the Lower Eocene Willwood Formation. The key purpose of the present paper was to improve the accuracy of mapping of the Jurassic into Eocene stratigraphy along the newly restricted, northwestern edge of Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin. The stratigraphic column in a north–south band along the eastern flank of the Beartooth Mountains and continuing southward into the present study area was markedly deformed and deeply eroded late during the Laramide orogeny. The present small, more southerly study area is structurally and erosionally simpler than its more northerly equivalent. Thus, its study adds important geological information to the history of the northern Cody Arch, a convex-westward string of related basement-involved uplifts extending southward to southwest of the city of Cody. Progressively steepening eastward dips of strata characterize a west-to-east transect from the summit of Bald Ridge (capped by the shallowly dipping, Mississippian Madison Limestone) to the western edge of strongly overturned outcrops of the Eocene Willwood Formation. The Upper Cretaceous Meeteetse Formation is the stratigraphic horizon at which the dips attain vertical or slightly overturned orientations. All consequential faults within the newly mapped area are thrusts, and they show generally westward (out-of-the-basin) displacements. Despite those west-directed displacements, their primary cause was tectonic shortening at depth below Bald Ridge that was directed to the northeast or east-northeast. During the Laramide orogeny, certain thrust planes within the east-dipping Phanerozoic rock column cut down-section stratigraphically (but uphill relative to Earth’s surface) and thereby placed younger strata upon older. The cumulative result, as recognized at several levels within the present area of study, was marked thinning of the total section. For example, surface exposures of the mostly Paleocene Fort Union Formation, 4,000 feet (1,219 m) thick only 7 miles (11.3 km) to the east, was completely eliminated from the local surface stratigraphy by that means. The northern end of Bald Ridge is formed by the highly asymmetric Canyon Mouth anticline. That structure differs strongly in the attitude of its hinge line from the general east-northeast dip of strata cloaking Bald Ridge. The Canyon Mouth anticline’s hinge line plunges steeply to the southeast, and dips on its northeastern flanks are vertical to partly overturned. Surprisingly, hinge lines and flanks of all other anticlinal/synclinal structures recognized within the present map area share those same orientations with Canyon Mouth anticline. These consistent but unexpected differences in orientation from unfolded strata may represent very late events in the history of Laramide strain vectors across the study area. Working in northern parts of this study area, an independent group determining radiometric ages of detrital-zircon grains reported close agreements in age with their host localities in the Early Cretaceous Mowry Shale and Frontier Formation. However, under the present paper’s interpretation of the local stratigraphy, the other workers misidentified formational hosts for all three samplings. That resulted in age-determination errors of depositional history within the Upper Cretaceous section of as much as 28.8 million years.

Sources, fate, and flux of geothermal solutes in the Yellowstone and Gardner Rivers, Yellowstone National Park, WY

The total discharge and thermal output from the numerous hydrothermal features in Yellowstone National Park (YNP) can be estimated from the chloride (Cl) flux in the Madison, Yellowstone, Falls, and Snake Rivers. Monitoring the Cl flux in these four major rivers provides a holistic view of the hydrothermal output from YNP and changes in the Cl flux may indicate changes in geothermal or magmatic activity. In this study, the source, fate, and flux of geothermal solutes in the Yellowstone River and Gardner Rivers were determined. Beginning in 2012, the fluxes of geothermal solutes, including Cl, were determined at monitoring sites in the Yellowstone and Gardner Rivers downstream of geothermal inputs within YNP. A method was developed using specific conductance as a surrogate measure for solute concentrations at these monitoring sites. Combining continuous (15-min) specific conductance and discharge data, Cl and other geothermal solute fluxes were determined and approximately 32% of the Cl flux exiting YNP is from the Yellowstone River watershed. Synoptic sampling of river water and discharge measurements were performed during low-flow conditions of September 2014 allowed for the determinations of geothermal solute sources and their downstream fate. Thus, the contribution of geothermal solutes from the various geothermal areas at the downstream monitoring sites was quantified. The thermal features draining into Yellowstone Lake account for 34% of the Cl flux at the Yellowstone River monitoring site which is located approximately 5 km north of YNP. The Gardner River, which captures geothermal water from Mammoth Hot Springs, is responsible for 22% of the Cl at the Yellowstone River monitoring site. Because the Yellowstone River watershed is large and contains numerous thermal areas, knowing the source and fate of geothermal solutes is import baseline information that can be used to identify future changes in thermal activity.

Thinking Through Levees: How Political Agency Extends Beyond the Human Mind

Emerging new materialism scholarship provides an exciting theoretical space not only for challenging traditional conceptions of human agency but also for rethinking the role of the material world in shaping political outcomes. Although a wildly diverse intellectual movement, this scholarship shares the common goal of widening traditional understandings of agency to include nonhuman objects. This article adopts insights from cognitive science to extend the concept of political agency beyond the confines of human intention. Instead of focusing on the constraining material characteristics of the nonhuman within a large-scale relational framework, we argue in support of a distributive understanding of agency based on the co-constitutional essence of the mind itself. Specifically, we integrate insights from embodied cognition grounded in dynamical systems theory into the established framework of the hydrosocial cycle to argue that residents’ experiences within an active material world help explain the existence of certain flood risk perceptions. In other words, human intention or agency—as it is commonly understood—comes into existence through a co-constitutional process involving brain, body, and aspects of a wider environment. Using qualitative interview data from two communities along the Yellowstone River in eastern Montana, we support our arguments through an investigation of three types of embodied experiences between residents and the levees that shape risk perception. Key Words: embodied cognition, hydrosocial cycle, new materialism, risk perception.

Riverine turtles select habitats maintained by natural discharge regimes in an unimpounded large river

AbstractTurtle populations are imperiled worldwide, but limited ecological information from unaltered systems hampers science‐based management and conservation of some species, especially riverine turtles such as the spiny softshell (Apalone spinifera). We therefore investigated movements and spatial habitat selection of 54 A. spinifera in 633 river kilometres (rkm) of the least‐altered river in the conterminous United States—the Yellowstone River in Montana—from 2005 to 2009. Movement rates and home ranges were smaller than in fragmented, altered river systems because nesting and overwintering habitats were common and in close proximity. Habitat selection also differed. A. spinifera in the Yellowstone River overwintered in unaltered bluff pools and summered in complex reaches with side channels, islands, and diverse habitats. However, those in the highly altered Missouri River used deep alluvial pools for overwintering and flooded, inundated, or backwatered tributary mouths in spring and summer. Importantly, selected habitats in both rivers were functionally similar, including complex river reaches (with multiple channels, islands, and diverse habitats) and natural pool types. Unfortunately, these are the very habitats that are limited in rivers affected by dams, bank stabilization, and channelization. Therefore, preservation of natural and diverse riverine habitats—and the fluvial dynamics that maintain them—may enhance conservation of A. spinifera in large rivers.

Negotiating the Democratic Paradox: Approaches Drawn From Governance Efforts on Yellowstone River

We propose to analyze perspectives on watershed governance articulated by community leaders along the Yellowstone River (Montana, U.S.A.). These leaders framed watershed governance as a process of negotiating tensions between individual rights and equality, embracing diverse viewpoints, and acknowledging the constant presence of change. We used informant directed interviews, and analyzed the resulting discourse from the theoretical perspective of Chantal Mouffe’s democratic paradox, which provides insight into governance dynamics and suggests ways to provide more meaningful engagement opportunities for all participants. The paradox between liberty and equality is both difficult and important for civic leaders to negotiate. Failure to recognize the centrality of this paradox encourages practices that attenuate democracy and lead to either autocracy, where a single individual or party controls all important political matters, or mobocracy, where lawlessness and chaos prevail. These civic officials struggled to develop a pluralistic democracy that could legitimize heterogeneous perspectives of residents. Their version of pluralistic democracy offers a model for negotiating the democratic paradox. It is critical for democratic governance to build approaches to orderly change into a political system. These leadership struggles offer lessons regarding ways to position all citizens inside the borders where moral values and rules of fairness apply.

Human perceptions of, and adaptations to, shifting runoff cycles: A case-study of the Yellowstone River (Montana, USA)

Throughout the western United States, researchers have started documenting a trend toward earlier runoff, lower in-stream flows, and warmer-than-average water temperatures. These ‘drought-like’ stream conditions often lead to negative ecological, economic, and social consequences. To gain a deeper understanding of these emerging impacts, we focused our investigation on the Yellowstone River, which experienced a major drought event in 2016. This drought lead to an outbreak of Proliferative Kidney Disease that killed approximately 10,000 fish and resulted in an emergency closure of 294.5 km of the river for 15 days. We conducted semi-structured, in-depth interviews with outfitters, guides, government researchers, and state fisheries biologists/managers working within the Yellowstone River watershed. Our work was guided by three objectives: 1) to determine if people perceive changes in the runoff cycle; 2) to identify the impacts of changing runoff; and 3) if impacts are occurring, to document what adaptations strategies are being used to address them. In our discussions, respondents described an earlier runoff, shorter and more intense runoff, and more interannual variability in runoff. The impacts respondents associated with these changes were: 1) increased uncertainty in yearly planning and fishing quality; 2) altered fishing quality; 3) changes in species distributions; 4) disease outbreaks; and 5) imposed fishing restrictions. Respondents also described the following adaptations to mitigate impacts: 1) altering catch-and-release practices; 2) temporally shifting trips; 3) spatially shifting trips; 4) drought anticipation; and 5) targeting warm water species.

Origin of the Redwater River Drainage Basin Determined by Topographic Map Interpretation: Eastern Montana, USA

Topographic and geologic map interpretation strongly suggests the eastern Montana Redwater River valley eroded headward across large southeast-oriented ice-marginal melt water floods. The north-oriented Redwater River heads in an area to the south of recognized continental glaciation and flows into the recognized glaciated region before joining the east-oriented Missouri River. Detailed topographic maps show the eastern drainage divide is asymmetric with steeper slopes on the Redwater River side and is crossed by shallow dry valleys linking northwest-oriented Redwater River tributaries with southeast-oriented streams that flow as barbed tributaries to the northeast-oriented Yellowstone River. The western drainage divide is also crossed by shallow dry valleys linking northwest-oriented drainage routes to north-oriented Missouri River tributaries with southeast-oriented and barbed tributaries to the northeast- and north-oriented Redwater River. Alluvium from upstream Yellowstone River source areas found within the Redwater River drainage basin suggests the Redwater River and much longer Yellowstone River valleys eroded headward from a continental ice sheet margin as headward erosion of the larger Yellowstone River valley across the southeast-oriented flood flow was supplemented by northeast- and north-oriented flow moving at the present day Redwater-Yellowstone River drainage divide elevation.

Science on the Sideline: Pragmatism and the Yellowstone River Basin Advisory Council

In 2013, the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation engaged twenty citizens with diverse water interests as the Yellowstone Basin Advisory Council (YBAC). The purpose of the YBAC was to provide basin-specific recommendations for an updated water plan. Our research group documented the degree to which the YBAC incorporated scientific and technical information into its deliberations and final recommendations. Based on empirical evidence, this study illuminated three dynamics that discouraged the group’s use of certain sets of scientific and technical information. However, we also found that the convening managers, technical experts, and YBAC members were operating as pragmatic participants who created deliberative spaces where tensions between conflicting goals and values did not need to be addressed head-on. We argue that because this pragmatism guided certain scientific issues to the sideline, it helped the group pre-empt conditions of intractability that would otherwise threaten the overall collaborative process. While the sidelining was important in terms of “getting things done,” it, nonetheless, marginalized some important scientific issues. To validate and advance our findings, we presented the YBAC case, the dynamics that sidelined science, and our corrective recommendations to water resources professionals. We then solicited their ideas for specific strategies they might employ to avoid sidelining essential scientific and technical information. As a research innovation, their inputs help close the loop between critical observations and practice.

Geomorphic History of the Beaver Creek Drainage Basin as Determined from Topographic Map Evidence: Eastern Montana and Western North Dakota, USA

The Beaver Creek drainage basin is located along the North Dakota-Montana border slightly to the south of a recognized continental ice sheet margin and immediately to the east of the deep northeast-oriented Yellowstone River valley with Beaver Creek flowing in a north and northeast direction to join the north-oriented Little Missouri River. The Beaver Creek drainage basin originates on an escarpment-surrounded upland and its erosional history was determined by analyzing detailed topographic maps aided by previously made field observations that showed coarse-grained and distinctive alluvium had been transported in an east direction across the Beaver Creek drainage basin and across what is now the deep Little Missouri River valley to sediments making up southwest North Dakota high points containing both the distinctive alluvium and Oligocene age fossils. Drainage divides surrounding the Beaver Creek drainage basin show numerous divide crossings (or notches) linking northwest-oriented Yellowstone River tributary valleys with east-oriented Beaver Creek tributary valleys and west- or northwest-oriented Beaver Creek tributary valleys with southeast- or east-oriented Little Missouri River tributary valleys and suggest the Beaver Creek valley eroded headward across a large-scale flood formed anastomosing channel complex. Buttes located just to the east of the Beaver Creek-Little Missouri River drainage divide suggest the east-oriented water removed as much as 150 meters, or more, of Beaver Creek drainage basin bedrock, and even greater amounts of bedrock from regions to the south of the Beaver Creek drainage basin. Topographic map evidence and routes traveled by the distinctive alluvium suggest a continental ice sheet blocked a large and high-level northeast-oriented river and diverted at least some of the water along the ice sheet margin with the east-oriented floodwaters being captured in a progressive sequence by headward erosion of the Little Missouri River, Beaver Creek, and Yellowstone River valleys (in that order).

Landscape assessment of side channel plugs and associated cumulative side channel attrition across a large river floodplain

Determining the influences of anthropogenic perturbations on side channel dynamics in large rivers is important from both assessment and monitoring perspectives because side channels provide critical habitat to numerous aquatic species. Side channel extents are decreasing in large rivers worldwide. Although riprap and other linear structures have been shown to reduce side channel extents in large rivers, we hypothesized that small "anthropogenic plugs" (flow obstructions such as dikes or berms) across side channels modify whole-river geomorphology via accelerating side channel senescence. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a geospatial assessment, comparing digitized side channel areas from aerial photographs taken during the 1950s and 2001 along 512km of the Yellowstone River floodplain. We identified longitudinal patterns of side channel recruitment (created/enlarged side channels) and side channel attrition (destroyed/senesced side channels) across n = 17 river sections within which channels were actively migrating. We related areal measures of recruitment and attrition to the density of anthropogenic side channel plugs across river sections. Consistent with our hypothesis, a positive spatial relationship existed between the density of anthropogenic plugs and side channel attrition, but no relationship existed between plug density and side channel recruitment. Our work highlights important linkages among side channel plugs and the persistence and restoration of side channels across floodplain landscapes. Specifically, management of small plugs represents a low-cost, high-benefit restoration opportunity to facilitate scouring flows in side channels to enable the persistence of these habitats over time.