On Wednesday, April 23, NorthWestern Energy (NWE) and other organizations gathered for their annual meeting about the Hebgen Dam and Madison River updates. A few of the items on the meeting's agenda were aquatic invasive species, snowpack, runoff forecasts, flushing flow, fish population and several more important comments. 

To begin the meeting Andy Welch of NWE spoke about the importance of “Clean. Drain. Dry.” Quagga mussels were detected again in the fall of 2024 in the Snake River in Idaho. This has been an ongoing issue and infestation that Idaho has been fighting. But the big concern for Ennis is that the Snake River is only 300 miles away. This means if boat inspections are being missed this could lead to the rivers and waters around Ennis and in Montana as a whole could be infected with these mussels. 

As of 2024 there were over 135,000 inspections performed on boats coming into the state, resulting in 47 mussel fouled boats being found and over 600 with weeds and other nonnative plant life. So far coming into 2025 there are 17 active watercraft inspection stations and over 3,000 inspections done. In those inspections there were four mussel fouled vessels found. The graphic shows how many boats travel through Montana to either come to the water in state or travelling through to other waterbodies. 

The next agenda item covered was the Hebgen-Madison Recreation update. The following projects are projects that are supported by NWE and the Missouri-Madison River fund. There is a planned expansion of the Meadow Lake Campground located at Ennis Lake. Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) plan to expand the site to double the camping opportunities, provide additional toilet facilities and develop a carry-in launch with a small dock to facilitate use of nonmotorized watercraft. The funding for this project is broken down as follows: $79,000 from the River fund, $41,000 from NWE and $41,000 from FWP.

The Kobayashi Beach dock replacement at Ennis Lake is underway with final additions to be done by Memorial Day weekend. Items completed for this replacement include: the concrete abutment was poured in September 2024, the dock and eco-blocks were delivered October 2024 and the final concrete walkway is to be completed by Memorial Day. This replaced the EZ Dock with a floating dock being stabilized by eco-blocks. The funding breakdown is as follows: $80,000 from the River fund, $20,000 from NWE and $20,000 from the BLM.

The next agenda item was the April 2025 Hebgen Dam operations. The graphics describe the Montana Snotel map, the amount of water from run off above Hebgen and below Hebgen. This data helps determine the amount of water that will be released or kept at Hebgen. These numbers will also affect the flush and flows performed in the year. The graphics describe the volume runoff forecast and the operating criteria. 

The purpose of the Madison River Flushing Flows program is to protect and enhance the spawning gravel quality in the upper and lower Madison River for salmonids. Due to below average snowpack, no flushing flows were conducted in 2024. The Hebgen Lake elections were kept higher than normal to account for the lack of winter precipitation. The target criteria that was established for 2025 was 10% fines < 0.84 mm in the upper river which is the location of the Madison River between Hebgen Dam and Ennis Lake. The management goal established was 15% fines < 0.84 mm in the lower river which is the portion of the river after the Madison Dam. 

Sediment cores and macroinvertebrates were collected at the Kirby, Ennis, Norris and Greycliff sites. As of April 15, the water availability and runoff forecast does not support the ability to perform a flushing flow in 2025. 

This meeting covered several topics and all presenters provided abundant information for current and future projects or plans.