American Whitewater and our affiliate club, Beartooth Paddlers have worked with the power company and other stakeholders to simplify and schedule the summer recreational pulse flows on West Rosebud Creek, located southeast of Livingston, MT. For the past decade these dam releases have mitigated some of the hydropower project’s impacts on recreation, but their unpredictability caused challenges for visitors as well as dam operators. The new approach will remedy those issues, and now the public can plan their boating trips to West Rosebud Creek well in advance. 

Under the new approach, whitewater releases will be conducted the first weekend in July (Saturday and Sunday releases) and the second and third Saturdays (only) in July. These dates have been scheduled for the next ten years. On rare occasions, rapidly decreasing inflows may cause the 2-day releases to be reduced in duration, but releases will be much more reliable than they were previously.  

Prior to this change, releases were provided on a summer weekend when unpredictable and dam-influenced river flows reached a certain level at noon on the Wednesday and Friday before the weekend. Flows often missed these thresholds by a matter of minutes or a tiny amount of water, resulting in releases being not scheduled or cancelled right before the weekend.  

West Rosebud Creek is a clear and continuous advanced whitewater run located in the Beartooth Mountains. Paddlers experience clear bluish water, and fun rapids in a beautiful mountain setting. Often, paddlers will run several laps of the upper portion of the run. American Whitewater and Beartooth Paddlers worked together to secure releases as part of the dam relicensing a decade ago to mitigate the hydropower project’s impacts on boating. We've been meeting with the power company and other stakeholders annually to review and seek enhancements to the program ever since. Membership and donations from regional river enthusiasts make this ongoing work possible. 

Enjoy the newly scheduled releases on West Rosebud Creek!