Lake Sakakawea – On a Comeback?

January 30, 2009 by admin

By Doug Leier

Fort Stevenson during normal water levels and now (below).

I’m a huge fan of comebacks. I love to root for the down-and-out in a struggle to overcome challenges or adversity.

In the wildlife world, that might apply to the Giant Canada goose, at one time considered extinct, but now more numerous than ever, or the bald eagle, once an endangered species but taken off that list a few years ago.

I don’t know if you can apply down-and-out status to a river system, but if you could, right now I’m pulling for the Missouri River System in North Dakota, particularly the water levels at Lake Sakakawea and Lake Oahe.

As recently as mid-May, predictions were that Sakakawea’s level would peak at around 1,806 feet mean sea level in early summer, and then start falling. That’s about 40 feet lower, plus or minus a few feet, than what would be considered a normal operating level.

Then it started raining, not only in western North Dakota, but also in the Missouri and Yellowstone river drainages in Montana. The rain and its subsequent runoff aren’t going to fill the reservoirs, but the water level is higher than predicted, and every little bit helps. Instead of already starting its decline toward 1,800 feet msl, Sakakawea is climbing, perhaps reaching closer 1,817 msl before it starts its typical late-summer decline.

While pictures and stories continue to document the political and biological aspects of low water levels on the Missouri River System, not just in North Dakota, but in Montana and South Dakota as well, it’s hard to truly understand the situation without first hand observations.

If we’ve learned anything over the life of Garrison and Oahe dams, which hold back Missouri River water and form lakes Sakakawea and Oahe, it’s that the difference between full pool and drought and can at times be only a few years apart.

A decade ago I was living near Stanley, in northwestern North Dakota’s Mountrail County and a can of pop north of Sakakawea’s Van Hook Arm. At the time, the lake was at near normal pool levels as described by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency responsible for managing the reservoirs water levels. We’d launch the boat and motor past Gull Island, which at the time was literally miles from the boat ramp.

Currently, the boat ramp itself is on Gull Island, at the end of a bumpy, dusty path that dispenses billows of dust when a vehicle passes, instead of water in the wake of a boat.

Boats that used to fill the bay

Lake Sakakawea had low water in the late 1980s and early 1990s, not quite as low as currently exists, but low enough so fisheries managers were worried about forage and boat ramps. The lake came back up some 30 -40 feet in the mid-late 1990s, but has since been going down due to lower than normal precipitation in the entire Missouri Basin, and corps management policies that send more water downstream than is coming in.

As recently as a couple years ago the Fort Stevenson State Park marina near Garrison was still able to funnel anglers and boaters into the waters of Sakakawea. Now, even with the water several feet higher than expected, an arsenal of dry docked cruisers and house boats will continue to find dust at Fort Stevenson where algae stains once resided.

Beyond the access issue, the recent influx of water may indeed help Lake Sakakawea’s fishery. Greg Power, fisheries biologist for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, explains. “As the actual level of the lake continues to increase, it does make providing access a little easier. Perhaps more important, the unexpected ten foot rise we’ve noted, has the potential to improve biological conditions substantially. The upcoming hot weather in July and August will diminish the cold water habitat, which is the life blood for smelt, the main forage of walleye. We are moving in the right direction, but a gain of 20-30 feet would really help.”

While the unexpected June rise bodes well, it’s too early in the comeback to predict a total success is eminent. But similar to the aforementioned Canada goose and bald eagle, the politically correct term of “cautiously optimistic” is being tossed around the banks of Van Hook and rest of the Missouri River System.

And that’s welcome.

Tags: fishing locations