UPPER YELLOWSTONE RIVXR DRAINAGE 



Boundaries: Headwaters to Bighorn River 



Drainage size: 12,840 square miles 



Main stem length: 262 miles (in Montana) 



Tributaries: Boulder, Shields, Clark's Fork, Stillwater, Bighorn 



Cities/Towns: Gardiner, Livingston, Big Timber, Columbus, 



Billings 



Access: Montana Highway 89, Interstate 90 



From sparkling mountain stream high in Yellowstone National 

 Park to major prairie waterway, the sinuous Yellowstone River is 

 one of the last major free-flowing rivers in the contiguous 48 

 states. The Yellowstone of the 1800's served as an artery of 

 commerce transporting explorers, trappers, soldiers, goldrushers, 

 and eventually railroad workers into the heart of Montana. Water 

 is prized on the dry plains, so it's no surprise that in the 

 1970s, the Yellowstone River and its tributaries were under siege 

 as debates were staged over conflicting river uses such as 

 hydropower, coal development, and recreation. The Montana 

 Legislature clamped a moratorium on all Yellowstone water projects 

 until water rights issues could be resolved. In a landmark case, 

 the Montana Board of Natural Resources in 1978 approved instream 

 reservations for fish and wildlife resources on the Yellowstone 

 main stem. Plans for greatly expanded development at the Fort 

 Union Coal formation were shelved. The precedent for considering 

 fish and wildlife concerns had been set. 



In order to deliver four trillion gallons of water to the 

 Missouri each year, the Yellowstone gathers power in its upper 

 section from tributaries that rise in the Bridger, Crazy, Pryor, 

 Absarokee and Beartooth mountains. Often called the "roof of 

 Montana, the Beartooth Plateau boasts 29 summits higher than 

 12,000 feet. Thousands of feet below them, the undulating prairie 

 stretches north and east as far as the eye can see. 



The Yellowstone originates in northwestern Wyoming and flows 

 into Yellowstone Lake in Yellowstone National Park before entering 

 Montana at Gardiner (Figure 12). From the park boundary to 

 Livingston, the river flows north through Paradise Valley, 

 bordered on the east by the Absarokee Mountains and on the west by 

 the Gallatin Range. At Livingston, the Yellowstone turns 

 eastward, picking up flows from the Shields River from the north 

 and the Boulder, Stillwater and Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone 

 rivers from the south before the upper section ends at the mouth 

 of the Bighorn River. 



Fisheries 



A total of 2,601 stream miles in 563 reaches were assessed in 

 the upper Yellowstone River drainage, and another 315 reaches 



144 



