I am trying to get a gauge established on Belt Creek in Montana. Hopefully somewhere near monarch. Does anyone know the best way to try and get this accomplished? I have been in touch with a guy from the state but he isn't much help. He first asked if i had a private party to fund it, $15000 a year and then in his next email he said they dont take private money. Not much help at all. Belt Creek is an amazing float, but can be dangerous with high flows, right now it is nearly impossible to teel what it will be like unless you have floated it many times before.

I suspect that AW will become even more involved with actual river gauging in the future. At present, most river gauges that we have helped get online, have been related to hydro licensing and funded by utilities or similar. It is really a good question to figure out what all the options are.

Local boaters have some easy and pragmatic options that can be very helpful.

1 Find a location for a dependable visual gauge. Finds some landmark that shows the height of the stream, and that can be viewed before boaters launch on the creek.
Take pictures of the landmark - landmarks at different flows, high, medium and low.
Describe the landmarks and what to look for at different flows.
Paint or somehow mark elevation measurements on the landmark.
This gives you an objective measurement of the river elevation during different trips.

Find other nearby rivers that do have online gauges resources. See if you can find any even somewhat consistent relationship between levels in Belt Creek and flows in other nearby rivers which do have gauges.

Investigate the possibility of setting up an online webcam view of the river where there is a landmark so that flows can be estimated. Some people have also experimented with inexpensize presure gauges that allow relatively inexpensize river gauging by private individuals or groups.

Looking at the list of Montana Rivers by drainage, I see that there are other streams, with gauges, which might be in nearby watersheds and serve pretty well as indicator gauges. I'm thinking of the Smith below Eagle Creek, Two Medicine below South Fork, near Browning, and the Dearborn near Craig. Would you be able to estimate that, when one of them is at some specific level, Belt is running?

Matt
AW StreaMaster and Cyber Committee Chairman
and all-around River Wonk
for a good time, call [members.aol.com]

I have seen gauges on several small creeks in montana. They are generaly made by cutting a meatle contractors ruler (about 6ft) in half and bolting one to the takeout bridge and one to the put in bridge. although they are not online it still gives a very accurate measure of creek level.

Stuber
keepin it wet synce 92

Gauge information. There was a USGS gauge at Monarch from 1951 to 1982. Historical data from that gauge is available at:
[nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov];
Other historical USGS gauges on Belt Creek can be found at:
[nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov]

The topo map on the AW page- Belt Creek: Monarch to Riceville, shows a gauge site just upstream of Riceville. USGS does not list this gauge so it may be maintained by another agency. It may or may not be currently functional.

Historical gauge information can be very helpful in getting a sense of typical flows in a river and the seasonal flow patterns. They are really helpful if you can find a functioning gauge on a nearby river that also has data from some of the same time period as the Belt Creek gauge. I create a spreadsheet and drop in columns of data from several gauges aligned by date and see how much correlation there is between the different gauges. Often there is a pretty good correlation between flows on different but nearby rivers.

The best information I have been able to obtain (from emails to USGS personnel over the years) is that (in the vast majority of cases) they NEED a co-operating agency for ongoing funding of a gauge, and (as your source suggested on second contact) that can NOT be just a private individual. Common reasons are for flood planning, for hydro project planning (to know how much water they have available -- to 'manage' and optimize their 'resources'), or for water quality monitoring, etc. So, it would seem that (if you really want an online, USGS gauge) you would need to convince some group or governmental entity of the merit of a gauge on this particular stream for some such concerns.

Otherwise, you're left to the usual 'boaters gauge' options, or the possibility of whatever innovations modern technology may provide (eg, webcams, if a secure indoor location exists somewhere with sightline to a boaters' gauge).

Rob Smage
AW member since 1992, volunteer since 2000, Midwest Regional StreamTeam Leader

It is possible to have a USGS real-time gauge activated on Belt Creek. The cost share funds can be paid by a private club or group, but must be funneled through a signatory governmental entity, such as the local conservation district, county government or state agency.

Such gauges can be operated seasonally to save costs. Many gauges are operated for only 3 or 6 months. Still, they require annual maintenance and therefore funding. A real-time gauge on Belt Creek would be great for boaters, but it could also benefit other concerns, such as disaster services (flood watch & awareness), and agriculture.

In the meantime, in 2005 I developed a table based on the old Belt Creek gauge data related to the old Smith River gauge data. Then, using observations of the painted staff gauge on the Riceville Bridge, I was able to correlate the newer real-time Smith River below Eagle Creek gauge to the Belt Creek staff gauge and estimate a flow rate for Belt Creek at the Riceville Bridge. I have posted a photo of that table on the Belt Creek page.

On June 19, 2005 we floated Belt Creek. The real-time Smith River gauge read 944 cfs so the Riceville staff should have read 2.7 feet. When we got there it read 2.8 feet and my table estimated flow at 463 cfs. My eyeball estimate of flow at that time was about 500 cfs, so it was a dang good numerical relationship.

High flows can throw ratings like this out of whack, so let me know and I'll recalculate the table as needed.

Dave Amman, Hydrologist and Smalltime Adventurer
Helena, Montana

Hello Dave,

Thanks for the great gauging table. I linked your photo to the two Belt Creek reaches.
[www.americanwhitewater.org]
[www.americanwhitewater.org]

Then I put your table photo on the flow tab for each reach and linked the Smith R below Eagle USGS gauge to each reach as well.

The AW website has a virtual gauge function which can automate the translation as well, but I would have to study up on it a bit before instituting it on this creek.

If the photo was converted to an html table that would help, I think.

Thanks again for the great gauging information.