Cleaning up the Shoshone River

A young volunteer moves one of the seemingly countless tires found in Shoshone River during a cleanup arranged by the East Yellowstone Chapter of Trout Unlimited near Cody, Wyoming. Photo provided by the East Yellowstone TU Chapter

By Brett Prettyman

The Shoshone River near Cody, Wyoming, put off an impressive tire hatch over the weekend as more than 80 volunteers gathered to clean up the stretch of water impacted by a sediment dump last fall.

Volunteers from the Willwood Irrigation District, Wyoming Game and Fish, Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, Bureau of Reclamation and Wyoming Water Development Commission joined members of the East Yellowstone Chapter of Trout Unlimited for a day to clear the Shoshone River of trash.

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Scouting the Shoshone River for trash during a cleanup arranged by the East Yellowstone Chapter of Trout Unlimited near Cody, Wyoming. Photo provided by the East Yellowstone TU Chapter

The group split up to cover 7 miles of river and used 12 boats and heavy machinery volunteered from local farmers to fill a large dump truck with a load dominated by tires.

The Shoshone gained national attention in the fall of 2016 when operators on the Willwood Dam released a massive load of sediment into the river. Fish were killed for at least 20 miles downstream from the dam.

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Chaining up a tire to pull it from the Shoshone River during a cleanup arranged by the East Yellowstone Chapter of Trout Unlimited near Cody, Wyoming. Photo provided by the East Yellowstone TU Chapter

“Unfortunately, it took this for everybody to come together,” Todd Sinbeil, Willwood Irrigation manager told KULR-TV. “But all the meetings and stuff I’ve been in everybody is coming together as a team. We realize we have problems now and everybody is helping”.

The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality eventually informed the Willwood Irrigation District that a notice of violation had been filed and an effort would be made to “recover appropriate penalties”.

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Volunteers with a loaded raft on Shoshone River during a cleanup arranged by the East Yellowstone Chapter of Trout Unlimited near Cody, Wyoming. Photo provided by the East Yellowstone TU Chapter

Concern for similar incidents on the Shoshone River, and across Wyoming, grew when a proposed bill during the Wyoming legislative session would have allowed irrigation operators to do similar fish-killing sediment dumps throughout the state on an annual basis.

Trout Unlimited, led by volunteer members of the East Yellowstone Chapter, joined an effort to squash the proposed bill. As a result, the bill died during the session.

Brett Prettyman is the Intermountain Communications Director for Trout Unlimited. He is based out of Salt Lake City and can be reached at bprettyman@tu.org