In 2008 paddlers celebrated the restoration of pulse flows and awesome Class IV(V) boating opportunities to Idaho's Black Canyon of the Bear River.  2009 will offer paddlers four scheduled dates, on which the dam owner will release boatable flows of 900 cfs, unless unforeseen circumstances make releases not possible.  Paddlers should check the website and/or flow phone prior to heading to the river. 

The Scheduled Releases are on: April 12, April 25, May 31, and July 12.   

In addition to the scheduled days, the dam owner will provide releases on other specified days if inflows equal or exceed 700 cfs.  The dam owner offers a prediction of flows up to 5 days in advance on their website and flowphone.  The dam owner will release the flow volume entering the project, so these days are paddlers' chance to experience higher flows on the Bear. 

Potential Releases are every weekend day except memorial day weekend between April 1 and July 14, up to a total of 12 releases.

The scheduled releases will be the subject of in-depth ecological monitoring aimed at revealing the effects of the releases on water quality, fish, insects, and other measures of river health. American Whitewater staff and volunteers meet with resource agencies and other stakeholders roughly 6-8 times each year to plan and discuss this monitoring.  Restoring water to dewatered reaches is expected to cause big changes as the river is restored from a terrestrial and standing water system back to a river.  In 2008 we saw some of these changes, with large amounts of sediment being flushed out of the system.  In general we were pleased with the results of the first year of monitoring and are looking forward to working with the other stakeholders for the next two year of studies. 

Additional Information:

• Check out the release announcement in the Document Box to the right.
• Visit the flow prediction website.
• The flow prediction phone line is:
  1-800-547-1501
• Check out the calenders to the right.