Snowpack bodes well for farmers

The Grande Ronde River at Riverside Park is running strong, thanks to a long-lasting snowpack in the highlands of its watershed. - The Observer/ETHAN SCHOWALTER-HAY

Farmers, river rats and steelhead have cause to rejoice this spring.

The measurements reflect an energetic winter reluctant to concede the stage.

At the Meacham site, 4,300 feet high, with a 9-inch snowpack, the fact that there was any of the white stuff at all this time of year is impressive, at least by recent standards.

“In the last 30 years,” Burton said, “only twice before have we had snow to measure (at this stage).”

And the Tollgate snow course, some 700 feet higher, has only registered greater snow-water equivalency once before, in 1974.

The snow-water equivalent is a more useful statistic, Burton said, than snow depth. The equivalency refers to the water contained in the snowpack — essentially, the depth of water left over were the snow to be instantaneously melted.

Snow moisture content typically increases in the spring. “This time of year, the snowpack is consolidating,” Burton said, with more extensive melting and greater density.

On April 30, Tollgate was still muffled under 107 inches of snow, containing some 45 inches of water.

The snow-water equivalency of the Grande Ronde, Burnt, Powder and Imnaha river basins was 52 percent above average this morning.

Burton expects the lingering snowpack to translate to an extended interval of higher stream flows in the Grande Ronde Valley.  “We’re probably looking, right now, at the period of sustained peak flow for the Grande Ronde,” he said.

Catherine Creek, meanwhile, the valley’s primary Wallowa drainage, probably won’t crest until late May or early June.

The different schedules for peak flow on the Grande Ronde and Catherine Creek are due to the elevations of the streams’ respective watersheds. The Grande Ronde falls out of the Northern Blues (and the foothills of the Elkhorn Range), markedly lower than the high Wallowa Mountain birthplace of Catherine Creek.

The lower Grande Ronde and Indian valleys would see the most sustained flows, as this country lies below the Grande Ronde River/Catherine Creek confluence.

Around when the upper Grande Ronde subsides, Catherine Creek will add some extra muscle, thanks to the receding Wallowa snowpack.

More good news: Burton expects an overall measured rise and fall in the valley hydrology. “I think the likelihood of widespread flooding is not very high,” he said.

Higher-volume stream flows for a longer period of time means more water for both irrigating farmers and fish, not to mention rafters, who this year can enjoy a combination of pleasant weather and substantial river levels.

“All in all, it’s a pretty good picture,” Burton said. “About as good as you can imagine.”