2024 Updates to Park County CMZ Map
Yellowstone River Channel Migration Map–2024 Updates for Park County
Program
Give Back to the Yellowstone
Watershed
Upper Yellowstone
In 2024, Montana Freshwater Partners worked with DTM Consulting and Slough Creek Consulting to update the Channel Migration Zone Map from Gardiner all the way to Springdale. This non-regulatory tool helps to identify areas of increased risk for development in the Yellowstone River’s floodplain.
Conservation Techniques
Hazard Mitigation
Rivers naturally move back and forth across their floodplains over time. This is called channel migration and occurs continuously in a free flowing river like the Yellowstone. Channel migration is the process that drives the creation of side channels, oxbows, islands, instream fish habitat and renews floodplain vegetation. It is a critical process for maintaining the health and function of the Yellowstone River, however channel migration can also impact homes and structures that are built too close to the river.
The historic June 13, 2022 Yellowstone flood impacted hundreds of property owners along the river. Some of the greatest impacts from that flood was from the actual movement, or migration, of the river channel during the flood, causing significant bank erosion and structural failures. In 2023, Park County was awarded a grant from the Department of Natural Resource Conservation to update the 2009 channel migration map to provide local decision-makers, landowners, and the general public a practical tool to help people prepare for and avoid future flood-related impacts, and better understand this critical function of the river.
Project Partners
Slough Creek Consulting
Karin Boyd
Our Projects
We work across Montana to restore and protect our state’s precious water resources.
