Officials urge caution on rivers

Rivers in the Flathead Valley are running high, Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry says, and that requires extra caution on the part of water users.

With high runoff from the mountains, rivers are high and that can create more hazards on the water than exist in a normal summer, he said.

“We encourage people to exercise more caution than they normally would,” Curry said. “Be very cautious and scout the river before you float it.” He pointed out that even for those people who floated a river last summer and are planning a repeat trip this summer, the water won’t be the same.

“It could be significantly different this year,” he said.

Another water hazard this year is logjams, the sheriff said. Officers removed part of a logjam from the Stillwater River at Kalispell earlier this summer because of safety concerns. But, that jam has built itself back up with more debris that’s moved down the river.

Sheriff’s personnel are monitoring logjams to determine if they need to remove more debris from rivers in the county, he said. One problem with loosening up jams is that the debris just floats downstream where it may cause another problem.

Logjams also have been reported on the Whitefish River, county Fire Service Area Manager Lincoln Chute said. With the two rivers running high right now, it’s especially hard to get a boat in to the jams to clear them out, he said.

County Commissioner Jim Dupont doesn’t want the county’s reputation as a recreation area to suffer from logjams on rivers. Likewise, Dupont doesn’t want to increase the risks for water users with the presence of logjams.

Boaters can get caught in the jams, and smaller boats, such as kayaks, can get sucked into jams, Chute said.

“If we get concerned for safety, we’ll go drag them out and try to clear the river,” Curry said.

Reporter Shelley Ridenour may be reached at 758-4439 or sridenour@dailyinterlake.com.