On Tuesday, the Sun River Watershed Group received a notification that one of the stream gages was not transmitting information as it should be.
When they went out to see what the problem might be, they found the gage had numerous bullet holes as well as other damage to the stream gauge itself.
Tracy Wendt, director of the Sun River Watershed Group, explained to me the purpose these stream gages serve.
“[The gage] measures the stream flow in the water body it is attached to. It then transmits the data to a website,” said Wendt. “Any member of the public [who is] interested in the stream flows can go to that public website and see what the flows are, historically and at that moment.”
Stream gages are a public resource and serve a variety of purposes. This vandalism has destroyed this resource and the gage does not function at all at this point.
“It was brought to our attention that the stream gage at Upper Muddy Creek was not transmitting any data,” said Wendt. “Someone from our agency partners went to check it out and let us know that it had been shot multiple times.”
Wendt said the damages will cost hundreds of dollars to repair, and being a small non-profit organization, it will take a good amount of time before the damages can be repaired.
“It’s really disappointing that someone would use one of our gages for target practice. This is a public resource, [which] means that no one from the public has this information anymore and there's such a wide spectrum of people that use stream gage information,” said Wendt.
You can contact Tracy Wendt at 406-214-2868 or tracy@sunriverwatershed.org.
If you have any information or would just like to find out more about these stream gages, click here to visit the website.
TRENDING
- 7 deaths in 5 days on Montana roads
- Woman gored by bison in Yellowstone
- INFO: Montana State Fair in Great Falls
- 1 dead after being hit by vehicle in GF
- RECENT OBITUARIES
FOLLOW KRTV: Instagram | TikTok | Twitter
