Smith River Low Water Prompts Warnings

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Low water levels in the Smith River this spring have created difficult conditions that have stranded floaters, state officials warn. “People have already tried to float the Smith this year and found it too low,” says Joe O’Neill, Fish Wildlife and Parks Smith River manager. “In one instance a landowner was nice enough to come to the rescue and haul the floaters and their gear back to Camp Baker.”

Camp Baker is the launch site for the semi-wilderness float. There are no public take out sites in the Smith River Canyon until the Eden Bridge, 59 miles downstream. Floaters who attempt to take out early may end up trespassing. Eighty percent of the Smith River corridor is private property.

“The Smith’s current low water is the result of a cool spring,” O’Neill says. “While the snow pack is near average not much of it has melted and what has is soaking into the ground from four years of drought.”

FWP recommends no drift boats or catarafts on the Smith when river flows measured just downstream at Camp Baker are below 350 cubic feet per second (cfs), no rafts below 250 cfs, and no canoes below 150 cfs. Wednesday morning the river gauge read 107 cfs.

To find the current Smith River stream flow either call the Smith River hotline (406) 454-5816, Camp Baker at 547-3893, or on the Internet at http://mt.waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/current?type=flow.