
The Upper Snake River, its tributaries and the aquifers they feed are critical arteries of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, provide drinking water, unparalleled recreation and irrigate over a million acres of valuable farmlands.
- Aaron Pruzan
The Geographic Scope
The Snake River Headwaters is an iconic landscape that comprises most of the HUC6 watershed spanning a four county region in northwest Wyoming (Teton, Sublette, Fremont, and Lincoln counties) and includes the following major tributaries: Lewis River, Pacific Creek, the Buffalo Fork, Spread Creek, the Gros Ventre River, Flat Creek, Fish Creek, Fall Creek, Hoback River, and Greys River. Timely issues including water management impacts from Jackson Lake Dam; effects of prolonged drought on water quantity; impacts of development; degraded water quality; aquatic, riparian and wetland habitat degradation and loss; the impacts of levees and bank hardening; lowered water tables; and adaptation of strategies in the face of a changing climate, have highlighted the need for more coordination, planning, and research to address current and future challenges to watershed health. A groundswell of stakeholder and community interest in addressing multiple aspects of watershed health have spurred the creation of the Snake River Headwaters Watershed Group.