Fresno boat ramp closed next week for repairs

Fresno Chapter of Walleyes Unlimited is taking advantage of what would generally be considered a bad situation at Fresno Reservoir to make some repairs to its boat ramp.

Chapter member Craig Buettner said Thursday that the ramp will be closed for seven to 10 days starting Monday when work to repair the ramp begins.

He said Walleyes wanted to start work on the ramp before levels start rising again.

Walleyes is paying for all of the work being done on the ramp.

The dam was built in the 1930s as part of the Milk River Project, which primarily provides irrigation water to agriculture producers in the Milk River Valley but also provides flood control and recreation opportunities.

Construction of the dam for irrigation storage was authorized in 1935, with construction completed by 1939.

Much of the water in Fresno comes through the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works, which stores water on Swiftcurrent Creek behind Sherburne Dam, then diverts the water from Swiftcurrent and Boulder creeks into Lower St. Mary Lake, then into a 29-mile system of canals, siphons, dikes and drop structures into the North Fork of the Milk River, which then flows into Canada before returning to Montana.

Late snow in the mountains allowed Bureau of Reclamation to allow more water out for irrigation than expected in this drought year, but levels still are low.

BOR's website this morning reported the reservoir was 13.4 percent full with an outflow of 724.3 cubic-feet-per-second and an inflow of 571.0 cubic-feet-per-second.

Buettner said the levels are expected to equalize and start rising again in about a week.