Wyoming
Angling in hot water: how higher temperatures are impacting river ecosystems and fishing outfitters
Earlier this month, a heat wave broke records across the country and also hit Wyoming hard. Most counties in the eastern part of the state were under heat advisories for multiple days. But the heat didn’t just impact air temperatures, it also took a toll on water ecosystems. The increased heat is impacting rivers, fish and the guides that rely on them.
Inside the Westbank Anglers fly-fishing shop in Wilson, long sleek rods line the walls. There’s boxes on boxes of brightly-colored flies, some with hair, fur and feathers.
In the office at the back of the shop, owner Mike Dawes said company guides are seeing water temperatures on the nearby Snake River already creep close to 68° in the middle of July. That’s a number that basically means it’s time to stop fishing for cold water species like trout.
“The water temperature is getting 66°, 67° on the Snake. And that’s just…I’ve never heard that before at this time of year,” he said.
Hannah Habermann
/
Wyoming Public Media
Dawes said that’s more normal for the middle of August. Westbank Anglers has been trying to get clients out on the water earlier, and Dawes himself was doing the same during the unseasonably warm heat spell a couple days ago.
“We were putting the boat on, floating at six in the morning, which is pretty magical, but also kind of a necessity,” he said.
The state of Wyoming doesn’t implement mandatory fishing closures, like Montana does. But Dawes thinks it should, and thinks the collective community of fishing outfitters could do more.
“In general, in terms of the outfitting business, we’re just behind a little bit. We need to catch up,” he said.
Catching up, in Dawes’ opinion, could look like having fishing representation on the state’s outfitting board, which he said is very hunting-focused. It could also mean getting all the management agencies across the state to collaborate on when it’s time to shut down fishing.
As far as how those kinds of closures might impact his business?
“I think I’ve been doing it long enough that if I was worried about it, I’m worrying about the wrong things,” he said.
Dawes said if it’s this hot on the high-elevation, glacier-fed Snake, there’s no doubt the rest of Wyoming’s waters are also feeling the heat.
“We typically have colder water temperatures than the rest of the state. So if we’re hot, then we know they’re hot,” he said.
Wyoming Game & Fish Casper Regional Fisheries Supervisor Matt Hahn said there’s two main things going on for fish when water heats up.
“One is just the physics of oxygen and water, so the warmer water is, the less dissolved oxygen that it can carry,” he said.
The second, Hahn explained, is physiological.
“They end up putting a lot more energy into respiration, just trying to pull as much oxygen from the water as possible. If the water temperature continues to go up, the physiological response becomes more and more dire,” he said.
Getting caught on a fishing line and being out of the water only adds to the stress for the cold-blooded critters.
“The fish obviously is trying to escape and so that increases energy demand on the fish at a time when it doesn’t have a lot of excess energy to expend on such things,” he said.
Hahn said different types of fish are adapted for different temperature ranges. There’s cold water fish like trout and salmon, cooler water fish like walleye and perch, and warm water fish like bass and catfish.
When it comes to trout fishing, getting above 68° means you’re starting to get into what Hahn called “the lower end of the stressful range,” with 75° being the mark where long-term exposure can result in mortality and 80° being lethal in minutes for most trout.
Warm water also means the quality of fishing goes downhill quickly.
“The fish are stressed. They’re putting all their energy into respiration. They don’t really have energy to spend on feeding because there’s an energetic cost to feeding,” he said.
Hahn said that Wyoming Game and Fish has really stepped up their education around best-practices for fishing, advising people to use barbless hooks or shift their fishing to earlier in the day.
“68° degrees is just a good benchmark to remind people, ‘Maybe I should start thinking a little closer about what I’m doing at a point, maybe just a little bit ahead of when it becomes critical’,” he said.
Three rivers in the northwest corner of Yellowstone National Park got to that point. On July 15, the agency announced that it was closing fishing on the Madison, Firehole, and Gibbon Rivers, and most of their tributaries. The agency pointed to warm water temperatures and low river flows.
John Schilling is the manager of Madison River Outfitters in West Yellowstone. He said local outfitters stopped fishing those rivers weeks before the closure and thinks the park could be way more proactive.
“We usually, on our own, stop fishing them by July 1st every year because they’re just too hot. And actually, the federal government, in our opinion, should automatically close them no matter what,” he said.
Madison River Outfitters Facebook
Schilling said that’s also the norm for most guiding companies in West Yellowstone.
“The Firehole [River] has been over 80° since the third week in June, so we refuse to take clients there,” he said, pointing to the fact that it’s a geothermal river.
He said Madison River Outfitters normally start fishing again on the Firehole in September. He thinks Yellowstone should follow suit.
“There’s still fish in there that you can catch, but it’s just not good for them. Too stressful. We’ve still got lots of water,” he said.
Schilling’s been in the area for forty years and said this is only the second time he can remember Yellowstone having fishing closures. The first was in 2021 and applied to the same rivers on the west side of the park.
Madison River Outfitters is still guiding on the Upper Madison River in Montana and on rivers in the northeast part of the park. Schilling said if those rivers in Yellowstone close, it might be a different story.
“If they close the northeast corner, then we’d see some impact,” he said. “Then we’d have nowhere else to go in the park.”
Boots Allen is the advocacy and outreach coordinator for the Snake River Fund, a Jackson-based nonprofit that promotes stewardship and access. He said dealing with hot water temperatures is a relatively new topic in the industry.
“It wasn’t until like the late 90s, early 2000s that this became an issue in the fishing world,” he said.
Allen is also a senior fishing guide at Snake River Angler. He started gathering his own data on the river in 2003. At first, he was only using a personal stream thermometer, then started consulting the first water temperature gauge at Moose just outside of Jackson when it was installed in 2007.
He said in the last few years, water temperatures have been breaking the 68° threshold. In 2022, the max temp was 71°.
“It was pretty shocking to see that we’re starting to break that 70° mark,” he said.
Although Wyoming Game and Fish and Grand Teton National Park haven’t issued closures like Yellowstone National Park has, Allen said the agencies do sometimes issue recommendations.
“Once you cross the 68° mark, the general recommendation is to finish your fishing at about 3 p.m.,” he said.
Allen said water temperatures, just like air temperatures, tend to peak between 4 and 7 p.m. each day. He added that there are other precautions anglers should take, regardless of water temperature.
“When you hook your fish, try and get that fish in as quickly as possible. Expose it to air above the surface of the water as little as possible and really try not to do it at all,” he said.
He said people should also wet their hands to keep the fish’ protective “slime” layer intact and to help keep the fish cool.
Allen said some guides he knows are taking all of August off because of the high temps. He’s cutting down his own days for that month too and is seeing the shoulder seasons get a lot busier.
Hannah Habermann
/
Wyoming Public Media
But, the downstream waters of the fishing industry look a bit murky. Allen said guides will have to keep adapting, even if that means hanging up the rod.
“If it gets to a point where they have to shut down fishing in the future – might not be in my lifetime, might be in my kid’s lifetime – that’s something we’ll just deal with,” he said.
The Platte County Attorney’s Office has nearly doubled the possible penalties for a Wyoming reporter accused of forging exhibits in an environmental case tied to her staunch opposition to a wind farm.
The 10 new counts against April Marie Morganroth, also known as the Wyoming-based reporter Marie Hamilton, allege that she convinced her landlords that she’d been approved for a home loan to buy their property, and grants to upgrade it.
Hamilton was already facing 10 felony charges in a March 9 Wheatland Circuit Court case, as she’s accused of submitting forged documents and lying under oath before the Wyoming Industrial Siting Council.
That’s an environmental permitting panel that granted a permit to a NextEra Resources wind farm, which Hamilton has long opposed. She’s also reported on NextEra’s efforts and the community controversies surrounding those.
Then on Wednesday, Platte County Attorney Douglas Weaver filed 10 more felony charges: five alleging possession of forged writing, and five more alleging forgery.
The former is punishable by up to five years in prison and $5,000 in fines; the latter by up to 10 years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines.
Hamilton faces up to 65 years in prison if convicted of all charges in her March 9 case. The March 25 case would add up to 75 years more to that.
Both cases are ongoing.
Hamilton did not immediately respond to a voicemail request for comment left Thursday afternoon on her cellphone. She bonded out of jail earlier this month. The Platte County Detention Center said Thursday it does “not have her here.”
The Investigative Efforts Of Benjamin Peech
Converse County Sheriff’s Lt. Benjamin Peech investigated both cases at the request of Platte County authorities, court documents say.
When he was investigating evidence that Hamilton submitted forged documents and lied under oath for Industrial Siting Council proceedings, Peech also pursued Hamilton’s claim that she owned property on JJ Road, and that she’d bought it with a U.S. Department of Agriculture loan.
The property, however, is registered under Platte County’s mapping system to a couple surnamed Gillis, says a new affidavit Peech signed March 19, which was filed Wednesday.
Peech spoke with both husband and wife, and they said they had the home on the market to sell it, and Hamilton contacted them in about July of 2025.
Hamilton told the pair that she and her husband wished to buy the property and were pre-qualified for a USDA loan through Neighbor’s Bank, wrote Peech.
But the property didn’t meet the standard of the loan, Hamilton reportedly continued. Still, she’d been approved for a USDA grant to work on the problems with the property and bring it up to the standards to qualify for the loan, she allegedly told the homeowners.
Papers
Hamilton provided the couple and their realtor with letters from USDA showing her loan pre-approval and grant approvals, the affidavit says.
During the lease period that followed, Hamilton was late “often” with rent and didn’t provide the couple with work logs until pressed, Peech wrote.
In early 2026, the lieutenant continued, the homeowners became concerned and asked Hamilton about her progress improving the property.
Hamilton reportedly sent the homeowners two invoices from contractors, showing she’d paid for work to be done. She said the wind had delayed that work, wrote Peech.
The affidavit says the Gillis couple sent Peech the documents Hamilton had reportedly given them, along with supporting emails showing those had come from one of Hamilton’s email addresses.
The Loan approval documents showed the respective logos for USDA Rural Development and Neighbor’s Bank at the top of each page, the lieutenant wrote, adding that the documents assert that Hamilton and her husband had been approved for the loan.
“There was then a list of items that needed to be completed — 14 items — prior to Final Loan Approval,” related Peech in the affidavit.
A signature at the bottom reportedly read, “Sincerely, USDA Rural Development Neighbors Bank Joshua Harris Homebuying Specialist.”
Grant Document
The documents purporting Hamilton had received a grant also showed the USDA Rural Development logo at the top of each page, with the names of Hamilton and her husband, other boilerplate language and a description of a $35,000 home buyer’s grant.
The project was about 65% complete at the time of review, the document adds, according to Peech’s narrative.
Peech describes more documents: a January notice, an invoice bearing the logo and name of “Cowgirl Demolition and Excavation, LLC,” and another invoice bearing the logo and name of “Pete’s Builders Roofing and Restoration.”
Real Estate Agent
Peech spoke with the Gillises’ real estate agent, Kay Pope, and she said she’d tried to verify the USDA grant and pre-approval by calling Susan Allman, who was listed in the documents as the Casper-based USDA agent. Pope left several messages without response, the affidavit says.
Pope spoke with Hamilton’s real estate agent, and he said he’d spoken to Allman, and he gave Pope a phone number.
Cowboy State Daily has identified Hamilton’s real estate agent and tried to contact him for further clarification.
Pope called that number and left messages without response, wrote Peech.
Peech then called a USDA Rural Development office and spoke with a Janice Blare, deputy state director, he wrote.
Peech sent the three USDA letters to Blare and gave her “all of Hamilton’s names and aliases,” he added.
The lieutenant wrote that Blare later told him the USDA investigated the letters and determined no evidence existed to show the USDA had issued them.
No records existed either, of Hamilton “using all her alias permutations” or her husband within either the USDA loan program or grant program, wrote Peech.
The USDA didn’t have an office at the address listed in two of the letters. The address pertains, rather, to a dirt lot. The USDA Rural Development office didn’t have a program titled “Rural Communities Home Buyer Program” as listed on two of the letters.
On Nov. 6, 2025, the date of the first letter purporting Hamilton had been approved for the grant program, all U.S. government offices including USDA were on furlough, noted Peech from his discussion with Blare.
A person named Susan Allman didn’t appear in USDA’s employee records, Blare reportedly added.
The Phone Call
Peech called the cellphone number one of the letters listed for Allman, “and this was disconnected,” he wrote.
The number Hamilton’s real estate agent had given was a voice over internet protocol number that Bandwidth LLC operates but is assigned to Google, added Peech.
Meanwhile, Converse County Investigator Amber Peterson spoke with the construction and roofing companies listed in the documents.
Chad Derenzo of Pete’s Roofing confirmed the logo and name listed on the documents were his company’s own — but said his company hadn’t issued the bid listed in those documents, according to the affidavit.
“Their company had never contracted to do work for Hamilton or at the… JJ Road address,” the document says.
The invoice also bore an address in Torrington, Wyoming, and his company doesn’t have a Torrington office, said Derenzo, reportedly.
Jessica Loge of Cowgirl Demolition and Excavation gave similar statements, saying the documents bore her logo, but her company hadn’t issued the bid or contracted with Hamilton.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
Wyoming
Wyoming State Parks announces pause on potential visitor center project at Sinks Canyon State Park
Wyoming
Coyote Flats Fire near containment as critical fire danger hits Black Hills, Wyoming counties
RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – The grass is starting to return in the Black Hills, but the damage left behind by last week’s wildfire is still visible beneath the surface. The Coyote Flats Fire is now almost completely contained, but fire officials say the work for crews who battled the flames is far from finished.
“It’s been a long week,” said Gail Schmidt, fire chief for the Rockerville Volunteer Fire Department. Schmidt said firefighters worked the Coyote Flats Fire for multiple days as the blaze forced hundreds of people to leave their homes.
Schmidt also warned the timing is concerning.
“It’s early,” she said. “It’s early — and that’s the more concerning part. We haven’t even hit summer yet.”
Some of the same crews, Schmidt said, have moved from the Black Hills to a second wildfire — the Qury (pronounced “Koo-RAY”) Fire. That fire has burned nearly 9,200 acres and was holding at 70% containment as of Monday.
Between multiple wildfires and routine emergency calls, Schmidt said the pace doesn’t slow down.
“The world does not stop just because there was a fire,” she said. “Life continues. We still have our day jobs that we need to go take care of.”
Another challenge arrives Wednesday, with critical fire danger forecast across the Black Hills and into parts of Wyoming, including Sheridan, Campbell, Crook and Weston counties. Forecast conditions include wind gusts up to 40 mph and humidity as low as 12%.
Schmidt said she believes fire lines are in good shape, but she’s watching the weather closely after recent high-wind events.
“Saturday night, 50 mile an hour winds — that was multiple days ago, and there’s been a lot of work done since,” she said. “I personally am pretty confident that we’re going to be able to hold this fire through today.”
While spring is typically the region’s wetter season — which can help reduce fire behavior — Schmidt urged residents not to become complacent as wildfire season ramps up.
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