Star-Tribune Editorial Board

A compromise on the lower Big Horn River's spring flows from Wyoming into Montana doesn't give either state all of the water it wants, but the plan is reasonable.

Now Montana is trying to flex its newfound political muscle in the Democratic-controlled Senate to increase its flows, at Wyoming's expense. Wyoming officials need to do everything in their power to stop our northern neighbor from hurting tourism in the Lovell area.

Montana is being unrealistic, as well as unfair. The state doesn't seem to understand that the regional drought, now in its eighth year, means the Big Horn River simply can't support increased flows. Its congressional delegation and Gov. Brian Schweitzer have united in an attempt to protect the river's trout fishery, Wyoming be damned.

Montana claims federal officials aren't keeping the promises they made to the state. "Welcome to the club" should be Wyoming's response.

In the 1960s, before the construction of Yellowtail Dam, federal officials projected more than 2 million visitors a year to the Bighorn Lake National Recreation Area. But less than 10 percent of that number of tourists has shown up in recent years, thanks to the drought and scaled-back development plans.

Now, Montana's Democratic Sen. Max Baucus wants to leave the Lovell area high and dry. After taking over as chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, he's sponsored a bill that would guarantee flows into the river from Bighorn Lake at 2,500 cubic feet per second.

Baucus' new position gives him a lot of bargaining power with other states. But senators need to be made aware that if his bill is approved, it would effectively kill the recreation area, which has been struggling for several years due to the drought.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's plan originally set the flow at 2,000 cfs. That's the amount Montana claims is the minimum needed for a healthy trout spawn.

But the agency had to decrease the figure to 1,500 cfs because of below-average water levels in two upstream reservoirs. Winter snowfall was below average, and recent snowfall across the Big Horn Basin can't begin to make up for years of dry conditions.

Montana needs to realize that it's not the only Western state that needs more water; we're all in the same boat. The Bureau of Reclamation's plan already makes a significant concession to Montana's needs, by increasing the flow into the Big Horn to 2,000 cfs in early June.

The plan would give both the Wyoming recreation area and the Montana trout fishery a chance to survive. It's one federal proposal that Wyoming's elected leaders should be able to get behind, and they need to do it soon.