Flathead Lakers (Montana, USA) Home Page

What Are Your Chances of Sighting the Monster? Loch Ness has nothing on Flathead Lake, according to Laney Hanzel, retired fisheries biologist. Laney's fascinating history of sightings — sober & otherwise — on Flathead Lake is a must read.

Tips for Lake Stewards. Practical advice for property owners.

Macman’s fishing report. July 21. The whitefish are biting! Details.

Streamflow & lake levels information for the Flathead basin and adjacent environs. Links to realtime data for local streams, rivers, lakes, and reservoirs; links to the U.S. Geological Survey, National Weather Service, and other agencies. Part of our lake levels section.

Stillwater Riverbank Restoration. Just east of Kalispell’s vocational-agricultural school, the Stillwater River was moving its west bank westward. Stakes that a science teacher placed near the water disappeared in a year or two. Something had to be done — and was. An ongoing story, with photographs.

Minimum flows and drought years. Hydrographs for Flathead Lake, the Flathead River below Kerr Dam, the south fork of the Flathead River below Hungry Horse Dam, and Article 56 minimums, for drought years from 1926 through 2003. Annual means for Flathead Lake. Graph displaying annual average elevations for water years 1908-2005.

What’s New

NEW! Interactive satellite imagery of Flathead Lake. A work in progress, but also a work good enough for you to enjoy right now.

NEW! Stories and images from our 50th Annual Meeting, held on July 16, 2008.

Lakers 50th Logo
NEW The blue Prius from Bitterroot Motors is here — and it could be yours for as little as $25! That’s right. We’re raffling off the fastest selling automobile in the United States, the fuel efficient, gasoline-electric hybrid from Toyota. And it’s on display right now at the Polson golf course. Details.

NEW Special Photos Exhibit of Historic Flathead Lake. It’s on display right now at the 344 Gallery at 344 Main Street in Kalispell. For the rest of the schedule, download this announcement and schedule.

NEW Lake level normal and expected to remain so. On July 11, PPL Montana issued a press release reporting that the lake was at 2892.80, and that “Based on current information, PPL Montana anticipates that inflows will be adequate to maintain the lake at recreational levels throughout the summer season.” Full press release (PDF).

The electronic edition of our Spring, 2008, newsletter is available for downloading. Included are updates on North Fork mining issues, reports from the annual meeting, and a story on development threats to Flathead Lake’s north shore..

What We Did in 2007. A detailed summary of our projects and accomplishments during 2007, and a special tribute to three departed stewards of the lake whose dedication and service were a gift and inspiration to all of us.

Flathead County is still wrestling with proposed additions to the Subdivision Regulations concerning stream and river setbacks. For more information view the Flathead Lakers’ letter to the planning board and read the technical working group’s setback recommendations.

Flathead Lake Monster story sighted in Flathead Beacon. Lakers board member Laney Hanzel received a nice, and more than well deserved, write-up in the Flathead Beacon newspaper for his tireless efforts to document sightings of a monster in Flathead Lake. Lakers members and others, of course, have been reading about Hanzel's findings here ever since they were published in our newsletter a decade ago.

Zebra mussel Exotic species pose serious threat to Flathead Lake. Non-native species such as the zebra and quagga mussels, and the Eurasian watermilfoil, could wreak ecological and economic havoc to the lake. Help us keep these pests out of our ecosystem. More information.