The Becker County Soil and Water District reports that the Otter Tail River has essentially stopped flowing in the Rochert area.
That part of Becker County is in severe drought, with areas of extreme and even exceptional drought not far away, in northern Becker County, Norman and Mahnomen counties, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor website.
The Otter Tail River hasn’t stopped flowing everywhere, and hopefully most fish left the lowest parts of the river for safer places as the water level dropped, said Nathan Olson, area fisheries supervisor for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in Detroit Lakes.
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“As the water goes lower, they should be sensing they should go somewhere else,” he said. “There’s quite a few ponds, wetlands and lakes, and with dams removed, they should be able to reach those areas. If anything, it just reiterates the importance of making sure that systems are connected,” he said.
That being said, it doesn’t mean everything is all good and fine, fish do get trapped sometimes when rivers quit running, and native mussels are also at risk when the waters run dry. “We do have some concerns,” Olson said.
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Other rivers are also feeling the drought, he added. “The Pelican River is getting pretty low in certain spots, and the Red Lake River and even the Red River are a concern,” he said. “On the Red River, fishing guides are no longer going out. It’s definitely not unique to the Otter Tail.”
If a river does get so low that people can walk on the riverbed, they shouldn’t do so, he added. “People really can’t walk in the riverbed without the permission of the adjoining landowners -- it should be treated as private property,” he said.
As for the low Otter Tail River, “the best we can do now is just hope for some rain to help with the flows,” he said Thursday. “We’re supposed to get some rain in the next couple days.”
