Judith River Watershed

Description of Watershed

Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC): 10040103

The total estimated area in the watershed is 1,767,860 acres. This watershed is located in Fergus and Judith Basin Counties in central Montana.

The land uses in this watershed consist of rangeland, dry cropland, irrigated hay, pasture, irrigated cropland, and forest. The watershed area is a combination of mountains, foothills, and high plains. The topography ranges from steep mountains covered in coniferous forest to rolling plains that are primarily private agricultural lands. About 75 percent of the land in this watershed is privately owned, while 17 percent falls within the Lewis & Clark National Forest. The soils range from extremely gravelly loam on steep mountain slopes to nearly level loamy and clayey soils in valley bottoms.

In the watershed, there are about 496 farms and ranches. Primary crops include alfalfa hay, wheat, and barley. Other crops include Christmas trees, grass seed, and alfalfa seed.

In the rangeland areas of the watershed, there are hundreds of ranches covering 627,700 acres of rangeland plus intermingled grazed forest. Ranches are mostly cow/calf, hay and pasture, and timber operations.

Pastureland in the watershed comprises about 41,900 acres. Much of this is improved pasture grass species such as crested wheatgrass, Russian wild rye, pubescent wheatgrass, intermediate wheatgrass, alfalfa, and other dryland species.

The watershed contains some of Montana's premier habitat for many game species. Upland game bird species include Hungarian partridge, sharp-tailed grouse, pheasants, and wild turkey. Large game animals include white-tailed deer, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, elk, and black bear. Additionally, the watershed contains federally threatened and endangered species and species of concern including bird species such as the great gray owl, flammulated owl, bald eagle, northern goshawk, sage grouse, mountain plover, and various neotropical migrants. Wetland, riparian, and aquatic species include the leopard frog, spiny softshell turtle, westslope cutthroat trout, and blue sucker.

The Judith River drains into the Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument, the wild and scenic portion of the Missouri River.

Map of Judith Watershed

Additional Materials

The following document is available in Adobe Acrobat format.

Judith Watershed Profile (943 KB)

For general and application information, visit the Montana NRCS CSP home page.

Program Contacts

Dennis Dellwo, Program Specialist
Phone: 406-587-6748
Email: Dennis.Dellwo

Carrie Mosley, Assistant State Conservationist for Programs
Phone: 406-587-6967
Email: Carrie.Mosley

Last Modified: 04/09/2008