Matt Jaeger
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks

DESCRIPTION

On November 30, 2021, a coupling on the intake gate stem at Hebgen Dam failed resulting in a rapid reduction of outgoing Madison River flows. This session will be presented as a case study focusing on the response to this emergency event through engaging dam safety, environmental, operations, and FERC. Detailed recounting and reporting of communications, immediate response, engineered solutions, fisheries impacts, and determining appropriate mitigation to offset fisheries impacts during and following the event will be discussed.

This panel is within the Natural Resources Track at the conference. 
 
This session is a 201-level discussion for those looking to take a deeper dive into this subject matter.

Moderator:
Andy Welch, Manager, Hydro License Compliance, NorthWestern Energy
 

Panelists:

• Matt Jaeger, Hydropower, Native Species, & Beaverhead-Ruby Program Manager, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks
• Jeremy Clotfelter, Director, Power Generation, NorthWestern Energy

Speaker Bios:

• Andy Welch was born and raised in Boise, ID when it was still a relatively small town. Andy migrated north to attend college and Montana quelched his thirst for wild and beautiful places so after almost 30 years he still resides in Helena.
  Andy began his career in water right out of college and started his foray in to the hydropower world doing 401 certification work for Montana DEQ in the mid-2000s. He moved to working in the private sector in 2011 and took over managing NorthWestern’s hydro license compliance group in 2017. In his free time, you can find Andy out and about skiing, fishing, curling, hiking, traveling, or chasing his six-year-old daughter around with his lovely wife.
• Matt Jaeger has been the Fisheries Management Biologist for the Beaverhead and Ruby watersheds since 2010 and has worked as a Fish, Wildlife & Parks Management Biologist since 2004. He has over 25 years of experience working on fisheries issues in the intermountain West for FWP, universities, non-profit organizations, and consulting firms. He earned a B.S. in Resource Ecology and Management from the University of Michigan and a M.S. in Fish and Wildlife Management from Montana State University. In 2019 Matt began managing FWP's Native Fish and Hydropower Mitigation programs in southwest Montana.
• Jeremy Clotfelter has worked in electric generation for over 30 years including hydro for the past 19 years. Jeremy has worked in engineering, project management, operations and maintenance, and overall leadership of the generation facilities through that time and is currently responsible for NorthWestern Energy’s generation fleet. Based in Great Falls, MT, Jeremy enjoys all outdoor activities, sports, and serving at church.Jeremy loves what he does and where he gets to do it, but especially loves working with the team they have built to manage the generation facilities.