Currently, 52 streams and 9 lakes in the basin are listed on 303(d) lists of impaired waters in three states, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. Water quality problems include sediment, nutrients, fecal coliform bacteria, low dissolved oxygen, and high water temperature. Pollutant sources include animal feeding operations, grazing, agriculture, wastewater treatment, degraded stream banks, urban development, roads, phosphate mining, oil and gas exploration, and logging (BLRC and ERI, 1991; ERI, 1995; ERI, 1998).

The Upper Watershed of the Bear River Basin extends from the river's headwaters to Pixley Dam in Wyoming.... It begins in the High Uintas Wilderness Area in Utah, and travels north through narrow valleys in Utah to Woodruff Narrows Reservoir in Wyoming. Below the reservoir, the river continues through an open valley, crossing the Utah-Wyoming border two times before it reaches the Pixley Dam in Wyoming,

Water at the headwaters is pristine, but the river picks up sediment, nutrients, and other pollutants as it travels through lower gradient lands.

The Central Watershed encompasses lands draining to the Bear River as it travels from Pixley Dam to Stewart Dam in Idaho, just northeast of Bear Lake.

The river travels through open sagebrush valleys, dropping just 60 meters over its 71-kilometer course as it travels northward through this watershed. Smith's Fork and Thomas Fork are the two largest tributaries that enter the Bear River in this watershed.

The Bear Lake Watershed in the Bear River Basin includes all lands draining to the Bear River between Stewart Dam below the Idaho-Utah border and Alexander Dam, located near the town of Soda Springs, Idaho. Bear Lake forms the centerpiece of this watershed.

The quality of surface water throughout the entire Bear River Basin varies due to human activities and natural processes. Major water quality issues throughout this watershed include high levels of suspended sediments and phosphorus. Bear River: There has been ongoing concern about the effect of Bear River water on Bear Lake, which is valued for its bright blue waters.

The Middle Bear Watershed encompasses all land draining to the Bear River from below Alexander Dam in Idaho to Cutler Dam in Utah.

After the river leaves Alexander Reservoir, it makes a hair-pin turn around Sheep Rock and heads south. Water is diverted at Grace Dam above Black Canyon into an aqueduct, and delivered to the Grace Power Plant below Black Canyon at Cove Dam.

The river continues through the wide, relatively flat Gem and Gentile Valleys in Idaho, passes through Oneida Reservoir, then continues south through Cache Valley in Idaho and Utah.

The river flows through Cutler Reservoir, entering a narrow canyon near the dam. As it passes through this watershed, the river travels about 180 kilometers and drops about 410 meters.

The Middle Bear-Logan Watershed is comprised entirely of the drainage areas of several major tributaries of the Bear River and does not include any of the mainstem of the Bear River.

The Logan River drains the eastern portion of the watershed. It originates as a high mountain stream in the Bear River Range in Idaho, collecting tributary waters from Beaver Creek, Temple Fork, and Right Hand Fork as it travels through Logan Canyon in the Wasatch National Forest. When the river reaches the valley floor, it passes through the city of Logan and outlying agricultural areas.

The Lower Bear-Malad Watershed captures water from lands draining to the Bear River below Cutler Reservoir, and from the large drainage of the Malad River, which encompasses the entire western edge of the Bear River drainage.

As the river leaves Cutler Reservoir, it travels southwest through a small, narrow canyon at the northern end of the Wellsville Mountains into the Great Salt Lake valley, it travels a total of 105 kilometers from Cutler Reservoir to its final destination, the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and Willard Bay, which ultimately drain into the Great Salt Lake.

This reach of the Bear River has the poorest water quality in the entire drainage due to the cumulative upstream impacts.

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The river supplies water to thousands of acres of wetlands along its path, which in turn support nesting and feeding habitat for thousands of migratory birds and other animals.

Bear Lake is a tectonic lake that has existed for at least several hundred thousand years. The lake basin picture shows the location of Bear Lake, Utah-Idaho. Bear Lake is a relatively simple half graben, a spoon-shaped depression tilted toward the main fault on the east side of the lake.

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