PRESS RELEASE

Bitterroot National Forest partners with “citizen science” group to monitor water quality 

The USDA Forest Service has partnered with the Bitterroot River Protection Association (BRPA) to conduct water quality monitoring on Bitterroot National Forest system lands within the Bitterroot River Basin.

BRPA, in a partnership with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Bitterroot College, University of Montana and other groups involved in the Bitterroot River Health Check program, have been conducting ‘Citizen Science’ water quality monitoring on the main stem and some tributaries of the Bitterroot River since 2017. The purpose of the monitoring is to provide information to DEQ and the general public on water quality within the Bitterroot River watershed, particularly on streams already identified as impaired. BRPA wishes to develop long-term monitoring sites on the Forest in an effort to determine a baseline for the quality of water leaving the Wilderness and Forest respectively. This data could benefit the long term monitoring plans on Bitterroot National Forest lands within the Bitterroot River Basin.

“Both parties will benefit by long term monitoring of water quality on the National Forest,” said Darby District Ranger Eric Winthers.  “We appreciate the efforts of BRPA and the many partners and volunteers who are working with us on this important project.”  

BRPA executive director Michael Howell said that due to a shortage of state funds and personnel involved in long term monitoring in the Clark Fork River Basin, in 2010 DEQ reduced the program monitoring on the Bitterroot River to a site at Maclay Bridge in Missoula where it discharges into the Clark Fork River. 

“By partnering with BRPA’s locally based ‘citizen science’ volunteer program in 2017,” said Howell,  “DEQ was able to extend its long term monitoring to cover the entire Bitterroot River main stem again.” He said based on the initial success of this monitoring program DEQ was able to adopt and initiate a plan in 2019 to monitor the river at 5 locations for the next 20 years. According to Howell, a locally based cooperative was formed called the Bitterroot River Health Check to sustain this monitoring and another plan was developed to monitor six tributaries on the Sapphire Front “in perpetuity”.  The Bitterroot River Health Check has been conducting the sampling on the main stem since 2017 and on the tributaries since 2018. 

“One very important thing to understand,” said Howell,“is that BRPA could not be doing all this on its own. These kinds of things can happen only when the whole community gets involved. Without support from individuals and businesses serving like spokes in a wheel, without a few extra strong spokes like BRPA, Bitterroot Trout Unlimited and Bitterrooters for Planning, and the Clark Fork Coalition, without an MOU with the Bitterroot College to serve as the hub, without the equipment to throw in the cart provided by the Rapp Family Foundation, and without the incredible group of “Citizen Science” volunteers who are pulling the cart along, we would probably still only be monitoring the Bitterroot at Maclay Bridge.”

Howell said this new MOU between the Bitterroot National Forest and the Bitterroot River Health Check program makes the Bitterroot River Watershed home to one of the most extensive and robust long term water quality monitoring programs in the state.  

“To have the biggest land manager in the county, who manages over 75% of the land base in the watershed, get on board with our monitoring progam is extremely exciting,” said Howell “and we look forward to working with the Forest Service on specific projects along the Bitterroot Front as they develop and implement their management activities there in the coming years.”

“Bitterroot Trout Unlimited is proud to be a part of this continued effort to maintain excellent water quality that is the lifeblood of our valley,” said BTU president Jeremy Anderson.

George Furniss, Hydrology professor at the Bitterroot College, University of Montana agreed, saying, “The Bitterroot College is proud to be a community partner in all hands-on scientific research involving our watershed.” 

Howell said that the strict citizen science based protocols guiding their volunteers in the field are being modified to incorporate all the safety precautions being advocated by health officials including maintaining proper distances between volunteers throughout the training and sample collection process. He said the training sessions have usually been held in late spring and the first sampling in the field does not usually begin until after high water in late June or early July.

“We have time to prepare,” said Howell.  “Collecting uncontaminated water samples for lab analysis by following strict protocols is at the core of our volunteer program,” said Howell, “Now we are adding to this another set of protocols designed to keep our volunteers uncontaminated as well.”For more information about the Bitterroot River Health Check program call Michael Howell at 239-4838.

Bitterroot River Health Check receives 2017 Community Focus Grant

The Bitterroot River Health Check, a community based water quality monitoring program, was chosen to be the recipient of the Rapp Family Foundation’s 2017 Community Focus grant. The Rapp Family Foundation’s grant of $15,260 will go toward the purchase of the equipment necessary to establish a permanent headquarters/laboratory for the Bitterroot River Health Check at the Bitterroot College UM in Hamilton.

The Rapp Family Foundation was formed to support non-profit organizations in Ravalli County and has been gifting to individual organizations since 1991.  In an effort to encourage non-profits to work together the Foundation decided in 2016 to take applications that demonstrate an effort by multiple organizations to contribute their personnel, efforts and funds to create something that enhances the community and that would benefit a wide segment of the population.

“The Rapp Family Foundation has helped an incredible number of non-profit organizations in the Bitterroot valley for well over a dozen years now. We are really honored to have become a part of that legacy,” said Bitterroot River Health Check program director Michael Howell.

The Bitterroot River Health Check is a community based and locally supported volunteer water quality monitoring program that was initiated as a cooperative effort between the Bitterroot River Protection Association, Bitterroot Trout Unlimited and Bitterrooters for Planning. It quickly gained community support from individuals and businesses. Try Big Creek Coffee Roaster’s “Aqua Pura” blend. For every bag sold a $1 goes to the river health check program.

This summer the Bitterroot River Health Check volunteers worked as “citizen scientists” for the Department of Environmental Quality collecting samples at four sites from Darby to Florence as part of the state’s long term water quality monitoring project in the Clark Fork Basin. This sampling project alone is currently funded for five years but is meant to run indefinitely.

But the Bitterroot River Health Check’s goals extend beyond the mainstem of the river and into the entire watershed. In order to accomplish those goals the program needed a centrally located headquarters with a refrigerator, freezer and ice chests, as well as the instruments needed to sample the various parameters and a safe storage place for records.

The Bitterroot College University Montana is an ideal location. It is not only centrally located in the valley, geographically, but it is also centrally located in the community. It was at the second annual Bitterroot College sponsored Water Forum, that the Bitterroot River Protection Association had the opportunity to present its plans for a modest but significant sampling project on the Bitterroot River to the community.

“The response was so immediate, genuine and so supportive from university professors, from other organizations, and from members of the general public, that a vision sprouted of something way beyond any particular water quality monitoring project,” said BRPA director Michael Howell.  “It was the vision of an institution. A locally formed, locally driven, and locally funded institution that would ensure that water quality monitoring became a tradition in the Bitterroot that would continue in perpetuity. It was something only a community can really do.”

“We want to express our gratitude to the college for the way in which it has from its inception worked to integrate itself into the full community and involve itself in community affairs. Facilitating the kinds of interactions that spawn new, innovative and creative ways of addressing issues from water quality to homelessness,” said Howell. “And once again, express our gratitude or the Rapp Family Foundation’s support of such community based projects.”

Bitterroot College UM professor George Furniss said, “One of our greatest economic drivers in Ravalli County are the dollars spent and earned and the happiness enjoyed by fishing, recreation, and irrigation, all provided by clean water flowing in the Bitterroot River. Bitterroot College wants to support community engagement involved in protecting the value of the Bitterroot River.”

For more information contact Bitterroot River Health Check, program director Michael Howell at (406) 239-4838 or email bitterrootriverprotection@gmail.com and/or Bitterroot College UM Professor George Furniss at comogeo@gmail.com.