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Protecting Selenium Standards in Lake Koocanusa

When the Montana Board of Environmental Review (BER) chose to void Montana DEQ’s protective water quality standard for selenium in Lake Koocanusa, it put the interests of a foreign mining company over the interests of Montana. The review board’s decision seems solely to benefit Teck Coal, the Canadian mining company that is…
Dry Cottonwood Creek Ranch

Cattle and Clean Water at Dry Cottonwood Creek Ranch From 2005 to 2021, Clark Fork Coalition and partners ran Dry Cottonwood Creek Ranch (DCCR), a 2,300-acre working cattle ranch in Montana’s Deer Lodge Valley, to be a living classroom for the largest river repair job in the West, located in…
Cottonwood-Baggs Fish Passage

In the late fall of 2019, the Coalition finished a stream reconnection project on Baggs Creek and Cottonwood Creek in the upper Clark Fork. Eight miles of stream was opened to fish passage for the first time in many decades. Cottonwood Creek also benefited from a large fish screen project…
Valiton Ditch Split Season Lease

Three landowners are working with us to reduce late season water use on the mainstem Clark Fork. They lease CFC their water right from mid-July through August and cease irrigation if flows reach low levels. We also improved a diversion to help fish passage. This project strikes a balance between…
Helen-Johnson Ditch Project

The Helen Johnson project reduced irrigation withdrawals from the mainstem of the Upper Clark Fork by over 15 cfs on three ranches. It removed a fish barrier and eliminated entrainment issues. The project replaced a portion of the ditch on the Lampert Ranch with a 2-mile stock water pipeline that…
Community Science Monitoring Miller Creek

On Miller Creek, community science volunteers assessed habitat, noxious weeds, and riparian vegetation species diversity pre- and post stream restoration at two sites. Community science is scientific work undertaken by members of the public in collaboration with professional scientists and scientific institutions. When community members and scientists work together, scientists are…
Grant Creek Restoration

With new, intensive development happening along its lower reaches, the future of Grant Creek depends on community investment in the creek’s rich cultural and ecological functions before it’s too late. Right now, we have an amazing opportunity for holistic, headwaters-to-confluence restoration and protection of this native trout stream and wilderness…
Exempt Wells Loophole

In 1973, the Montana Legislature passed the Water Use Act, which created a process for permitting new water rights. To reduce permitting burdens on small, individual users, it exempted groundwater use for “domestic, agricultural, or livestock purposes.” This meant applicants did not have to prove that the water was physically…
Assessments of Geomorphology and Macroinvertebrate Diversity

The CFC has coordinated data collection efforts with Professor Rob Thomas at UM Western annually since 2019. Over that period, Rob’s students have focused on a variety of studies in the UCF OU from assessments of geomorphology and macroinvertebrate diversity on both remediated and unremedied phases, to a study examining…
Poorman Creek

We permanently acquired 18 cfs of water rights that reconnect Poorman Creek to the Blackfoot River year round.
Lost Horse Creek Monitoring

Gives us data on flow and temperature. We use flow data to determine when to close irrigation ditches and save water for stream function.
Lolo Ditch Fish Screen

In 2020, CFC completed installation of a fish screen on Lolo Ditch, which, before this project, had trapped 10,000 fish each year, greatly impacting native and wild fish populations.