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Mike Horse Mine Cleanup

In the 1940s, miners used metals-laced tailings to build the Mike Horse Dam at the origins of the Blackfoot River on Beartrap Creek near the Continental Divide. In 1975, the tailings dam blew out, dumping deadly levels of lead, copper and zinc into the Blackfoot. The mine’s corporate owner, ASARCO, rebuilt…
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…
Broken Circle Diversion Upgrade

Historically, Broken Circle Ranch rebuilt their irrigation diversion every summer using broken concrete and streambed material, which…
Community Science Monitoring Miller Creek

On Miller Creek, community science volunteers assessed habitat, noxious weeds, and…
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-…
Annual Clark Fork River Cleanup

The Clark Fork River Cleanup is an annual tradition when the community comes together to clean trash along the river banks before spring runoff and high water hits. Hundreds of people—including individuals, families, friends, schools, and business teams—join together for a good cause and celebrate the river we love and…
River Ambassadors

During the summer, Missoula River Ambassadors can be spotted at busy river access sites and community events, on popular day-float stretches, and immersed in conservation and restoration projects dotting Missoula’s urban river corridor. This team of community ambassadors guides the ever-growing river-recreation culture toward stewardship. During peak river season from…
Clean Smurfit Now

The Smurfit-Stone pulp mill operated on the banks of the Clark Fork River near Frenchtown from 1957 to 2010, discharging enormous amounts of wastewater into the river. More than a decade after the mill closed, the 3,200-acre industrial site is still leaching harmful chemicals into the river and our aquifer.
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…
Cabinet Mountain Mines and Bad Actors

The Cabinet Mountains Wilderness provides refuge for native fish and wildlife and its streams flow with some of the purest waters in the lower 48. It also contains one of the largest copper/silver deposits in the world. We work with our partners Earthworks, Earthjustice, Rock Creek Alliance, and Montana Environmental…
Thermal Mapping of the Upper Clark

Professor Raja Nagisetty and environmental engineering graduate student Meggie Olsen at Montana Tech, along with several other collaborators, completed a series of drone flights on the upper Clark Fork River to study thermal refugia habitat. Professor Raja and his team documented an unremediated…
Stonewall Creek

We permanently acquired 5 cfs of water rights that reconnect Stonewall Creek to the Blackfoot River year round. The creek supports native westslope cutthroat and brown trout.