Arrowstone Park
Background Arrowstone Park, located in the Upper Clark Fork River sub-basin in Deer Lodge, MT, was…
Our Work
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Blue Copper Mining ProjectBackground The project spans a 10,816-acre footprint across Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest (USFS) and BLM lands in Powell and Lewis and Clark Counties. Falcon Copper proposes up to 127 drill pads, up to 5 drill rigs operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and approximately 41… -
Columbia Gold Mine Exploration ProjectBackground With prices of gold at an all-time high, many mining projects that were previously shelved are receiving renewed interest. This includes a potential gold mine project that could present a very real threat to the Blackfoot watershed. Great Plains Mining LLC (“GPM” -a subsidiary of Australian-based Sentinel Metals) purchased land… -
Sheep Creek Mine ProposalBackground We’ve been tracking the proposed Sheep Creek Mine project – located in the headwaters of the West Fork of the Bitterroot River — since its inception, and we were among the roughly 500 concerned citizens and conservation groups that joined an emergency hearing in front of the Ravalli County Commissioners in… -
Exempt WellsBackground 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… -
Sager Lane Pin & Plank Diversion RemovalRestoring Flow and Fish Passage at Sager Lane In September 2024, we began work to remove a century-old “pin and plank” irrigation… -
Mike Horse Mine CleanupIn 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,… -
Protecting Selenium Standards in Lake KoocanusaBackground: Lake Koocanusa is a long, narrow 90-mile reservoir created by the Libby Dam in Northwestern Montana. It’s headwaters and mountainous shoreline reach across the border into British Columbia, Canada where the Kootenay, Bull, and Elk rivers feed into the lake. Id. The reservoir’s snow-fed waters support diverse aquatic species, including… -
Dry Cottonwood Creek RanchCattle 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… -
Cottonwood-Baggs Fish PassageIn 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… -
Valiton Ditch Split Season LeaseIn summer 2024, after years of work toward a diversion reduction agreement and a 20-year split-season water lease agreement with local landowners, we successfully decommissioned the Valiton Ditch and legally protected 13 cfs of new instream flow water in the Clark Fork River which would have been previously diverted… -
Broken Circle Diversion UpgradeHistorically, Broken Circle Ranch rebuilt their irrigation diversion every summer using broken concrete and streambed material, which resulted in passage issues for fish and recreationists. In 2023, the ranch worked with the Coalition to install an innovative floating fish screen and river pump that requires minimal structure in the…