UCFWG Topic Discussion Meetings
The UCFWG is meeting the second Thursday of every month from 12pm – 1pm MST to discuss ongoing and new projects on the Upper Clark Fork River. Topics and meeting invitations are sent to interested participants via our email list. If you are interested in joining these discussions or learning more about the Upper Clark Fork Working Group please sign up for communications using the following form.
UCFWG January Meeting
January 14, 2021 Online Zoom Meeting
Hydrologic complexities associated with multiple use, remediation, and restoration
Organized by Brian Bartkowiak, MT NRDP
Meeting Presenters:
Brian Bartkowiak: Montana NRDP – Environmental Science Specialist
Brian has been involved in the remediation and restoration of the Upper Clark Fork River Basin since 1997. Brian worked for the Montana Department of Environmental Quality for 10 years, leading the remediation/restoration cleanup on the Upper Clark Fork among other projects. Brian has been with the NRDP since spring of 2018 and is responsible for the aquatic flow projects as well as restoration work on numerous watershed in the Upper Basin.
Alex Leone: Clark Fork Coalition – Restoration Policy Manager
Alex is a stream restoration scientist and policy analyst based out of Anaconda, Montana, and joined CFC in 2016. He works with public resource managers, landowners, universities and the general public to design and implement restoration projects and studies that improve rivers and streams in western Montana. He spent several years working for the Forest Service as a wildland firefighter and researcher and has traveled extensively throughout the American West.
Stephen Begley, Montana FWP – Water Conservation Specialist
Stephen Begley, is a Water Conservation/Instream Flow Specialist with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks. Since 2012, his work has been focused on administering a number of Department owned instream flow water rights that are managed on behalf of the Public Trust. Stephen is a member of the technical committee that is focused on the implementation and administration of a set of instream flow water rights including in the Blackfoot and Clark Fork Rivers.
Ethan Mace: Montana DNRC – Surface Water Hydrologist
Ethan serves as the DNRC technical lead to the CSKT-MT Water Right Compact and as the State representative to the Compact Implementation Technical Team (CITT). He is also the lead for the US Forest Service Compact and work on wetland and instream water rights.
Presentations
Contact Ethan Mace, emace@mt.gov, if you are interested in the DNRC’s new web tool.
UCFWG December Meeting
December 10, 2020 Online Zoom Meeting
Metals and Biota
Organized by U of M’s Ben Colman
Meeting Presenters:
Rafael Feijo de Lima is a biologist who obtained his Ph.D. in Brazil focusing on land use impacts on structural and functional parameters in freshwater ecosystems. He is a postdoctoral researcher in the CREWS project. His current research focuses on the linkages between ecosystem metabolism, benthic algae, and nutrient transport in the Upper Clark Fork River.
Ben Colman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Ecosystem ad Conservations Sciences at the University of Montana. Ben is interested broadly in how chemical and physical changes alter the structure and function of ecosystems, and his work in the Upper Clark Fork River focuses on the forms of metal contaminants and how that alters their interaction with the biota and their impacts.
Megan Fylling has been an Avian Ecologist at the UM’s Bird Ecology Lab since 2004. Shortly after receiving her MS in 2013 at UM she became the director of several programs including a multi-partner “Bird’s-eye View Education Program” which collects scientific data and provides outreach to the public; a research project on heavy metals in riparian obligate birds; and research on migratory connectivity of songbirds using tiny tracking technology.
Erick Greene is a Professor of Biology and Wildlife Biology at the University of Montana. He is the director of UM’s Bird Ecology Lab and helps run the Clark Fork Watershed Education Program. With colleagues, he has monitored the levels of heavy metals in Osprey chicks in Montana for over a decade.
Presentations
Mercury in Osprey chicks in the Upper Clark Fork River – Interactive map (created by Trish Rodriguez)
UCFWG November Meeting
November 12, 2020 Online Zoom Meeting
Metal and nutrients: The Lost Creek Dutchman Complex Upper Clark Fork River, MT
The Lost Creek Dutchman Complex (LCDC) is a stream-wetland landscape that flows into the UCFR near the river’s origin. Soils across the complex are listed as moderately impacted by heavy metals as a result of historical mining activities. The LCDC contains two streams (Lost Creek and Dutchman Creek) within an extensive wetland (Dutchman wetland) comprising a mosaic of patches interacting via surface and groundwater flow. Recent research has documented that output from the LCDC can increase the nitrogen load in the UCFR from 2- to 100-fold at the point of confluence. With support from the NRDP, researchers from UM are collaborating with personnel from Geum, Inc. and other institutions to address the potential sources of nitrogen and implications of nutrient-metal interactions for the LCDC and the UCFR.
The Nov 12th UCFWG meeting will include presentations focusing on contemporary and historical conditions at the LCDC provided by Geum personnel, Tom Parker and Marisa Sowles, and an overview of ongoing biogeochemical research from UM personnel, Maury Valett, and Colton Kyro.
University of Montana
Colton Kyro is a graduate student at the University of Montana working on nitrogen dynamics in the Lost Creek Dutchman Complex (LCDC) in the Upper Clark Fork River, MT. Colton is using a combination of hydrogeologic and biogeochemical approaches to discern the origins of the nitrogen that make the LCDC a source of nutrients to the river.
Maury Valett is a Professor of Systems Ecology at the University of Montana. Maury’s work on streams and rivers has combined hydrology, chemistry, and biology to investigate how groundwater-surface water interaction, nutrient limitation, and biological interactions influences ecosystem structure and function. His recent research on the Upper Clark Fork River, MT, integrates work on food webs, heavy metals, and nitrogen enrichment.
Geum, Inc
Marisa Sowels is a Water Resource Specialist at Geum Environmental Consulting, Inc. with a background in water management and wetland design. She focuses on creating or enhancing wetlands to improve water quality and habitat diversity. Marisa has worked on wetland projects in urban environments, where wetlands provide a recreational and educational component, and also in natural floodplain environments.
Tom Parker is the President and Principal Ecologist of Geum Environmental Consulting, Inc., founded in 2003. Since the mid-1990’s, Tom’s professional work has emphasized ecological restoration design, planning, and project implementation in river and wetland ecosystems. His projects have included large-scale river restoration, site remediation of mining impacts, wetland design, environmental compliance and permitting, and riparian restoration and management.
Presentations
UCFWG Summer Field Research Planning Meeting
March 31, 2020 Online Zoom Meeting
Hosts:
University of Montana: Maury Valett, Division of Biological Sciences
Geum Environmental Consulting: Tom Parker, Principal Ecologist.
Meeting Objectives
The purpose of this meeting is to allow representatives from each organization share upcoming activities related to the Strategic Plan.
UCFWG March 2020 Workshop
March 18, 2020 University of Montana, Missoula, MT
Due to the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), this meeting was moved to a video conference workshop hosted by Tom Parker at Geum Environmental Engineering.
Hosts:
University of Montana: Maury Valett, Division of Biological Sciences Montana Water Consortium, Montana Institute on Ecosystems
Geum, Inc.: Tom Parker, Marisa Sowles
Meeting Objectives
Review new UCFWG.org web site and associated resources to support information sharing
- Review mental models/ working hypotheses that underlie our shared understanding of the Strategic Plan elements
- Identify purpose, roles and leadership of sub-groups
- Identify specific actions being implemented by each core UCFWG member organization in 2020
- Identify next UCFWG meeting date, location and focus
Maury Valett (UM) provided a reminder that the Strategic Plan is a living document and that modifications can and should occur as the group learns more about the Clark Fork and participates in the process of identifying goals for the Clark Fork and how we can collaboratively move towards those goals.
Doug Martin (NRDP) discussed the long-term timeframe and value of the work proposed by the Upper Clark Fork Working Group. This collaborative effort can set the groundwork for the next generation.
UCFWG October 2019 Workshop
October 18, 2019 Delta Hotel, Helena, MT
Hosts:
University of Montana: Maury Valett, Division of Biological Sciences Montana Water Consortium, Montana Institute on Ecosystems
Montana DOJ, Natural Resource Damage Program: Brian Bartkowiak
Geum, Inc.: Tom Parker, Marisa Sowles
Workshop intent and participating personnel
The Upper Clark Fork Working Group (UCFWG) is a collaborative with the mission to ‘…facilitate, produce, analyze, and share science-based knowledge among key participants involved in the remediation, restoration, research, and monitoring of the Upper Clark Fork River and its tributaries’ (UCFRWG Strategic Plan 2019).
The UCFWG is currently composed of eleven participants representing eight institutions including educational, regulatory, private business, and non-governmental organizations. The UCFWG October 2019 Workshop in Helena introduced the UCFWG to a larger audience of participating individuals and programs with 30 individuals attending the meeting. A roster of associated personnel (attending or affiliated) is provided in Appendix A of the Workshop Minutes PDF.
As part of the Oct. 2019 Workshop attendees used a large map to organize the meeting specially. On the provided map attendees posted notes which showed existing data, gaps in data, on going places being monitored, data gaps currently being researched, and action items for future research. The research group at Geum Environmental Consulting digitized the notes into GIS layers for feedback from the community.