Water Suite

I recently attended the 2016 Watershed Symposium in Billings. The theme of the program was Improving Conservation through Partnership. In many cases, partnerships were between local non-profit watershed groups like the Clearwater Resource Council and agencies: FWP, USFS, DNRC, DEQ, USFWS – and even more alphabet soup.

The Clearwater Resource Council partners with many of these agencies that enable us to work here in the Seeley-Swan valley. To get right to the point of this article, our most valuable partnership is with "you"; local residents, friends and neighbors, folks who live with our beautiful lakes and streams on a daily basis. "You", the volunteer Citizen Scientists, who make our programs possible, are our most valuable partners.

I'd like to brag a bit about what "you" have done on behalf of all of our lakes and streams over the last nine plus years.

Adopt-A-Lake: "You" have gone out on six of our largest, busiest lakes (Alva, Inez, Seeley, Salmon, Placid and Big Sky) in boats "you" provided, to measure water clarity and temperature. "You" did this twice a month from May to October, every year since 2008. Additionally, "you" hiked into Rainy and Clearwater with your float-tube fishing gear to measure those lakes as well. That's more than 1,400 times!

Adopt-A-Lake (the sequel): In 2013, a new component was added to the Adopt-A-Lake program. "You" started taking temperature and oxygen measurements from the water surface to the bottom at three locations in Seeley Lake, six to eight times in late summer. In 2015, another "you" started doing the same on Salmon Lake at four spots.

Aquatic Invasive Species: Since 2010, "you" have maintained a foot long section of PVC pipe (the technical term is "artificial substrate") off your docks during summer months to look for the development of invasive zebra mussel colonies. Since 2011, "you" have collected concentrated water samples from more than 30 sites on six lakes four to five times a year. That's more than 1,500 samples that were sent to the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) lab in Helena to look for the zebra mussels and to the University of Montana (UM) Environmental Genetics Lab to test for the zebra mussels and an invasive plant, Eurasian Water Milfoil.

Adopt-A-Stream: In 2013, "you" collected water samples for nutrient testing 12 times from 11 streams, during run-off. Many of "you" had to snowmobile, ski or snowshoe to the test sites at the beginning of the project.

In 2016, "you" collected water samples for nutrient testing 15 times from more than 20 streams, during run-off.

Hats off to "you." Without your contributions, this suite of aquatic monitoring projects would not have happened. There is simply no money available to pay professionals to do what "you" have done.

For sure, our hats are also off to the alphabet soup partners who provide money for supplies and testing and provide professional experience and guidance in planning and evaluating the results of "your" work.

So what have "you" accomplished?

Adopt-A-Lake: On a scale of good, moderate and bad, "you" have established that a few of our lakes (Big Sky, Alva, and Clearwater) are in good shape. The rest are moderate, closer to good than bad. They seem to be staying pretty steady; not getting worse and not getting better.

Keep in mind, this is nine years of looking at lakes that are thousands of years old and in many more thousands of years will become wetlands and then meadows, no longer lakes at all. The measurements "you" take are good indicators of overall lake health but they are not the whole story.

Other observations, notably algae blooms on Seeley Lake, Salmon Lake and Placid Lake and the loss of oxygen near the bottom in Seeley Lake and Salmon Lake (Placid has not been tested for oxygen loss), are reasons to sit up and pay attention.

Adopt-A-Lake (the sequel): "You" demonstrated that in late summer, oxygen levels deep in the lake drop to near zero. Cold-water fish that need the colder water temperatures deep in the lakes don't have enough oxygen.

Aquatic Invasive Species: This is one of those situations where no news is good news. To date, all the samples "you" collected have tested negative for aquatic invasive species. To coin another phrase, the best defense is a good offense, the best chance for keeping "your" lakes free of invasive plants and animals is to aggressively work to keep them out and to find them quickly when they are introduced. The testing done on the samples "you" collect are state-of-the-art and even pushing new scientific standards. We must not let our guard down.

Adopt-A-Stream: The nutrient results from the samples "you" collected have provided insight into which streams are contributing the most nutrients to our lakes. Nutrients sound like a good thing but too much of a good thing is bad for our lakes. Too many nutrients (think fertilizer) cause too much plant growth (think algae blooms) in our lakes. That plant growth contributes to the loss of oxygen we're observing.

The Clearwater Resource Council thanks "you" for helping immensely with this important water suite of projects.

We can always use more of "you". All of these programs will be continued in 2017. Some will be expanded. If "you" would like to help with any of these programs, please email joann@crcmt.org, or call Joann Wallenburn at 406-210-8453.

Reports of this work can be found on the Clearwater Resource Council's website, crcmt.org