MWCC and Future West will co-host a two-day capacity-building workshop in Butte on November 11-12, 2021. Titled, "On the Leading Edge: Building Organizational and Community Resiliency in the New West," the workshop will be split into two parts. Day 1 will focus on developing the capacity and sustainability of our local watershed conservation partner organizations. On Day 2 we will work on applying skills learned on Day 1 to community leadership in the face of climatic, demographic, and ecological changes that are inflicting watersheds throughout the West. 

Mark these dates on your calendar! More details to come!

You don't want to miss this year's Fall Watershed Tour on the Rocky Mountain Front. Registration is filling up quickly, and we encourage you to sign up now. MWCC has limited scholarships available for participants to cover costs associated with the tour, this could include registration, lodging, and travel. Specific scholarships are available to conservation district employees/ supervisors and eligible Big Sky Watershed Corps host sites. Click here to apply!

Attendance is limited to 80 participants, and registration closes August 1st. Visit our Watershed Tour webpage for all the details.

When it comes to solving tough non-point source pollution issues like stormwater runoff, a watershed approach to resource management is always going to be the most effective. Recognizing this, the City of Kalispell and the Flathead Basin Commission partnered up in 2020 to investigate stormwater in the Flathead Watershed. While the ultimate goal of this partnership is to help keep Flathead Lake clean, the first step was learning about where stormwater is entering waterbodies by mapping stormwater infrastructure in the watershed’s urban areas. Key elements of stormwater systems that were mapped included storm drains, storm gravity lines, and outfalls. In cities that did not already have maps of their stormwater infrastructure, a simple, inexpensive methodology was employed involving citizen scientists. The citizen science volunteer event in Polson was successful in gathering the necessary data to create an infrastructure map and in educating residents about stormwater pollution. This watershed-wide inventory of stormwater infrastructure has helped identify areas with high-polluting potential and will determine where solutions are implemented to keep pollutants out of the Flathead Basin’s waterbodies. Stormwater is a complex issue given aging infrastructure, the responsibility of multiple parties for maintenance, and the capacity of smaller cities and towns to prevent runoff issues. Mapping the infrastructure in the basin was the first phase of an on-going effort to better understand and mitigate stormwater pollution in the Flathead Basin.

To learn more about the mapping efforts, the methodology that was used, and  to see the results, visit their web experience page. For more details about what the partnership was able to accomplish last year and its plans for the future, read the report on the Flathead Basin Commission’s website. Contact Emilie Henry by phone at (406)249-2241 or by email at ehenry@kalispell.com with additional questions.