Lolo Watershed Group at the MT AWRA 2019

(Montana’s Chapter of the American Water Resources Association)

Lauren Herbine, our 2019 Big Sky member, along with collaborators from the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology, the University of Montana, and the US Forest Service, presented data and observations from the first winter of snowpack analysis in the Lolo Basin. This is part of Cam Carstarphen’s Montana Precipitation Isotope Network and her want to understand the relationship between Montana snow pack and groundwater recharge. Click on the picture below to see a larger version of Lauren and Cam’s poster from the conference!

Big Sky Watershed Corps

Lolo Watershed Group is in its fourth year of hiring a full time Big Sky Watershed Corp (BSWC) member. The BSWC member is responsible for planning and volunteer generation for our quarterly outreach events, creating quarterly newsletters, updating our social media, hosting education events, helping build our capacity through grant writing and volunteer generation, and writing reports, among many other possibilities. Having a BSWC has been extremely beneficial in helping us to complete all of our desired tasks. In 2016, we had Joe Krenzelok as our BSWC. He helped us with grant funding, volunteer generation, project logistics and updated our website. In 2017, we had Kaeli Wells as our BSWC member.  She planned the 6th grade field trip to Lolo Creek, updated our volunteer management system, and researched grants for the following year. In 2018 Abby Cutting-Smith joined us. She worked on updating the website, helped to plan the 6th grade field trip to Lolo Creek, and explored fundraising and restoration options. For 2019, Lauren Herbine will be our BSWC member. We are excited to see what projects we are able to accomplish this year having a BSWC and are excited to continue having members in the future.

You can find out more information about BSWC by clicking on the image below.