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Water Monitoring Training
Monitoring Montana Waters, Montana Department of Environmental Quality, and Montana State University Extension will provide a training event at the Flathead Lake Biological Station May 14-16, 2025. Registration for the Volunteer Water Monitoring Training event opened Friday, March 21 and closes on Monday, April 28 at 5 pm.
Please note that MMW will cover the cost of lodging (in a standard cabin) for one member of each watershed group. You need to select the standard cabin option for your lodging and then the lodging discount (one per organization) will show up near the end of the registration page. If more than one member registers for the lodging discount we will communicate with you to add the charge back on.
If you have any questions about registration please feel free to reach out! More details about financial support and a draft of the training agenda can be found on the MMW website on the training tab [flbs.umt.edu].
Best,
Abbie Ebert (she/her) | Senior Water Quality Monitoring Scientist
Malta Chapter Update – 2025
Malta Fundraiser April 4-5 and 11-12.
Raffle – prize every day for the month of May. Selling tickets soon.
Jordan Banquet April 28th.
Tough guy tournament April 29th.
Message from President, Don Pyrah – Jan 16th
Steve Harada and I traveled to Helena for the Fish Fry. Thanks to Scott, Brenda Keller and Dale Gilbert for their efforts. Thanks also to Sam Deschene and Dave Sedlock for helping prepare fish for the meal. WE served about 80 people and had the opportunity to introduce Dale to several of the elected officials from both the House and Senate.
Upcoming state meeting. I also want to let people know that in addition to reviewing the contracted positions, we will also be reviewing the Executive Director position as well. I Would also ask that if anyone else is interested in filling any of the above mentioned positions, please prepare a proposal for the board’s consideration while we are discussing these positions.
Lastly, I will be putting together the booklets the week of February 1. MIke had asked that you have that information for me for inclusion in the booklet and I am asking again. Thank you to those who have gotten them to me already.
See you in a few weeks. We will have a lot of work to do at the Meeting on March 8! Thanks for all that each of you do.
Don Pyrah, President WUM
Fresno Chapter Update – Jan 23rd
*Caleb Young took over my president duties on January 1, 2025, and will serve as the Fresno Chapter President until January 1, 2027. Don, can you add his email to the Frenso Chapter distribution list! cjyng30@live.com Phone: 406-390-5608. Caleb tells me he plans on making the Spring meeting. I’m happy to report that I’m leaving the club in good hands and Caleb will rock it!
*Elections were held Tuesday, January 14th and Bob Nelson from Big Sandy, MT was elected president elect. Bob’s email: 7nelson@itstriangle.com. His cell: 406-390-2695. Bob has been a longtime member of the chapter and also serves as an advisor to the St. Mary working group. As a retired teacher, he has been instrumental with the organization of the kids’ education day held each year at Fresno. At the meeting, Bob reported that work and construction on the St. Mary Diviersion siphon is ahead of schedule. The construction work has been non-stop following the catastrophic failure this past spring at one of the siphons and without that diversion the Milk River went dry this fall. Bob said that when complete, the diversion will handle approximate 850cfs vs the 650cfs that was flowing through the Milk River. Montana legislators and our congressional staff have contributed millions of dollars towards this project. If you get the chance, thank them! It was also reported that Canada is considering building a dam on the Canadian side (Milk River enters Canada and then returns to MT) to help with water storage and irrigation. Say a prayer for the downstream communities as Fresno water is down to 14.1%. The Milk River is the only source of water for the cities of Havre, Chinook and Malta. You can check out the daily river flows and the water entering Fresno and leaving can be viewed at the Fresno Chapter Web Cam and Weather station, then clicking on the BOR link “Current Fresno Reservoir Data.”
