Musselshell Watershed Coalition

Folks probably haven’t heard about the Musselshell Watershed Coalition lately. That doesn’t mean that its partners haven’t been busy. Though meetings were virtual during the time pandemic restrictions were in place, cooperation and collaboration were still evident.

Immediately following the 2011 Great Flood on the Musselshell, the Coalition organized a triage group called the RAT Team, comprised of experts in river behavior, which surveyed the length of the river with an eye to assisting ranchers in their recovery effort. That project has led to continued studies of the river, including a river channel migration zone mapping undertaking in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Mapping has been completed for an approximately 30-mile stretch above and below the city of Roundup. The entire river will be mapped by the time the project wraps up. These maps will be used in the future for planning placement of irrigation and transportation infrastructure as well as homes and for working on bank stabilization projects. The RAT Team also developed a manual of best practices that has been used by ranchers, counties, and the Montana State Department of Transportation to help manage land along rivers. Sometimes an obvious solution to bank erosion is not the best solution in the long-term.

Weeds are a never-ending source of aggravation to ranchers, government agencies, and counties in our arid region. Weeds use up precious water resources that could be better used to create good forage for livestock and wildlife. The Coalition has been instrumental in creating an area Weed Management program, working to bring all weed managing partners together to collaborate on projects and to learn from each other as well as obtaining funding to help map infestations.

Speaking of invasive species, zebra mussels have been the focus of extensive efforts in Montana the past few years. The Coalition is part of the Central and Eastern Montana Invasive Species Team (CEMIST) and has assisted Conservation District partners who have set up several boat check stations in eastern Montana in hopes of discovering the nasty hitchhikers before they end up in our lakes and waterways. The Coalition has helped with educating the public by visiting schools, distributing brochures, and posting signs at boat ramps encouraging water recreationists to “Clean, Drain, and Dry” all types of watercraft when they are moved from place to place.

Have you noticed that the Musselshell River no longer becomes dewatered during our hot summer months? The Musselshell River Water Distribution Project is supported by the Coalition, and all the water districts participating in the project are Coalition members. The water association managers (Upper Musselshell, Deadman’s Basin, and Delphia/Melstone Canal) are partners in the Coalition and report water storage and use at each meeting. They also work with the Montana Division of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks to maintain sufficient streamflow year-around to support local fish populations. By carefully managing water released from reservoirs for downstream users, constant flows are now the norm, when before 2001 when the project was formed, many stretches of the river would go dry every year. Fish have come back to segments of the river where they were absent for many years. Another boost to fish populations is removal of many diversion dams that were no longer serving a useful purpose after the 2011 flood, as well as the re-building of the Deadman’s Basin Reservoir inlet canal diversion dam into a fish-friendly structure. The Coalition supported efforts to obtain grant funding to help the water associations and landowners pay for the projects.

The Musselshell Watershed Coalition instigated the Roundup Reach project, which brought together the City of Roundup, Musselshell County, Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, and Montana Department of Environmental Quality Abandoned Mines Land division. Once the Musselshell County flood mitigation project was approved and underway along the river near Meathouse Road, DEQ stepped in to remove old coal tailings left from the Bair/Collins Mine and reclaim the floodplain. The area is now lush with grass and shrubs, and plans are underway to invite the community to decide how to use this new recreational area.

If you’re interested in seeing what the Coalition is up to next, meetings are open to the public. Drought conditions will certainly be on the agenda. Meetings are held every other month on the second Tuesday at noon, and are in-person now at the Musselshell County Extension Office meeting room across from the City Park on 8th Ave. East. The next meeting will be on August 10.