UM Watershed Health Clinic

The UM Watershed Health Clinic matches UM students and staff with community groups that need technical assistance with Watershed CPR (conservation, preservation and restoration).

If you have need of the Clinic's services contact: Dr. Vicki Watson at (406) 243-5153

Here are typical and recent Clinic projects:

Ashley Creek Watershed Group

Clark Fork Wetlands

Clark Fork Basin

Pattee Creek Watershed

Watershed Analysis and Planning

Students have assisted numerous Montana groups and government agencies with developing & executing watershed monitoring and conservation/restoration plans, TMDLs, use support assessments, baseline & post restoration studies. Students have also written successful grant proposals to fund these efforts. Recent examples of watershed studies include: Lost Creek, Chamberlain Creek, Cottonwood Creek and the Milk and Tobacco Rivers.

Watershed Action

Students get down and dirty helping restore watersheds. Here are students helping replant native vegetation along Obrien Creek, Bear Creek, Pearson Creek and Warren Creek.

Pearson Creek	O'Brien Creek	Bear Creek
	Warren Creek	Warren Creek

Students also help restore uplands; here they remove exotic weeds from the Mt. Sentinel prairie, thus reducing the need to use herbicides.

Here are more students working to protect Missoula's drinking water aquifer by collecting household hazardous waste for disposal (below), and stenciling storm drains to prevent dumping waste.

Clark Fork River Nuisance Algae Studies

For the past 15 years, Clinic students have studied nutrients and nuisance algae (photo below) in the Clark Fork, producing one of the longest and most complete data sets on river algae. This data set has been used by the EPA as a basis for setting national nutrient and algae criteria and was vital to developing a Voluntary Nutrient Reduction Plan for the Clark Fork River.

Volunteer Monitoring & Education Programs

Students assist & train local teachers, K-12 students and other citizens in carrying out volunteer stream monitoring programs (see below). Students have also assisted the Montana Natural History Center in providing an annual Watershed Festival, developed water-related curricula for schools and helped groups develop web pages on their watersheds.

Public Opinion Surveys on Water Issues

Students have helped design and carry out public opinion/knowledge surveys on water related topics. Student reports on many of the above projects can be viewed on the Clark Fork River Symposium website.