Big Blackfoot Chapter of Trout Unlimited

08/08/2024

How it started
How it’s going

5 years post-project on Poorman Creek. Awesome project with the US Forest Service, MT Fish, Wildlife and Parks, MT DEQ and so many others! Volunteers helped replant this floodplain.🌱

06/03/2024

Morrell Creek, Lolo National Forest. Just add water and an amazing design/build team.

We completed this project in 2021 with the US Forest Service, Missoula RAC, MTFWP, River Design Group, Westslope Excavating and Greenwing Restoration.

It was a fun walk doing some post-project monitoring and watching this important bull trout stream recover.🌱

05/07/2024

BBCTU is participating in the Change Your Pace Challenge hosted by Seeley Lake Community Foundation.

Donations are matched and did you know that every $1 of private donations allows us to leverage $15 from our state and federal partners! You can donate directly from this link. Thank you for all you do to support native trout conservation efforts in the Blackfoot Watershed!

2018

04/21/2024

Hope to see you all tomorrow evening, April 22nd at Trixi's Antler Saloon for our annual Blackfoot Restoration Program Recap! Updates on projects and the state of the fishery with Montana FWP's Blackfoot River biologist. Silent auction, dinner and conservation conversation!

5:00pm, April 22nd, Trixi's Antler Saloon, Ovando, MONTANA!
Photo credit: John Lambing

10/30/2023

Thanks for sharing this partnership work, Intermountain West Joint Venture!

For decades, the banks of Montana's Nevada Creek have been eroding away, sloughing acres of prime grazing and haying meadows downstream into the famed Blackfoot River. This arrangement isn't good for anyone—not the ranchers of the Helmville Valley, not for the native West Slope cutthroat and bull trout that depend on tributaries like Nevada Creek for habitat.

A collaborative partnership led by Big Blackfoot Chapter of Trout Unlimited has been combating these issues, one stretch of creek at a time. With each completed riparian restoration project on private land, Nevada Creek is reconnected to its floodplain and is able to provide quality cold water habitat for trout—as well as help keep ranching viable in this small community. Talk about a win-win!

Read the article: https://iwjv.org/shoring-up-the-banks/

10/16/2023

Good things are happening in Douglas Creek!

Check out this before and after on a stream crossing that was not only a barrier for native westslope cutthroat trout, but also at a risk of washing out and creating major downstream impacts. We teamed up with the The Nature Conservancy in Montana, USFWS Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program and a private landowner on the project design and Westslope Excavation was able to complete the work! Thanks also to the WestSlope Chapter Trout Unlimited chapter and their amazing donors for supporting this important project!

More partnership work is being planned throughout this native trout stream! Stay tuned!

09/27/2023

Thanks to our friends at Intermountain West Joint Venture for highlighting our collaborative work to restore Nevada Creek! We are proud that these project demonstrate how well agriculture and cold water fisheries can coexist.

Decades of restoration are accumulating to keep a key tributary to Montana's Blackfoot River functioning for ranchers and native trout. Ryen Neudecker of the Big Blackfoot Chapter of Trout Unlimited looks at bank erosion on Nevada Creek, an important tributary to Montana's Blackfoot River. On a

08/23/2023

How’s this for the first day of school?! Helmville students were such a great help today out electrofishing on Nevada Creek. As part of our restoration project, we diverted flows around the channel we are fixing and needed some netters to collect any fish left in pools. We talked trout, bank erosion, riparian plants, noxious weeds, habitat and irrigation. We love working with our Blackfoot valley schools and the amazing teachers who do so much for their students!