Stillwater River Monitoring Project Ongoing

APRIL 2021
Watershed “Special Project” Flashback — 1991. George H.W. Bush was president, the Soviet Union began to dissolve, a gallon of gasoline cost $1.14, Down Home by Alabama was the top country song, and the Butcher Creek watershed project kicked off in Stillwater and Carbon Counties. This ambitious watershed assessment and restoration project was led by the SCD when Barbara Berry was the Administrator. At least $412,000 of agency funds came in from the Soil Conservation Service Great Plains program, the State of Montana DNRC, Department of Health and Environmental Sciences, and Montana FWP.
The project focused on Butcher Creek, a tributary of Rosebud Creek that arises at the foot of the Beartooths and discharges to East Rosebud Creek just south of Absarokee. Accounts from the time state that Butcher Creek has substantial sediment load that impacts the cold-water fisheries of Butcher Creek, the Rosebud and Stillwater River. The project included water quality monitoring and landowner-identified streambank and riparian restoration projects.
The natural flow of Butcher Creek has been altered since 1894 by the transfer of water for irrigation from East Rosebud Creek. The increase of flow in a channel mostly formed in soft erodible soils has led to chronic streambank erosion. Management of irrigation water and return flows are a challenge on the relatively steep slopes of the basin.
The Butcher Creek project ran for at least eight years, resulting in erosion control projects like willow planting, off-stream livestock watering and irrigation water controls. An extensive set of water quality data were collected that attempted to see whether the restoration projects led to measurable reductions in sediment and nutrients in the basin. A large file drawer of information on this project was recently “found” and is being evaluated to re-learn the lessons contained on the many typewriter-written pages. It is pretty clear that the project was an example of positive watershed cooperation among the many landowners, scientists and citizens involved.
Flash forward to 2020 when SVWC’s watershed monitoring and GIS project kicks off. Last fall, the SVWC formally released its latest project aimed at continuing a watershed assessment project, monitoring the health of streams and developing geographic information system (GIS) mapping capability in the watershed. An impressive array of partners have come together for this project including the Stillwater Conservation District (SCD), Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) Columbus office, FWP, the U-cross Foundation-Yale School of the Environment, Trout Unlimited and Tom Osborne, a local retired hydrologist. The project is called the Stillwater-Rosebud Water Quality Initiative (SRWQI).
The SRWQI involves monitoring basic water quality parameters at sites in the Stillwater-Rosebud drainages roughly monthly over a two-year period beginning October 1, 2020. Other than at certain facilities like Sibanye Stillwater Mine and community wastewater plants, there has not been routine water quality monitoring in the watershed since the United States Geological Service dropped their monitoring program eight years ago. “Our streams are such a valuable asset to our lives we can’t afford to neglect their health either”, said to Tom Osborne who has volunteered to take the lead on this project with support from the SVWC board and local volunteers.
The companion GIS effort involves mapping key natural resource features in the watershed from the large bank of data sources available from state, federal and local agencies. The SVWC has at its disposal a graduate research assistant located at Yale University who, working remotely under local supervision, will pull various data layers together into a system usable by the SVWC and other local entities.
The project’s moving parts came together this past summer after the SVWC was approached by Tom Osborne of Absarokee, who volunteered to help lead the work on the ground. Tom is a retired professional hydrologist who has worked on water resource projects around Montana for the past 45 years. The project is looking for local students and adults interested in getting involved.
Watershed “Special Project” Flashback — 1991. George H.W. Bush was president, the Soviet Union began to dissolve, a gallon of gasoline cost $1.14, Down Home by Alabama was the top country song, and the Butcher Creek watershed project kicked off in Stillwater and Carbon Counties. This ambitious watershed assessment and restoration project was led by the SCD when Barbara Berry was the Administrator. At least $412,000 of agency funds came in from the Soil Conservation Service Great Plains program, the State of Montana DNRC, Department of Health and Environmental Sciences, and Montana FWP.
The project focused on Butcher Creek, a tributary of Rosebud Creek that arises at the foot of the Beartooths and discharges to East Rosebud Creek just south of Absarokee. Accounts from the time state that Butcher Creek has substantial sediment load that impacts the cold-water fisheries of Butcher Creek, the Rosebud and Stillwater River. The project included water quality monitoring and landowner-identified streambank and riparian restoration projects.
The natural flow of Butcher Creek has been altered since 1894 by the transfer of water for irrigation from East Rosebud Creek. The increase of flow in a channel mostly formed in soft erodible soils has led to chronic streambank erosion. Management of irrigation water and return flows are a challenge on the relatively steep slopes of the basin.
The Butcher Creek project ran for at least eight years, resulting in erosion control projects like willow planting, off-stream livestock watering and irrigation water controls. An extensive set of water quality data were collected that attempted to see whether the restoration projects led to measurable reductions in sediment and nutrients in the basin. A large file drawer of information on this project was recently “found” and is being evaluated to re-learn the lessons contained on the many typewriter-written pages. It is pretty clear that the project was an example of positive watershed cooperation among the many landowners, scientists and citizens involved.
Flash forward to 2020 when SVWC’s watershed monitoring and GIS project kicks off. Last fall, the SVWC formally released its latest project aimed at continuing a watershed assessment project, monitoring the health of streams and developing geographic information system (GIS) mapping capability in the watershed. An impressive array of partners have come together for this project including the Stillwater Conservation District (SCD), Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) Columbus office, FWP, the U-cross Foundation-Yale School of the Environment, Trout Unlimited and Tom Osborne, a local retired hydrologist. The project is called the Stillwater-Rosebud Water Quality Initiative (SRWQI).
The SRWQI involves monitoring basic water quality parameters at sites in the Stillwater-Rosebud drainages roughly monthly over a two-year period beginning October 1, 2020. Other than at certain facilities like Sibanye Stillwater Mine and community wastewater plants, there has not been routine water quality monitoring in the watershed since the United States Geological Service dropped their monitoring program eight years ago. “Our streams are such a valuable asset to our lives we can’t afford to neglect their health either”, said to Tom Osborne who has volunteered to take the lead on this project with support from the SVWC board and local volunteers.
The companion GIS effort involves mapping key natural resource features in the watershed from the large bank of data sources available from state, federal and local agencies. The SVWC has at its disposal a graduate research assistant located at Yale University who, working remotely under local supervision, will pull various data layers together into a system usable by the SVWC and other local entities.
The project’s moving parts came together this past summer after the SVWC was approached by Tom Osborne of Absarokee, who volunteered to help lead the work on the ground. Tom is a retired professional hydrologist who has worked on water resource projects around Montana for the past 45 years. The project is looking for local students and adults interested in getting involved.