Minutes Musselshell Watershed Coalition Meeting

 

January 15, 2020



December 10, 2019

Present: Laura Nowlin, Musselshell Watershed Coalition Coordinator; Wendy Beye, MWC Scribe; Craig Dalgarno, Upper Musselshell Water Users Association; Leon Hammond, Deadman’s Basin Water Users Association; Lynn Rettig, Delphia-Melstone Canal Water Users Association; Wendy Jones, Lower Musselshell Conservation District Administrator; Shirley Parrott, Lower Musselshell Conservation District Supervisor; Carie Hess, Petroleum County Conservation District Administrator; Dean Blomquist, Golden Valley County Commissioner; Scott Graham, Montana Dept. of Environmental Quality; Michael Downey, MT Dept. of Natural Resources and Conservation Water Bureau; Reba Ahlgren, NRCS Winnett Field Office; Mike Lucas, NRCS Winnett Field Office; Austin Shero, NRCS Roundup Field Office; Shane Moe, Rancher; Tory Kolkhorst, Senator Daines Office; Jack Brookshire, Montana State University Ecosystem Ecology and Biogeochemistry Lab; Justin Gay, Montana State University; Bryce Curry, Montana State University

Coordinator Laura Nowlin called the meeting to order at 12:02 p.m.

Musselshell Watershed Coalition Coordinator Report:

Laura Nowlin summarized the year’s Coalition activities. A review of the NOAA Flood Forecast from late last winter predicted a 5% chance of minor flooding in 2019. There was no flooding, but water in the Musselshell River was high all summer. The Montana Legislature passed a bill creating a committee to investigate long-term funding fo stream flow gages in the state. Laura and others gave general testimony on Montana’s efforts to curb Aquatic Invasive Species. The Montana Conservation Corps sent teams to our area several times this year. The members planted trees, trained on how to install agricultural fencing, stuffed sandbags in anticipation of flooding in the Roundup area, and helped with weed control. Some future MCC team leaders were able to meet ranchers in the area and learn more about life in eastern Montana. Their usual work area is the more forested areas of the western part of the state, doing trail maintenance. The Cooperative Weed Management Area is up and running, with a plan of action adopted and ready to go next weed season. Some work including engineering and a salinity study was conducted in the Horse Creek Coulee area, but the proposed water storage project has been dropped by the Mosby Musselshell Watershed Group due to high costs to each participating irrigator. The deadline for using the water right granted for the project is the end of 2020. The Delphia Melstone Canal Water Users Group is exploring the possibility of transferring the water right to a smaller water storage project. The RAT Team issued a report on 2018 flooding along the Musselshell River. Montana Heritage and MSU Grassland Resilience ranch tours were conducted over the summer. There is now a Story Map of the Musselshell Watershed on the MWC website at https://musselshellwc.wixsite.com/musselshellwc. The volunteer water salinity monitoring project continued through the irrigation season of 2019, and educational efforts on Aquatic Invasive Species were stepped up. Clean, Drain, Dry anything that’s been in the water, anytime, anywhere!

MSU Presentation:

Understanding the impacts of changing climate and fire on vegetation structure and function in the Musselshell-Missouri River Breaks

Dr. Jack Brookshire said the project is part of a national study on climate change strategies and fire

management, with particular interest in carbon sequestration. Carbon dioxide emissions are increasing, and scientists want to find out whether native land ecosystems are up to the challenge of utilizing and sequestering that additional CO₂ load. Studies have shown that land ecosystems are “greening,” or showing increased vegetative activity. Eastern Montana will perhaps be covered with trees within a hundred years. Almost 20% of the area of the Northern Great Plains has already been documented with an average 27% increase in greening, especially in central Montana. Researchers re-sampled plants in areas that had been sampled in the late 1800s to check chemicals (carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus) in plants to compare values. Since 1970, water use efficiency of plants has increased 30% due to the increase in available CO₂. A decrease in nitrogen availability began during the drought years of the 1930s, mirrored by a decrease in nitrogen in plant tissue and an increase in carbon. This results in a decrease in forage quality, with less protein and more sugar present.

Bryce Curry, a graduate student working with Dr. Brookshire, said the research area he worked in is an 11,400 acre plot where the BLM did the largest prescribed burn in the agency’s history in 2018 to slow the spread of Ponderosa Pine into the grassland savannah south of the Missouri River, north of Winnett. Woody plant increases are affecting grassland birds by degrading desirable habitat. On the other hand, woody plants may utilize more atmospheric CO₂ than does grass. Aerial photos from 1953 show 14.1% tree cover, and in 2013, tree cover had increased to 27%. More aerial photos will be taken after the 2018 burn to see how much of the tree cover was eliminated. Precipitation trends are showing increased precipitation annually, but less during the summer months.

Justin Gay, another graduate student measured soil carbon and nutrient cycling through the ecosystem in the same BLM plot. Twenty-five individual sampling sites were spread over a 12-mile stretch. Trees can change the bulk density of soil by “fluffing” it. Plots with heavier tree cover were found to store more soil carbon beneath the trees, as well as in the trunks, branches, and needles. Nitrogen and phosphorus, however, were found in reduced quantities beneath trees, limiting growth of grasses that need nitrate and ammonium to thrive. In response to fire, carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus volitize, with some going back into the soil. Nitrate increased rapidly after the prescribed burn, and is expected to remain high in the soil for the next five years. There wasn’t much change in carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in the soil. Tree mortality was about 30%, with 98% of seedlings gone. About nine tons of carbon was lost from storage in tree biomass, and it will take about 13-20 years to sequester that amount again. Research hasn’t yet determined whether woody plant expansion will be self-limiting because of decreases in plant-accessible nutrients. More research is needed to study interconnected effects of soil temperature, terrain aspect, and soil quality.

Field Reports:

• Craig Dalgarno Upper Musselshell Water Users AssociaAssociation Manager said both Bair and Martinsdale Reservoirs are at winter pool. The Two Dot Canal repair work where a waste-way was damaged by a severe summer storm has been completed.

• Leon Hammond reported that Deadman’s reservoir is at 62,202 Acre/Feet, or 22 Acre/Feet over winter pool. Water is coming in to the reservoir now at 4.5 cfs, though with ice covering most of the surface, there is little evaporation. The main release gate on the dam may have a permanent fix coming. The supply canal headgates are closed now, but the river is too high to work on fixing a problem of leakage. The supply canal silt removal project is waiting on grant money to be released.

• Lynn Rettig, Delphia-Melstone Canal Users Association said the rock inserted under the Delphia

dam is holding for now. IDG grant work has been postponed until spring, as is the automated flow equipment installation in the canals.

• Laura Nowlin said the Mosby-Musselshell Watershed Group will disband and the Horse Creek Coulee project be dropped. The Delphia Melstone Water Users Association might be able to use an RRGL grant received by PCCD for additional engineering work at Horse Creek Coulee for a smaller scale water storage project that is being explored.

Agency/ Partner Reports:

• Lower Musselshell Conservation District -- Administrator Wendy Jones reported that LMCD held forestry meetings in Lavina, Ryegate, and Musselshell to outline thinning, prescribed burning, and fuel mitigation projects available to landowners. The CD is looking for more funding to help private landowners accomplish these projects.

• Petroleum County Conservation District -- Carie Hess reported that grants for Coordinator Nowlin are finishing up. A new WaterSmart grant application has been prepared. A fuel mitigation project along an access road has been completed, giving safer travel opportunity in the event of fire evacuations and equipment access. There will be follow-up meetings on the ranch profitability workshops from last year. Soil interns from the Western Sustainability Exchange will come back this summer to take soil samples on participating ranches.

• Big Sky Watershed Corps -- Two new BSWC members will report in January 2020.

• MWC Scribe/Publicist -- Wendy Beye had nothing to report.

• County Weed Departments -- Weed education programs will continue, and there will be a weed pull this summer at the Musselshell County Fairgrounds for anyone interested.

• NRCS -- Austin Shero reported that a new district conservationist, Ethan McJanes, has been hired for the Harlowton Field Office. He will start in January. The Focused Conservation Initiative long-range plans are due by the end of 2019, along with TIFs (Targeted Implementation Plans), which will include funding for the sage-grouse initiative, young farmers, energy, honey bee/pollinators, and local projects identified by working groups. $600,000 over three years is set to help fund the Southwestern Wheatland Invasive Weed project targeting knapweeds, Dalmation toadflax, and leafy spurge. Landowner matches will be required. A four million dollar request over the next five years would help fund fuel mitigation projects in the Bull Mountains. Conservation work within one mile of the Musselshell River for the upper and mid sections of the river will continue for another two years if approved. Mike Lucas said TIP projects in Petroleum County include thinning and fuel mitigation; salt cedar mitigation on Flatwillow Creek; sage-grouse initiative, cropland back to native grassland. Reba Ahlgren said the Petroleum County office will coordinate with Jordan (Garfield County) and Roundup (Musselshell County) on projects.

• Montana Dept. of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks -- Laura Nowlin said we will have Shannon Blackwell as our new fisheries biologist on the Musselshell.

• Montana Dept. of Transportation -- There will be a meetcal government officials from Roundup, and MWC to coordinate work along the highway where it impacts the river.

• Montana Dept. of Natural Resources and Conservation -- Michael Downey reminded everyone that planning grant applications are due at the end of January. His office is updating the Drought Management Plan for the state.

• Montana Dept. of Environmental Quality -- Scott Graham said the continuous salinity monitoring equipment he mentioned at the last MWC meeting will be available during late

summer when DEQ is not using it. He met with a Roundup City Councilman about a possible new water treatment for the city. DEQ would not be able to pay for it, but could give technical assistance since the water comes from abandoned mines. The engineering designs for the Bair/Collins mine project is 90% complete, and work on the Meathouse Road portion of the project should begin late summer to October next year. Material removed will be stored east of Roundup along Highway 12. The reauthorization bill for mine reclamation is in Congress now.

• Senator Daines Office - Tory Kolkhorst reported that the “Stop the Spread of Invasive Mussels Act of 2019” is working its way through Congress. If it passes and is signed, it will help fund check stations and decontamination of boats and equipment. It was sponsored by both Senator Daines and Senator Tester.

Next Meeting:

The next MWC meeting will be Tuesday, February 11, noon, at the NRCS office on Main in Roundup. A representative from NOAA will come to talk about streamflow and other prediction tools available online.

 

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