Present: Bill Milton, Facilitator; Laura Nowlin, Musselshell Watershed Coalition Coordinator; Wendy Jones, Lower Musselshell Conservation District Administrator; Shirley Parrott, Lower Musselshell Conservation District Supervisor and MWC Board Member; Carie Hess, Petroleum County Conservation District Administrator; Kelsey Miller, Wheatland County Assistant Weed Coordinator; Ethan McJames and Devin Roloff, NRCS Harlowton Field Office; Virginia, NOAA National Weather Service; Susan Lenard, Montana Department of Transportation; Diane Ahlgren, Petroleum Conservation District and MWC Board Member, Scott Graham, MT DEQ Abandoned Mine Lands; Shane Moe, Upper End landowner and MWC Board member; Nikki Rife, Roundup NRCS; Lou Volpe, DEQ; Jason Seyler, DEQ; Mike Ruggles and Shannon Blackburn, MT FWP; Michael Downey, DNRC; Emily Standley, MSU Extension; Autumn Christenson, Healthy Watersheds Consortium; Mike Goffena, Musselshell County Commissioner, Liz Lodman, MT FWP AIS Bureau.

Facilitator Bill Milton called the meeting to order at 12:03 p.m. Introductions followed, with updates given during introductions.

Partner Updates:

Deadmans Basin Water Users Association - Reservoir: 54,892 AF; Inflow average: 84.7 CFS/168 AF per day; Days to Winter Elevation: 43.4

Both the Barber Canal and Supply Canal projects are behind schedule, but good weather should mean getting them done in 2020. The DBWUA annual meeting was canceled this year. Stored water use spreadsheets were mailed to all producers along with their bills. This means that everyone received the report this year instead of just those that attend the meeting.

Diane Ahlgren, landowner/Board member – The river on the lower end has kept flowing, not real high, but still flowing. The weather has been nice and it was a good water year, although the grasshoppers, alfalfa weevil and blister bugs were bad.

Ethan McJames and Devin Roloff, Harlowton NRCS Field Office – The weather monitoring reports 11 inches of precip in Harlowton in 2020. NRCS will host an Ag Committee meeting when Covid is over. The Southwest Weeds TIP work is in progress, a new range improvements for rotational grazing TIP is being drafted, and plans are being made for a Musselshell River TIP in a few years.

Wendy Jones, Lower Musselshell Conservation District – The Central and Eastern Montana Invasive Species Team will meet December 15. The LMCD Forestry Program has taken off and there are currently 22 contracts. The no-till drill is still seeing use.

Carie Hess, Petroleum County Conservation District – PCCD has been working with Delphia-Melstone Canal Water Users and WWC Engineering on changing the Horse Creek Coulee project to a much smaller reservoir to help with distribution along the canal. They are working through water rights and grant funding for preliminary engineering. The PCCD is also doing its own long-range planning.

Nikki Rife, Roundup NRCS Field Office – Nikki is the new District Conservationist in Roundup and this is her first week (although she was the Winnett DC and has been working in the Bozeman NRCS region the last few years). She looks forward to getting back into the loop with MWC and the local working group.

Kelsey Miller, Wheatland County Weed District – Congratulations to Gary Olsen on his retirement and to Kelsey Miller for becoming the Weed District Coordinator. There will be a new Weed District office in the basement of the courthouse. 2021 projects include a treatment project including 34 landowners, 13 of them on the Musselshell (including Deadmans Basin and Upper Musselshell Water User Associations). Kelsey will be working on a series of videos for classroom use to help with weed education.

Lou Volpe, MT DEQ – There was water quality sampling done in the Musselshell Watershed from 2015-2017 and that information is being used to create Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) documents. TMDLs will be written for e.coli impairments. The State is currently developing new nutrient standards, so those impairments will not be addressed at this time. The TMDLs are undergoing internal review now and will then go to stakeholder review before being released for public review, potentially in the spring of 2021. MWC will work with DEQ on both stakeholder and public review opportunities.

Mike Ruggles and Shannon Blackburn, Fish Wildlife and Parks – Shannon provided an update on two completed projects, the McCleary Channel Reconnection and the Two Dot Bank Restoration. The Riverside Fishing Access Site agreement with Musselshell County is signed. In 2021, FWP is working to expand sampling, look at removal of the Pedrazzi Dam, consider fish passage around the Goffena-Sudan Dam, and study fish movement around Deadman’s Diversion.

Susan Lenard, Department of Transportation – Instead of lengthy bank stabilization projects, MDT has redesigned projects #5, 7 & 9 to be more considerate of the river and will stay within the existing right-of-way.

Scott Graham and Jason Seyler, DEQ/AML – Work at the Bair-Collins Mine/Meathouse Road area is complete! What happens next? AML is working with partners to help determine the best use for this reclaimed area. Jason works in the Brownfields Program and has applied for a grant for creating a preliminary concept plan. He has been working on the Harlowton Railyard project and doing similar planning with the Harlowton community.

Virginia, National Weather Service – The NWS is here to help whenever people need it. It might be a few more months before the La Nina winter comes in.

Autumn Christenson, Healthy Watershed Consortium Initiative – Will be working with Cheryl Miller, Laura, and Terri Nichols at MT Watershed Coordination Council to create outreach materials around the Two Dot Bank Restoration project. This might be a website with a virtual tour and guidance document. CEMIST has selected a new BSWC member to create a story map, outreach plan, and provide information to groups all across central and eastern Montana.

Michael Downey, DNRC – Working with the MWC on a River Conditions Tool website where many resources will be located in one place. DNRC is working on a Drought Plan update. Looking ahead at what the La Nina winter might bring.

Emily Standley, MSU Extension – Extension has worked on a lot of virtual programming and is hosting Grasshopper Control meetings to help prepare for grasshoppers in 2021. January 29 will be a training with pesticide credits offered.

Liz Lodman, MT FWP AIS Bureau – There will be an AIS Summit for Conservation Districts held on December 16. This will be an update on activities during 2020, including information from CDs who run inspection stations and from CEMIST.

Musselshell Watershed Coalition Coordinator Report:

Coordinator Laura Nowlin reported that MWC has still been busy even though plans have been changed for outreach due to Covid. Laura showed video from the Bair-Collins Mine Reclamation project within the Roundup Reach and video from the Two Dot Bank Restoration project. Both of these projects can be viewed on the MWC website. The MWC Board will be completing a strategic plan and partners are invited to be part of that process.

Musselshell Watershed Plan Update:

Karin Boyd of Applied Geomorphology and Tony Thatcher of DTM Consulting have been contracted to complete an update of the Musselshell Watershed Plan. The existing plan was completed in 2015 and already many of the projects are complete or underway. Additionally, changes along the river have led to the need to update the existing plan. This will be a two-year process. We are at the beginning of the process and are soliciting project ideas/nominations. Tony has created an online form where people can submit projects.

Please visit this website and submit projects that you feel should be happening along the Musselshell River:

https://dtmconsult.maps.arcgis.com/apps/GeoForm/index.html?appid=ae27d7fca8784e4d991680cdf7cabdb0

Channel Migration Zone Easements:

Wendy Weaver from Montana Aquatic Resources Services presented information about Channel Migration Zone Easements (CMZe). CMZe’s are a tool that landowners can use to stop “fighting” the river. Instead of working to restore, replace, or protect river banks, landowners can take financial compensation to let the river move where it wants to go. MARS has written a white paper on the topic,

which can be found here: https://montanaaquaticresources.org/beta/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/MARS-CME-Whitepaper-FINAL-DRAFT-20171004-v1.0.pdf

At this time, there is little funding for CMZe’s, however, MARS is working with several partners to try to develop funding resources. One source would be mitigation credits. A credit sale could be used to fund a CMZe. The value is difficult to determine, but would consider rates of river movement, land use, infrastructure threatened or removed, and would be based on NRCS easement values.

The MWC is working with the Army Corps of Engineers on Channel Migration Zone mapping and these maps will help any landowners who might be interested in CMZe’s.

Next meeting will be Tuesday, February 9th at Noon and will also be held virtually.