A Resource Conservationists Take on Aspire School Rising to the Challenge of Developing a Floodplain

Radley talking to Aspire Students in the winter 

of 2021. 

 On a sunny winter’s day at McCauley Butte next to the Bitterroot River, I met with staff from the Watershed Education Network (WEN), students and their educators from Aspire High School. Aspire is an “alternative” school based on experiential education and recently acquired a good portion of land on McCauley Butte and the Flat. Our group was assembled to council with Aspire students as they investigated a community resilience topic for the RISE Challenge Big Sky, hosted by Brightways Learning and WEN. The students were confronted with identifying a real-world environmental issue and developing a solution with an action plan to address this issue. These students chose to address how to use a riparian floodplain as a year-round outdoor classroom. 

I first learned about their project when Deb Fassnacht from WEN contacted the Missoula Conservation District (CD) to ask if we had any insight on what sort of structures could be constructed in the floodplain, and if a representative from the CD could come out and meet with the students. I was happy to oblige. 

The land Aspire school owns is the riparian area between the Butte and the Bitterroot River. The riparian area is beautiful from an ecological standpoint, and I would consider it a high-value habitat. The area has beaver ponds and cottonwoods and hosts waterfowl, woodpeckers, and other wildlife.  The challenge for the students is this land is not only in the floodplain, but the floodway. The floodway doesn’t just get standing water covering it occasionally; flood water moves through these areas with a fair bit of velocity, like you-better-watch-out-for-ponderosa-pines-floating-through kind of velocity. Almost all planning and zoning regulations prohibit any development in the floodway.

The students knew they could not build a traditional structure or even a boardwalk in this area, so they were coming up with all sorts of ideas on how to create an attractive educational space on the property. As I covered some of the regulatory challenges the students faced, including a conservation easement that the previous owners put in place with the Five Valleys Land Trust, the students began discussing (more alternatives?) ideas. Their eyes lit up as they discussed solutions such as rope bridges, floating decks, and hanging platforms. While I could speak about zoning, floodplain regulation, and conservation easements generally, the Missoula Conservation District only has regulatory authority over 310 permits based on Montana’s Natural Stream bed and land Preservation Act. 

A 310 permit is required to ensure that natural rivers and streams, and the lands and property immediately adjacent to them, are protected and preserved to be available in their natural or existing state. The interesting thing about this particular permit is that there is no automatic definable jurisdictional boundary. Often time the CD generally looks at the riparian buffer within 50 feet of a major navigable river, but any project that degrades environmental life support systems or causes unreasonable depletion and degradation of natural resources in a riparian corridor could come under 310 jurisdiction, and yet… almost no one knows a 310 permit application is needed for work near a river.

After talking 310 permitting and wandering the land, we headed back to our vehicles. I think I left the students with more questions than answers. I felt bad about that, but that is the nature of science and exploration. It was awesome to see students engaged in place-based education and the excitement of the students as they stood on a frozen beaver pond and talking about beaver ecology will stay with me for a long time. 

What will these students propose to do to make this floodplain a year-round classroom? Will they try to suspend fellow classmates from the trees? Will they float them over a beaver pond? I don’t know, but in any case, they are going to learn a lot about rivers, flood plains, and riparian areas, and how humans interact in these changing riverine environments.

-Radley Watkins

Resource Conservationist

Missoula Conservation District

Sunday Bankful Sunday

 

Bela taking cross section measurements 

in the Rattlesnake Creek at Site 10. 

Standing waist-deep in a creek watching a tennis ball floating downstream with the ambition of a tortoise is not how I usually spend my Sundays. Since moving to Missoula in June, I've spent more time on running trails than I have just about anywhere else. Between graduate school, work, and ultramarathon training, I was feeling fatigued. Last Sunday was my first free Sunday since school began, and I wanted to do something solely for the fun of it. Enter: the Watershed Education Network. And so, I found myself with and awesome conglomerate of people eager to get into the Rattlesnake Creek. Shimmying into waders and anxiously eyeballing the clouds hovering overhead, we split up into groups to tackle the different aspects of stream monitoring. 

I was in Brook's group, taking measurements of the physical features of the stream, measuring elements like bankful, flow and stream velocity. We waddles back and forth across the stream, hesitantly stepping over underwater boulders and carefully measuring alongside the newly formed beaver dam. The dam posed more of a challenge than I initially realized. Interrupting the stream flow meant that we had to wait minutes at a time for each velocity measurement; hence, we all stood around cheering on a neon tennis ball as it we at the Kentucky Derby. 

Though I spent time this summer working with the Clark Fork Coalition, I consider myself a noice when it comes to river and stream monitoring. The cool part about working with the Watershed Education Network is that I really didn't need to know anything beforehand. They taught us what we needed to know and getting hands-on experience collecting data allowed us to feel like stream scientists. It was one of the most insightful and playful Sundays I'd had in a while. Plus, we got chocolate at the end. 

Brook Reminiscing Her 1st Encounter with WEN

 

Brook setting up a cross section on Site 10 on the 

Rattlesnake Creek 

Last Sunday was another fabulous day in the creek. We had a great group

of kind, hard working people. Out there we witnessed a remarkable change

in the creek indicating that we have a new beaver friend. Deb was telling me

that she was out by the site in August and the newly built dam that we saw

this Sunday was not present. It made the data collection for specifically

velocity an interesting challenge. However, we were over the moon because

beavers are great indicators of healthy and productive ecosystems. The

excitement in the air was filled with us feeling so grateful to be collecting data

amidst such a recent change in the ecosystem.

I've started regularly attending these Sunday Stream Team outings upon me

fulfilling the role of Communication Coordinator at WEN, and I do not hesitate

to say that Stream Team is the shining light at the end of a long week.

I always look forward to meeting new faces and learning with them in the creek.

No matter what the weather looks like, I'll be there.

This site, site 10, has a lot of significance to me an my relationship with WEN.

A while back, near the end of October 2020, I had just settled into my move here

and was thrilled about all of the amazing backcountry access and mountain

biking trails. I could not stop exploring. On a chilly fall day, I was biking Snow Bowl

Overlook, with not a clue in the world that it would be one of the steepest, longest

and most agonizing climbs of my life. I wasn't quite mentally prepared to face the

sharp coldness that came with the first snowfall of winter on the way down. Now,

before I get ahead of myself, don't get me wrong, I love these types of adventures.

It was a very type two fun experience, were you don't realize that it was worth it until

much further after the event at hand. On this crazy downhill, my partner, Carver and

I stopped almost every five minutes to blow gusts of our remaining hot air in our bodies

into our gloves. It was a fun downhill, and the colors of the forest were bursting with

radiant fall colors, the type of colors that make you smile. Bright yellows, oranges, and

reds with the subtle splash of greens were constantly pulling me out of my freezing frenzy.

As we made our way down Spring Gulch we merged onto the final stretch on the

Rattlesnake Creek flowing right along side the trail. Then there they were, WEN's

Stream Team. I had no idea who they were at the time and all I knew that I was

struggling to find a job in Missoula water world (a world that I so deeply care about

and feel very passionate about pursuing a career in) so I beamed with excitement.

Carver and I immediately stopped and there was Deb, eager to talk with us. Of

course, I started my roll of scattered thoughts and questions.. "Who are you guys?

What are you doing? Are you taking samples from this stream? Oh my gosh

I want to do this!!! How can I get involved?!" I feel like I said all of these things

at once, but in real life I was really trying to play it SUPER cool. All the while

I forgot about my freezing fingers and toes.

The following week, I made it a goal for myself to not let Deb and this fabulous

non profit slip through my fingers. So Carver and I went out and volunteered

with them. My first hands on experience with Stream Team, I was assigned to

conduct cross sections with Aissa, and little did I know that around that time

this year, I would be teaching this portion of Stream Team myself. A leadership

position that would allow me to grow in ways I could've never imagined at

that time.

Thank you WEN for taking me in, and being so trusting of me even if the first

time you met me I was blanketed head to tow in dirt and was shivering, like a

crazy wild lady!