Crown of the Continent and the Greater Yellowstone Magazine - Wow, this is an amazing magazine!

Read this and get a big, heaping head-full of the awesomeness that is Montana, USA.  This publication from the University of Montana gives me serious school pride!  Not a stupid-ass sports team.    

In the name of science

It has been raining for days in western Montana.  It whooped my ass in the field and it's putting the breaks on the receding rivers.



The graph of the Clark Fork below Missoula is a good place to look for the general trend because all of the  westside rivers drain into it.

The Blackfoot tributaries are a pretty cool wade fishing option this time of year.  They are clear and manageable.  There's still a lot of water in all of our streams so be careful.

And now, science!

University of Montana greenhouse

Corn growing in soil samples taken from Mt. Sentinel (big M) and Mt. Jumbo (big L) and MPG Ranch.  This study is comparing soil biodiversity and chemistry between the soil in grasslands dominated by native plants and those heavily invaded by leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula).

And on a larger scale, I've also been involved in a very large project assisting the United States Forest Service.

Reading cover and plant species richness in the Helena National Forest

The US Forest Service sprays herbicides aerially from aircraft on a large scale.  They are mandated to control invasive species and this is the cheapest and most effective way to cover a lot of ground with chemicals.  But does it even work to control the invasive plant invasions?  Is it harming the native plant communities?  Is it an unnecessary waste of money that is doing more harm than good?  These are the questions our research is trying to answer.  As you can imagine, this heavy management of plant communities by use of chemicals in headwater drainages has indirect effects on fish and invertebrate communities.

A day at the office, guest photographer: T. Willis

Castilleja miniata - greater red Indian paintbrush, guest photographer: T. Willis  

Weekend full of fishing ahead.  More trout - less plants next post!

Congratulations graduates!

To all those people who graduated college this year, HAPPY GRADUATION!!

I took some of my fam over to the Mo and we killed it.  Stay tuned for some great pics.

The Hellgate osprey are back!

Iris and Stanley are back on their nest in Missoula's Hellgate Canyon.  Click play to watch them live, 24 hours a day.

Soon they will start mating.  They'll do it every 30 seconds or so.

The AXIS P5534-E camera, computer infrastructure and internet connection were donated by the Riverside Health Care Center. Real time High Definition TV - available in Riverside HCC's lobby - was donated by Raptors of the Rockies. Logistic support provided by Northwestern Energy. This camera is also supported by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and their Bird Cams Project.

Check out The University of Montana Biogeochemistry Labratory's website for more information.

Degrees Of Gray In Phillipsburg

I love Phillipsburg, Mt.  In fact, it is a very special place for many different aspects of my life.  I was part of making the "Degrees of Gray" into the "Prettiest Painted Places in America" a few years back.  When I entered into the professional world of trout conservation, I cut my teeth in the Flint Creek Valley working with ranchers and their irrigation diversions during a low water year.  Yes, people told me they would shoot me, a lot.

Richard Hugo is awesome.  This is a video of a short interview and then, a short clip where he reads his poem "Degrees of Gray in Phillipsburg" to a backdrop of some P-burg and Granite footage.



Make a good stiff drink and listen to some poetry!
The Flint Creek Valley offers some fantastic fly fishing.

• Georgetown Lake
• Flint Creek
• Boulder Creek
• Trout Creek
• Upper Rock Creek
• Plus mountain lakes and secret creeks galore!

How to use Microsoft Power Point to watermark photos

Here are a couple of photos I took of Missoula yesterday evening.  I've been trying to figure out a decent, free way to watermark my photos but my searches only led to expensive software or having to download something.  It all seemed like a pain in the ass.  Then, like three pages into my Google results, I came across this super helpful page from Microsoft that explains how use Power Point to do it.  It is really easy and fast and gives you all of the watermarking options you could possibly want.  Once you set it up, you can add watermarks to your pictures as fast as you can click "insert" and "save as."  Just be sure to save them in the right format (JPEG or .jpg) as it will want to save them as JNP.

I hope you enjoy these nicely watermarked photos of my beautiful town.

Ranunculus glaberrimus- sagebrush buttercup

Dodecatheon pulchellum- dark throat shooting star

Fritillaria pudica- yellow bell

Missoula hippies on a walk

Mt. Sentinel bike

Missoula, MT. in early spring

Night lights 

The University of Montana oval at night

Montana Osprey Project's Hellgate Canyon Osprey Cam!

No osprey in Missoula yet but this is one of the coolest sites on the net as far as I'm concerned.  Dr. Greene says they're on their way!




"The AXIS P5534-E camera, computer infrastructure and internet connection were donated by the Riverside Health Care Center. Real time High Definition TV - available in Riverside HCC's lobby - was donated by Raptors of the Rockies. Logistic support provided by Northwestern Energy. This camera is also supported by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and their Bird Cams Project." - Environmental Biogeochemistry Lab

One of my favorite ecology/biology professors I had when I attended UM was Dr. Erick Greene.  He has done extensive research on osprey on both coasts.  One of the projects I've been most familiar with is the studies on the Clark Fork osprey regarding the long term effects of heavy metals on both the osprey and the river system as a whole.  These pollutants are a result of intensive mining in the headwaters and tributaries of the Clark Fork River which is itself, a headwater to the massive Columbia River. 

If you tune into this blog, you will certainly hear more about the history, plight, management, restoration, astonishing fishing, and future of my favorite stream in America, The Clark Fork River. 

Please visit: http://cas.umt.edu/geosciences/osprey/nestCams/hellgate.php to learn more about the project, the people involved, and most importantly, the osprey-the coolest bird that lives!

I'll re-post this when the osprey arrive.  I'll be volunteering with Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks doing a temporary rehab on a local fish ladder tomorrow.  Stay tuned for some info on the ladder and some great pics.