Celebrate Earth Day by helping to plant 800 native trees in Butte!

Montana Tech Restoration Ecology Seminar Presents: Amy Sacry of Geum Environmental Consulting

Milltown soil lifts and bank armor (photo taken from Geum's website)

Tomorrow, February 3, 2016, the Montana Tech Ecological Restoration Seminar presents Amy Sacry of Geum Environmental Consultants.  She will be discussing "Revegetation Theory and Practice." 

Geum and Amy have their hands in restoration projects all over Montana.  Most notably, they did the revegetation of the Miltown floodplain after the removal of the Milltown Dam and they are now working on the massive Upper Clark Fork Restoration Project. Amy is everywhere all the time and I've run into her at many different Trout Unlimited restoration projects as well.

This is not one to be missed!!  The seminar is on the Montana Tech campus, in Butte, Montana in the Chemistry and Biology Building (room 102) @ 4 pm.  This seminar is open to the public!

I'll see you there!

   

Flower power - Bitterroot style

There is nothing in the world like early summer in Montana!!  RBM has been up in the hills a bunch lately for work and the early summer wildflowers are as awesome as the early summer fishing right now.  More on the fishing to come...

Lewisia rediviva - bitterroot blossom

Lots of bitterroots

Almost the entire Bitteroot Mountain range in one shot!

Butterfly or moth on a blanket flower - Gaillardia aristata

The spawn is on!

The rainbow and cutthroat trout of Montana are on the spawn.  Last week, I witnessed the massive trout orgy that takes place near Holter Dam on the Missouri.  There, the trout make dinner table-sized, community redds.  I can sit there and watch them for hours.  The big colored male and the female getting it on while three smaller males wait in formation for the opportunity to sneak in there when the big guy is distracted chasing away other males.  I was surprised to see that the other people around were oblivious to the redds.  People were fishing them (I honestly don't think they knew they were there) and dropping anchors and parking boats over them.  It was hard to watch.

Yesterday, I took a walk along the banks of Rattlesnake Creek in a local park here in Missoula. Rattlesnake Creek is a major spawning tributary for the fish in the Clark Fork around Missoula.  It is a beautiful creek that comes out of the Rattlesnake Wilderness.  It mostly gets ignored by fisherpeople but it is a fine trout stream all year long. Right now, the Rattlesnake is lousy with spawning fish.  They are everywhere!  

Go check them out and show the kids but do not mess with them.  The creek is closed to fishing for two more weeks to allow the spawn to take place.  It is a great way to see the WILD,  amazing, huge, and beautiful trout that live in the Clark Fork and watch real world biology in action!  Real fish porn.        

large male rainbow on redd

mating pair of rainbows on redd

Betula occidentalis - western water birch blossoms