Big Hole Watershed Committee, 2018 1 | Page

Big Hole Watershed Committee

Monthly Meeting Minutes Wednesday, February 21, 2018 – 6:00 pm

Divide Grange – Divide, Montana

In Attendance Jennifer Downing, BHWC; Tana Nulph, BHWC; Pedro Marques, BHWC; John Jackson, Beaverhead County Commission; Erin Ryan, USFS; Jim Hagenbarth, BHWC/Rancher; Brian Ohs, MTU; Jim Dennehy, BHWC/BSB Water; Corey Meier, BLM – Butte Field Office; Susan Stone, Big Hole Ranch; Sam Stone, Big Hole Ranch; Paul Cleary, BHWC/Resident; Sandy Cleary, Resident; Roy Morris, BHWC/GGTU; Bob Weststeyn, Resident; JoAnn Weststeyn, Resident; Jacob Smith, Rancher; Jessica Dhaemers, USFS Wisdom Ranger District; Sierra Harris, TNC; John Anderson, Outfitter; Peter Frick, BHWC; Jessica Makus, Soil and Water Conservation Districts of Montana; Dean Peterson, BHWC/Rancher; Steve Luebeck, BHWC/Sportsman; and Zach Brown, One Montana.

Introductions Attendees introduced themselves.

Meeting Minutes November 2017 meeting minutes were reviewed, no additions or corrections.

Reports Streamflow/Snowpack Report –Mike Roberts, DNRC

Presently, snowpack conditions are well above average for the Big Hole basin.

Indications are that the strong La Nina signal that has brought cooler and wetter conditions to the northern tier of the U.S. this winter will start to weaken this spring.

At this point we are about two-thirds of the way through our snow accumulation period and conditions look good for an above average runoff. As we observed last year, a strong runoff does not always equate to above average streamflow conditions later in the year (August and September).

Snowpack (NRCS SNOTEL Data): At this time the Big Hole Basin is at 144% of average. The Jefferson Basin in its entirety is at 133% of average.

As of February 15, the Climate Prediction Center forecasts the probability for above average precipitation and cooler than normal temperatures for the next month with that moderating to more normal conditions later in the spring; however, these forecasts are always subject to change (http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/30day/).

This data was compiled from the NRCS (http://www.mt.nrcs.usda.gov/water.html).

15-Feb 21-Feb 1981-

2010

2017 2018 median 2018

Station elevation inches inches inches % avg

Barker Lakes 8250 7.2 15.9 9.3 77

Basin Creek 7180 3.6 8.2 5.2 69

Bloody Dick 7600 9.3 11.9 8.7 107

Calvert Creek 6430 7 9.5 6.5 108

Darkhorse

Lake 8600 21.6 27.8 20.8 104

Moose Creek 6200 11 15.4 12.9 85

Mule Creek 8300 10.8 16.9 10.2 106

Saddle Mtn. 7940 14.7 25.9 17.9 82

TOTAL 85 132 92 144

(98%) (144)

BASIN AVERAGE % 144

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Director’s Report - Jennifer Downing

Drought subcommittee met December 2016; suggested 2016/2017 DMP stay in place for 2018 – no changes this year.

Had a discussion about Big Hole River streamflow and temperature gauge funding cuts and how they will affect the Big Hole River. $26,000 in cuts to FWP funding in the Big Hole alone. Money was patched in from somewhere else, so 2018 is secure, but we’re unsure where funding will come from after that. BLM gauge at Mudd Creek will be cut in 2019. BHWC pays ~$9,100 annually for gauges, and that bill will be due soon. The Drought Subcommittee drafted a worst-case scenario, backup drought plan in case funding is cut and gauges have to be prioritized. We’re working to get in front of this issue and help coordinate gauge payments across the state.

BHWC held annual governing board business meeting in January. o Six governing board members that were elected for a preliminary term in June were confirmed

for 3-year terms starting January 2018. o Harold Peterson, long-time board member and Beaverhead CD representative, retired. o Working to increase our general support funding to better manage reimbursable contracts. o Continue sharing with your neighbors and bringing more people into the fold. Please share our

newsletter, bring friends to meetings, tell people about BHWC, etc.

French Gulch & Moose Creek project is COMPLETE! o Before and after videos featuring aerial imagery are available via our YouTube channel. Just

search Big Hole Watershed Committee. o Filming a short video funded by Patagonia to show project results & impact. Filming throughout

this spring and video should be complete by early summer.

Wildlife Conservation Society Funding: Pedro secured a WCS Climate Adaptation Fund grant in the amount of $250,000 to support natural water storage projects. Among 12 groups nationally who won the award out of about 100 who applied – so we’re really excited!

Monthly meeting schedule lined out for most of 2018 already. Events calendar attached.

Steering Committee – Jim Hagenbarth, Roy Morris, and Steve Luebeck

Steering Committee is happy with the progress BHWC is making. Wildlife Report – Jim Hagenbarth, Tana Nulph

Carcass Removal: Will be offered March-May 2018 to upper Big Hole livestock producers. Flier with contact information attached.

Sage Creek Carcass Removal in partnership with CVA: BHWC will partner with the Centennial Valley Association spring 2018 to provide carcass removal at Sage Creek. Sage Creek carcasses will be taken to the Beaverhead County Landfill.

Regional Conflict Reduction Coordination Initiative: BHWC is a member along with 9 other groups. Initiative secured funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Now hiring a coordinator to manage the grant and coordinate conflict reduction efforts throughout Western Montana.

Elk are behaving differently this year because of the winter we’re having – wolves are following elk and getting into other wolves’ territories, resulting in territory battles and a lot of wolf mortality. Montana FWP is working on Brucellosis studies in Tendoys.

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One of the problems with DSAs is the state pays for cattle that are in the DSA, but there’s a good chance we could lose that funding to test cattle. It’s really important to test your cattle, especially if you’re in a DSA. Especially if your livestock have much contact with elk in the winter time. We’re very concerned because that would be a big cost to livestock producers to test those grounds themselves.

People & Land Use Planning Report – Pedro Marques

Incentive program is going really well; we’re moving into permitting and doing three projects. Some of them may be partnering with the Ranching for Rivers program we’ll hear about this evening.

New Business

None

Special Presentation: Montana Hunter Advancement Program Ethics, Access & Education

Presentation by: Zach Brown, One Montana

Common Ground Program 2010-2018 o History:

The need: landowners – sportsman relations o Composition:

Sportsmen groups Landowner groups Outfitters, FWP, etc.

o Program Outline: Conservation ethics Wildlife biology and habitat Farm and ranch management Landowner/sportsman relations Hunting skills Shooting competencies Pre-hunt planning After the kill

o Field, classroom, and online o 40-hour course over ~6 weeks, Spring 2018 o 30 course participants o 1 lead instructor/course coordinator (George Bettas), various guest lecturers, c0-instructors

Who is the hunter? o A minimum age of 20 at time of enrollment. o No violations of FWP or state trespassing laws within the last 5 years o Montana resident o Experienced hunters

Access component o Landowner-driven program o FWP relationship, but not an FWP program o Program directly addresses hunter behavior issues, access logistics management (Huntable app) o Course graduates will quality for private land access opportunities o Some participating landowners will be invited to be involved in the course, possibly on ranch

field days. Share perspective of landowner. o Ranch agreements will be negotiated individually, dependent upon specific needs and wants

from landowners.

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Timeline: o January: hire instructor, finalize ranches o February: recruit applicants/course participants o April-May: Course takes place o September-December: Course graduates are hunting on our partners ranches. o December: Evaluation of program o 2019: Implement expanded pilot project o 2020: Project goes statewide.

More information included in attachments. Discussion:

Is it just big game hunting or bird hunting or both? o This first pilot year, just for the sake of building a relevant curriculum from scratch, we’re

gong to focus on big game and particularly elk. But as we go on, we’ll diversify. We’re all focusing just on rifle hunting for the same reason. It creates another set of logistics to involve bow hunters, but in time we do want to include bow hunters as well.

Do you have a public relations course for ranchers? o At the moment, we’re trying to reach out with a big olive branch to the sportsmen community

and the ranching community, and we’re trying to find something that works for both sides.

What’s the bottom-line, overall objective? o To create another type of access program that meets and unmet need in the private land

hunting community. Certainly I don’t think, nor does our group think, that this is the silver bullet that will meet all access needs.

Have you tried to quantify this unmet need?

Well … I guess no. I don’t know exactly how to answer that question. In my other life, I serve in the Legislature and we get hammered on the access issue. It’s an important issue to a lot of people. The feedback we’ve had from the hunting community is that this is going to add a lot of value. But we’ll see how it goes. I’m sure we’ll have more questions to answer.

o Governor’s hunt in Kansas – brings ~80 hunters to a small community of about 13,000 – have about 600 volunteers. Each hunter has assigned land and an assigned guide. This program has some similar elements to the program you’re building – it might be worthwhile to look into this and some of the other projects around the country that are already established. May help you answer some questions.

Are you doing just in-state or non-residents as well? o For the pilot project, just in-state hunters. But we’re trying to set it up to be scalable in other

states. We set this up looking at the Master Hunter program in Washington State. We also looked at a German Master Hunter program.

Do they have a landowner component?

No, it’s set up differently there.

Is there a certain area where this is available/taking place this year? o The classroom will be once/week in Bozeman. We have an initial focus in Region 3, but we’re

in contact with ranches in other regions. We intend to have about 20 ranches signed up to allow plenty of options and match up hunters and landowners with similar goals.

How are you getting the word out to the hunters themselves? o As soon as our website is up, we will send out press releases. FWP will help us with contact

lists. We don’t want to over-advertise this year, because we expect a lot of interest and we only have a few spots for this first year.

Are you trying to target ranchers that aren’t part of the block management program right now? Is your long-term goal to get them back into the block management program?

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o I wouldn’t say our goal is to influence ranchers to go either way, but we are targeting ranches that aren’t currently enrolled in block management. We will work with anyone though, even ranches in block management if they’re interested.

As a rancher, I pretty much open my gates to hunters. We try to make it so they can access something fairly easily. But one of our issues is a lot of absentee landowners that aren’t allowing hunting, which results in an overabundance of elk. I think this is a great program; we’ve discussed this kind of thing before, but we have to figure out some way to manage these big groups of elk that seek refuge in places where they’re not hunted. They’re very prolific and can cause a lot of problems in a lot of places. Hopefully this will help, but we have to five FWP and the hunter a way to manage those elk numbers. They’re getting out of hand, which could result in some real disease problems like CWD.

o In January, One Montana did drought/water supply workshops in central Montana. Elk were brought up at all 3 meetings. It’s a really big deal and important to your bottom line in ranching. Drought can cause elk to move onto ranches and irrigated land to look for food.

Meeting Topic: Ranching for Rivers Conservation Fencing Program Presentation by: Jessica Makus, Soil and Water Conservation Districts of Montana

Ranching for Rivers Summary

Cost share program for landowners to construct riparian pastures.

Provides 50% cost share for: o Fencing o Offsite watering o Pumps o Pipeline o Water gaps

Service of a range conservationists to help draft grazing plans

Partnership of Montana Soil & Water Conservation Districts of Montana and the Missouri River Conservation Districts Council

Began in 2016 o Funded 5 projects throughout the Missouri River Basin o Townsend to Culbertson

Helping spread the word that seeing cattle along streambanks is not necessarily a bad thing!

Goals: o Improve riparian habitat o Reduce sediment, nutrient, and temperature loading o Provide grazing management o Improve water quality

Wildlife benefits: o Improves bird habitat o Improves fishery

Increases large woody debris Improves water quality

o Improves wildlife habitat Increases forage Increases shelter

Water benefits: o Low cost, highly effective restoration o Reduces sediment, temperature, nutrient loading o Allows bank to re-stabilize if necessary

Ranch benefits: o Great alternative to complete exclusion

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o Provides management flexibility o Promotes better usage or upland acreage o Helpful for management of weedy species o Provides services of a grazing management specialist

Funding: o 319 funding – must be used in a place with an establish Watershed Restoration Plan (WRP) –

the Big Hole watershed qualifies. Must be on an impaired stream or a tributary to an impaired stream.

o Funding for 2 years – 4 calls for proposals (3 remaining). o Have ~$70,000 to spend. o In the first call, received just 2 applications. o Next call to be opened near March 1st. o Accept applications on a rolling basis. o Must be on private land only. o Rewards determined by a review committee: representatives form MACD, DEQ, SWCDM, CDs,

NRCS, Ranchers

Application Process: o Application includes:

Operation information (landowner, ID other funding sources, WRP information) Project plan and budget (fencing, water infrastructure) Map (ask Jessica or local CD for help created Google map if needed)

o What happens next? If selected, sign landowner agreement. Have one year to complete project. Agree to maintain project for 10 years (barring flood, natural disaster, etc.) Requires a monitoring visit from a DEQ representative – will schedule with landowner at

landowner’s convenience. Work on grazing plan with grazing management specialist.

o Riparian grazing workshops – coming up Coming in late June 3-4 locations statewide Learn new management strategies Regional and local speakers More information coming soon!

o SWCDM Conservation Menu: a NEW webpage menu of programs available to private landowners. This could be a very useful tool for landowners. http://www.mtconservationmenu.org

o More information included in attachments.

Discussion o How does the funding work? Do you have to hire out fence building or can you do it yourself?

The funding can only pay for materials or use of equipment, not labor. Labor can count as match. Reimbursement basis – landowner purchases supplies, does project – submits receipts for 50% cost-share.

o Are there federal specs that have to be followed for fences? Yes, they do need to be wildlife friendly.

What kind of fencing are you looking at? Barbed wire, 2-3 wire electric, suspension let-down?

o I don’t really know much about fencing – I know it can be either permanent or electric. The fencing is really up to you, but we do have some guidance on the type of fences recommended.

o Do you have a list of watersheds in the state that qualify with completed WRPs? A lot of watersheds are in flux right now.

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We don’t have that information – we ask that you refer to DEQ for that decision. We have accepted a project with a WRP that is nearly complete, so there is some flexibility there. But that is up to DEQ.

o Have you worked with Jim Magee with the USFWS partners program on this? No, I have not.

You might want to get in touch with Jim. From the rancher’s perspective, it’s nice to have one point of contact and Jim is in contact with several ranchers in our area.

Upcoming Meetings March 21, 2018, 7-9pm @ the Divide Grange – BHWC Monthly Meeting. Topic: Integrated Range

Management by Dave Scott, Montana Highland Lamb and Irrigation Scheduling/Soil Moisture Monitoring by Barry Dutton.

April 18, 2018, 7-9pm @ the Divide Grange – BHWC Monthly Meeting. Topic: Big Hole Watershed Fishery Update by Jim Olsen, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Adjourn

Big Hole Watershed Committee

2018 Events Calendar (DRAFT)

January Monthly Meeting 1/17, 11am - 4pm [Annual Business Meeting]

February Monthly Meeting 2/21, 6pm [Topic: Conservation Fencing Program by Jessica Makus, Soil and Water Conservation Districts of Montana & Montana Hunter Advancement Program by Zach Brown, One Montana.]

March Monthly Meeting 3/21, 7pm [Topic: Integrated Range Management by Dave Scott, Highland Lamb & Soil Moisture Monitoring with Barry Dutton.]

April Monthly Meeting 4/18, 7pm [Topic: Big Hole River Fishery Update by Jim Olsen, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.]

May Monthly Meeting 5/16, 7pm [Topic: Invasive Weeds in the Big Hole Watershed. Presented by federal and state agencies, local counties, and private contractors.] Newsletter

June Monthly Meeting 6/20, 7pm [Topic: Big Hole Watershed Wildlife Update by Vanna Boccadori and Craig Fager, both with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.] DMP Starts

July DMP, Range Rider Begins No Monthly Meeting Wildlife Speaker Series: Big Hole event (Date TBA)

August DMP, Range Rider Monthly Meeting 8/15, 7pm [Topic: TBA.]

September DMP, Range Rider ends 9/30 Monthly Meeting 9/19, 7pm [Topic: Big Hole Watershed Sage Grouse Update, presented by the Big Hole Sage Grouse Working Group.]

October DMP Ends 10/17 Monthly Meeting 10/21, 7pm [Topic: TBA]

November Monthly Meeting 11/21, 6pm [Topic: TBA] Newsletter

December Annual Appeal No Monthly Meeting

Livestock Carcass Removal Offered Free March – May 2018

AVAILABLE TO RANCHES WITHIN THE BIG HOLE WATERSHED

CALL TO MAKE ARRANGEMENTS

To arrange for carcass removal, contact John Costa, BHWC Wildlife Programs Technician, at (209) 628-2225

For more information, contact Tana Nulph, BHWC Conservation Programs Coordinator, at (406) 267-3421 or tnulph@bhwc.org

Carcasses will be hauled to BHWC’s Carcass Compost Facility near Wisdom. If you’d

prefer to drop off carcasses, make arrangements with John ahead of time. The purpose of our carcass removal & composting programs is to reduce the risk of livestock

depredation by removing predator attractant from the landscape during times of higher mortality, like calving.

All information regarding livestock and ranching operations is kept confidential.