The Big Hole Watershed Committee holds public meetings on the third Wednesday of every month at the Divide Grange Hall, with a Zoom option available. These meetings provide an opportunity for community members to stay informed about watershed projects, committee activities, current issues affecting the Big Hole River, and upcoming events. Each meeting includes committee updates, project reports, time for discussion, and presentations on topics relevant to the watershed and local communities.
At our August 2026 meeting, we heard from BHWC’s summer Watershed Field Crew about their work evaluating opportunities to increase natural water storage in high-elevation meadows throughout the Big Hole watershed:
- Noah Dowler, Madelyn Hanson, Simon Shepherd, and Cora Johnson, BHWC’s summer Watershed Field Technicians, shared results from their High Meadow Water Storage Rapid Assessments. Throughout the summer, the crew camped in remote alpine meadows and collected on-the-ground information to evaluate sites for their potential to increase natural water storage through restoration.
- Their fieldwork built upon a high meadow water storage modeling study completed by WGM Group and funded through a Montana DNRC planning grant. By ground-truthing the model’s findings, the crew helped identify and prioritize promising restoration opportunities that could retain water on the landscape longer, support late-season streamflows, improve fish and wildlife habitat, and increase resilience to drought.
- The crew highlighted five promising high meadow restoration opportunities identified through their field season and discussed what they observed at these sites and how that information will help guide future restoration planning.
- The presentation also included an introduction to Survey123, including how community members can use BHWC’s resource site survey to share information about potential natural water storage and restoration opportunities throughout the watershed.
The meeting also included updates on BHWC’s ongoing restoration, drought, wildlife conflict-reduction, and water-storage work, including current river conditions and fishing restrictions, summer range riding and predator activity, restoration projects underway across the watershed, and other efforts to improve the resilience of the Big Hole watershed.
You can view the full August 2026 meeting minutes here: August 2026 Meeting Minutes