Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is holding volunteer days to cut and stake willows at Lower French Creek this May. More information, including meeting dates, agendas, locations, and what to bring, below.
Directions to Lower French Creek Meeting Location
See Maps Below
Coordinates: 45.934310°, -113.089971°
Coming from Divide, MT or I-15:
Turn off Interstate I-15 for Divide, MT (Exit 102; MT-43; Divide Wisdom) and head towards Wisdom for 23.2 miles. Turn right on MT-569 (Mount Haggin Scenic Drive) and head north for 3.8 miles and meet at gate on the right-hand side of the Mount Haggin WMA. Please plan on parking along the fence. Please don’t plan on driving into the WMA French Creek pasture.
Coming from Anaconda, MT or I-90:
Turn off Interstate I-15 for Anaconda (exit 208 MT-1 N) and continue on MT-1 N for 4.9 miles. Turn left on MT-569 (Wisdom, MT/Mount Haggin Scenic Drive) and continue for 26.1 miles. Meeting location will be at gate on the French Creek pasture for the Mount Haggin WMA. Please plan on parking along the fence. Please don’t plan on driving into the WMA French Creek pasture.
Coming from Wisdom, MT (HWY 43):
Continue North on Highway 43 from 28.0 miles. Turn left on MT-569 (Mount Haggin Scenic Drive) and head north for 3.8 miles and meet at gate on the right-hand side of the Mount Haggin WMA. Please plan on parking along the fence. Please don’t plan on driving into the WMA French Creek pasture.
Agenda and for May 6-7th and 13-14th:
Daily agenda for May 6th and 7th
9:30 am – meet at meeting location
9:30 – 9:45 am – introductions and background on project
9:45 to 10:00 am – hike down to streambanks
10:00 am to noon – willow planting prep (May 6th streambanks 1 – 12 and May 7th streambanks 13 – 21)
12:30 – 3:30 pm – willow planting prep
4:00 pm – Depart
Daily agenda for May 13th and 14th
9:30 am – meet at meeting location
9:30 – 9:45 am – introductions and background on project
9:45 to 10:00 am – hike down to streambanks
10:00 am to noon – willow staking (May 6th streambanks 1 – 12 and May 7th streambanks 13 – 21)
12:30 – 3:30 pm – willow staking
4:00 pm – Depart
Logistics:
Please plan on arriving at the meeting site around 9:30 am. FWP will be present at the meeting site with a silver Dodge. Once we have everyone gathered we’ll hike down (east) to the French Creek streambanks (approximately 0.5 miles). No vehicles are allowed except for one four-wheeler to bring tools down to the site. We’ll plan on working for a few hours and break for a half-hour lunch and resume work till 3:30 pm and then we’ll hike out and depart. Please plan on bringing food and water down to the site. In addition, please plan on bringing suitable footwear. We recommend muck/irrigation or waterproof boots to tromp around in about 1 of water at times (We’ll need to cross several channels). In addition, it’ll be early May and Mother Nature is certainly unpredictable at times, so please plan on bringing suitable layers and coats/hats for changing weather. If you have loppers (those that can cut through ¾” – 1” material and/or a rubber mallet for pounding stakes into the ground0 please bring them. We’ll have some availability for folks that don’t have any. MFWP will provide new, working gloves for everyone. There is no cell phone coverage on-site, so please call with questions prior to 9:00 am.
What to Bring:
- Muck/irrigation/waterproof boots
- Lunch, snacks, and water/drinks
- Spring weather clothing: rain jacket, coat, hat/gloves, sunscreen, sunglasses etc.
Mallets, loppers – we’ll have some onsite as well, but if you have some available please bring yours as well in case we don’t have enough for all folks.
Questions:
Please call or email Jarrett Payne at 406-560-7103 (Jarrett.Payne@mt.gov).
Please call or email Holden Reinert at 215-622-5668 (Holden.Reinert@mt.gov).
More information on the Lower French Creek restoration project is available here.