Community Science Monitoring

History: In 2013, the Clark Fork Coalition (CFC) established a volunteer program to increase community involvement and get extra helping hands on the river. Today, 200+ annual volunteers work alongside CFC staff and partners to get things done for the river. Whether it’s collecting important data or planting trees in riparian areas, volunteers use science-based methods to make positive changes across the watershed!

What is Community Science? Community science is scientific work undertaken by members of the public, often in collaboration with professional scientists. When they work together, scientists can share the significance of their work, while volunteers contribute valuable time to projects about which they feel passionate.

CFC uses community science programs to expand our capacity for data-driven restoration projects and engage interested community members in river stewardship. We use the collected data to create science-based stories of how our restoration projects change the health of the river over time. Through hands-on field science, community scientists gain a deeper understanding of stream ecology.

Dewatering, habitat destruction, and fish passage barriers impair the Bitterroot River and its tributaries. CFC identified several Bitterroot tributaries as priority streams for our restoration work and implemented community science monitoring programs to collect data on our progress. Community science volunteers help us to monitor fish habitat, riparian vegetation, and invasive weeds on our restoration projects pre- and post- project.

Construction began in October of 2023, and post-project data will be collected and analyzed in the fall of 2024. Presented below are our baseline pre-project data.

To our community science volunteers: thank you for making this work possible!

If you would like to get involved, click the link below to learn about upcoming volunteer opportunities and to sign up for our monthly volunteer newsletter!