Welcome to the newsletter about all things water in Montana!

MONTANA WATER NEWS will come your way via email every month with fresh news about meetings and water topics that we hope is of interest to you. If you do not want to receive this newsletter, please scroll down and follow the directions to unsubscribe. If you are seeing only text in this email, or if it's not easy to read, please make sure your email program is set to view "HTML" messages, or view the newsletter online in the newsletter archives.

Whirling Disease Web Site Launched

Typical whirling disease symptoms are black tails, malformed heads, and whirling behavior.

The web site is just one educational component of a larger outreach program planned by the Whirling Disease Research Initiative which began in 1997. Other proposed outreach activities and products include formal presentations to interested parties; field visits to fishery managers; annual whirling disease updates; risk assessment methodology and other fishery management tools; status-and-trend information; state-by-state information on policies and regulations; a quarterly newsletter; and maintaining communications among researchers, managers and the public.

The first Whirling Disease Initiative Newsletter is scheduled for release in late January. More information is available on the new web site at http://whirlingdisease.montana.edu, or by contacting Amy Rose, whirling disease outreach coordinator, at 406.994.7644.

Invitation and Call for Papers to the Fifth Clark Fork Symposium

March 31- April 2, 2005 University of Montana, Missoula, MT

Since 1985, citizens of the Clark Fork River Basin have met every 5 years to discuss the conservation science of the basin. Proceedings of earlier symposia and information for the 2005 symposium can be found at http://www.umt.edu/clarkforksymposium. Forty presentations from throughout the basin are already listed on the preliminary 2005 program. Speakers will address recent and ongoing studies guiding the conservation and restoration of the Clark Fork. Presentations (oral or posters), workshops, and field trips are invited from watershed groups, scientists, other citizens interested in the river basin.

Please e-mail your ideas as soon as possible to: Dr. Vicki Watson, Vicki.watson@umontana.edu, University of Montana Watershed Health Clinic, c/o Environmental Studies, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812. Abstracts (250-words) are due January 31, 2005, and full papers by March 1, 2005. All presentations (papers, PowerPoints, posters) will be published on the Clark Fork Symposium web site. Papers may also be submitted for consideration for inclusion in a book about the Clark Fork Basin. Registration is free to symposium presenters. Also, if you are interested in co-sponsoring this symposium, contact Dr. Watson.

April Water Summit for Teachers and Students

Hands-on training at a monitoring workshop near East Glacier.

The Montana Watercourse will hold a summit for students and teachers interested in water quality monitoring and learning about non-point source pollution. The summit will be held April 18 and 19, 2005 at the Lubrecht Experimental Forest, located east of Missoula and west of Ovando on Hwy 200.

Teachers may bring 3 or 4 students with them to the summit, if they wish. An optional field trip related to water quality issues in the Blackfoot watershed will be offered from 9-12 am, Monday the 18th. Check-in and session sign up will be at noon and sessions will begin at 1pm. Student presentations on water quality monitoring and activities are invited. The format can be a poster presentation Monday night or students and/or teachers may sign up to give a 10-20 minute oral presentation on the work that they are doing and the results that they found. There will be professional development sessions to enhance teachers' ability and knowledge in teaching water quality topics. OPI renewal units will be available for these sessions. If you would like to present, please contact the Montana Watercourse by March 11.

Montana Watercourse, through a grant from Montana DEQ, will provide conference facilities, food and lodging for students and teachers. Approximately $85 for travel per teacher will be available which may be used for substitute fees and/or reimbursement for travel expenses. There will be a registration fee of $10 per person. Note: if this cost represents a hardship for any of your students, a limited number of fee waivers may be available. Please ask! If this means the difference between a good student attending or not attending, we want to do everything in our power to get them to this experience. Information and registration materials on the Summit are posted at http://www.mtwatercourse.org/educators/summit.htm, or you can contact Kristi Neptun at (406) 994-6425, or at kneptun@montana.edu.

Spring Engineering Festival

Culvert caption goes here.

The Department of Civil Engineering at Montana State University- Bozeman will host sixth annual Spring Engineering Festival. Continuing Education Credits is being offered along four tracks: Geotechnical, Structural, Transportation, and Water Resources Engineering. The festival starts mid-day on Thursday March 3 and continues through the afternoon on Friday March 4, and all festival activities are held in the Strand Union Building (SUB) on the campus of Montana State University-Bozeman.

The Montana sections of four professional engineering organizations will hold their winter/spring meetings in conjunction with the festival. In the evening of Thursday March 3, the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), the Structural Engineers Association of Montana (SEAMT), and Montana Geo-Professionals will hold concurrent meetings from 5:15-6:45 PM, followed by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) from 7:00-9:00 PM. As with the technical program of the festival, the professional organization meetings will also take place in the Strand Union Building (SUB) on the campus of Montana State University- Bozeman. For a complete program brochure, including registration form, please go to the following link: http://www.seamt.org/springfestival/2005Festival.pdf. For inquiries that cannot be answered by the program brochure, please contact Dan VanLuchene at (406) 994-6123 or at danv@ce.montana.edu.

Linking to the Montana Legislature on Water Issues

Here’s a good site for just that!

http://leg.state.mt.us/css/default.asp

So many meetings, so little time. Even so, there are a few that water folks just shouldn't miss! Find more information on these and other upcoming events on the Events Calendar at MONTANA WATER.