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The newly re-dedicated Aquatic Sciences Laboratory.

A laboratory that was built 10 years ago to investigate whirling disease will be rededicated Thursday, September 7, with a new name, broader focus and renovations, said Gretchen Rupp, director of the Montana Water Center at Montana State University.

The 3 p.m. ceremony is open to the public and will involve speakers, laboratory tours and refreshments. Speakers will include MSU President Geoff Gamble, MSU Vice President Tom McCoy and representatives of the Montana Water Center, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Whirling Disease Foundation and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

The former Wild Trout Research Laboratory -- now known as the Aquatic Sciences Laboratory -- is located in Faculty Court at the south end of Fifth Avenue on the southeastern edge of the MSU campus.

The name of the lab was changed because the laboratory has expanded its focus beyond whirling disease to include other fisheries topics, aquatic invertebrates and plants, Rupp said.

"The need to accommodate whirling disease research has diminished in recent years, but demand for other aquatic-research capabilities has grown," she said. "Whirling disease still afflicts Montana's fish, but research on it is now ecological in scope and doesn't require so many live fish in a laboratory setting. In the meantime, other issues that do require an aquatic laboratory have emerged."

Fish infected with whirling disease are housed in the laboratory.

The lab, in the past year, housed fish from Yellowstone National Park and cultured fish for whirling disease studies to examine birds and anglers as vectors for spreading disease, Rupp said. It also hosted experiments that analyzed the effectiveness of fish-control chemicals under various environmental conditions. It oversaw several aquaculture experiments that were too large for the lab's facilities. One took place at the MSU Animal Resource Center, another in the MSU Plant Growth Center.

Renovations to the laboratory will be completed this fall, Rupp said. They will give the lab four permanent water systems inside the building and a fenced-in area behind the lab for larger-scale and outdoor studies. The inside systems will include an aquarium and raceway recirculating systems.

Funding for the lab comes from the Montana Water Center and individual research grants.

Donald Worster.

Donald Worster, a Pulitzer Prize nominated author and the Hall Distinguished Professor of American History at the University of Kansas, will talk about the history of water in the West during the 2006 Wallace Stegner Lecture to be delivered at 7:30 p.m. Monday, September 18 at the Holiday Inn in Bozeman.

The Stegner Lecture is sponsored by the Wallace Stegner Endowed Chair at Montana State University and is free and open to the public.

Worster is the author of several works including "A River Running West: The Life of John Wesley Powell," and "Rivers of Empire," which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Worster writes and lectures about environmental history of North America and the world; U.S. West; U.S. cultural and social history. He is a former president of the American Society for Environmental History and a member of the Western History Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the American Historical Association.

Worster's Stegner Lecture is in conjunction with the 2006 Northwest Water Policy and Law Symposium to be held Sept. 18-20 at the Holiday Inn. Hosted jointly by the Montana Water Center, the Burton K. Wheeler Center at MSU, and the Inland Northwest Research Alliance, the two-day symposium will explore solutions in three areas of water policy: surface-water/ground-water interaction, water infrastructure management, and conflicting land and water-use laws.

For more information on the Stegner Lecture, contact Gordon Brittan at the MSU History and Philosophy Department at uhigb@montana.edu or 994-4395. For more information about the 2006 Northwest Water Policy and Law Symposium, go to http://water.montana.edu/policy.

Montana State University Extension has compiled a list of on-line drought resources for consumers and agricultural producers.

The Web site can be accessed at http://www.montana.edu/wwwpb/drought. Many of the links go to Extension publications, including water conservation tips for the home, rainwater harvesting, yard and garden water management, and nitrate toxicity in Montana forages. Other available articles contain information about dealing with drought and the water needs of cattle.

The site also includes information about wildfires and tips for helping friends cope with stressful drought-related situations. Other links go to drought resources from around the West.

"There is so much information on the Internet, but a lot of it is unreliable," said Mike Vogel, MSU Extension housing specialist and director of Montana's Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN). "Extension specializes in reputable, science-based information, so we hope people will know this is a site they can trust."

The EDEN site at http://www.montanahelp.org also offers information on drought, as well as fire, food safety and weather-related disasters.

Do you have more news?

So many meetings, so little time. Take special note of upcoming national and local water meetings on the Events Calendar at MONTANA WATER.

River Short Courses 2006, Nationwide, September 1 - October 20, 2006 [INFO]

Myxozoan Session at ISAAH, San Francisco, CA, September 2 - 6, 2006 [INFO]

5th International Symposium on Aquatic Animal Health, San Francisco, CA, September 2 - 6, 2006 [INFO]

MSU Aquatic Sciences Laboratory Re-Dedication, Bozeman, September 7, 2006 [INFO]

136th Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society, Lake Placid, NY, September 10 - 14, 2006 [INFO]

Annual Montana Watershed Coordinators' Training Conference, Pray, September 11 - 13, 2006 [INFO]

Water in the City, Victoria, BC, September 12 - 17, 2006 [INFO]

Contaminant Chemistry and Transport in Soil and Groundwater, Helena, September 13 - 20, 2006 [INFO]

Managing Drought and Water Scarcity in Vulnerable Environments, Longmont, CO, September 18 - 20, 2006 [INFO]

Northwest Water Policy & Law Symposium, Bozeman, September 18 - 20, 2006 [INFO]

2006 AWRA Wetlands Restoration Dialogue, Fort Lauderdale, FL, September 18 - 20, 2006 [INFO]

30th Annual Public Land & Resources Law Conference, Missoula, September 25 - 27, 2006 [INFO]

GPS/GIS for Outdoorsmen, Belgrade, September 25 - 30, 2006 [INFO]

3rd International Symposium on Integrated Water Resources Management, Bochum, Germany, September 26 - 28, 2006 [INFO]

Clark Fork River Basin Ground Water Technical Conference, Missoula, September 27, 2006 [INFO]

Fluvial Geomorphic Processes in River Restoration, Missoula, September 27, 2006 [INFO]

Assessing Stream Restoration Success, Missoula, September 28 - 29, 2006 [INFO]

Ground Water Protection Council Annual Forum, Miami, FL, September 30 - October 4, 2006 [INFO]