Lower Clark Fork Watershed Group (LCFWG) staff completed the Final Draft Lower Clark Fork Tributary Watershed Restoration Plan (WRP) and submitted to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) near the end of August 2019 for a final review and document approval. The WRP was sent to local watershed stakeholders the same time for a final review. Though we do not anticipate making many more substantial changes, we will continue reviewing for minor additions, corrections, typos, etc. prior to finalizing the document. Any final comments or edits received by stakeholders and from DEQ during their final review process will be implemented as well before document finalization. The current draft includes input from many local stakeholders, including Avista, Bull River Watershed Council, Montana Department of Environmental Quality, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, Kootenai and Lolo National Forests, and RC Resources/Hecla. LCFWG staff has worked to accurately incorporate everyone’s input to the best of our ability to create a well-rounded document accepted by all stakeholders.
DEQ will be providing their final edits and comments to us in a few weeks and our goal will be to have the document finalized by the end of September, or shortly after depending on when final comments are received. If you have any questions, or wish to review the Final Draft Lower Clark Fork Tributary Watershed Restoration Plan, you can access it here or contact LCFWG staff Sarah Bowman (sarah@lcfwg.org) or Brita Olson (brita@lcfwg.org). We ask that any further feedback be provided by September 30, 2019 at the latest.
Thank you to everyone who has assisted with the development of the Lower Clark Fork Tributary Watershed Restoration Plan! We appreciate all contributions and support and look forward to using this document to help guide watershed restoration in the Lower Clark Fork Tributary Watershed moving forward.