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USGS IN YOUR STATE

USGS Water Science Centers are located in each state.

A Welcome from John Kilpatrick., USGS Montana Water Science Center Director

The USGS was established by Congress in 1879 to provide the Nation with reliable and impartial information in order to understand the Nation's natural resources. This information is used to protect life and property from natural disasters, manage the Nation's natural resources, and protect the environment. The USGS is a scientific organization concerned with providing credible, relevant, impartial, and timely information to all.
Today, the USGS is known for its long-term and extensive data-collection networks, and research of water, mapping, biology and geology issues in Montana and throughout the Nation. These efforts provide policy makers, managers, and scientists, and the general public with information needed to understand and make decisions about the State of Montana's natural resources.
The USGS Montana Water Science Center primarily addresses water issues.  Water resources activities of the Montana Water Science Center include maintenance and analysis of long-term quantitative and qualitative data for streams, reservoirs, and ground water; and short-term interpretive investigations of specific water-resources issues on a local, State, regional, and national level.  Specific issues addressed by the USGS Montana Water Science Center in recent years include: 

• Effects of abandoned or inactive mine lands on aquatic systems
• Impact of past and future energy development on water resources in Montana
• Effects of population growth and land- and water-use changes on water resources in intermontane valleys
• Understanding changes in stream-channel geomorphology resulting from natural and anthropogenic factors
• Long-term monitoring and assessment of trends in water quality
• Effects of climate change on water resources
• Changes in hydrology caused by wildfires
• Improving understanding of ground-water and surface-water interaction and other components of the water budget in intermontane watersheds
• Mercury in Montana's aquatic systems

The USGS Montana Water Science Center carries out its activities from a main office in Helena and three field offices in Billings, Fort Peck, and Kalispell.  The Center has a highly trained staff of scientists, technicians, and support personnel committed to providing accurate and timely natural resource information.