Tour Visits East Deer Lodge Valley Conservation Successes

During the summer of 2006, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) hosted a tour to highlight five successful conservation projects that have been implemented in the Deer Lodge Valley through a partnership effort over the past eight and a half years.

The goal of the partnership since it’s inception in 1998 has been the implementation of ranch management plans for landowners who own land adjacent to the Upper Clark Fork River between Warm Springs Ponds and Garrison in conjunction with the superfund clean-up activities. The purpose of these ranch plans is to facilitate management of the riparian areas within the 100-year flood plain of the river in order to help protect superfund clean-up activities that are to take place once the litigations between the state of Montana and ARCO are completed. The superfund activities will revolve around clean-up of mine tailings created mainly by the operation of the Anaconda Mining Company (ACM). ACM operated from the early 1880s through the early 1980s. During ACM’s time of operation, mine waste was dumped into the Clark Fork River creating heavy metal deposition within the 100 year flood plain of the Upper Clark Fork River.

Members of the partnership that have been involved in the activities that have occurred in the Deer Lodge Valley over the last eight and a half years include: the Deer Lodge Valley Conservation District, ARCO, NRCS, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, the Clark Fork Coalition, the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, Watershed Restoration Coalition, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, National Center for Technology, and the landowners along the Upper Clark Fork River from Warm Springs Ponds to Garrison. All of these entities, organizations, and agencies have come together to accomplish an amazing amount of work that benefits the natural resources of the Deer Lodge Valley in Powell and Deer Lodge counties. Much of the technical and financial assistance that supports this partnership has come from NRCS.

The conservation projects the tour visited include:

• 10,840 feet of cross fencing and/or riparian fencing installed along Cottonwood Creek to control livestock grazing in the adjacent riparian corridor and pastures;
• the use of sheep (facilitated by a herder) to manage leafy spurge infestations by several ranchers south of Deer Lodge since 2002;
• the implementation of two stock water pipeline systems (consisting of approximately 80,000 feet of pipe, two 16,000-gallon storage tanks, and 14 1,000-gallon stock tanks) to allow for better grazing utilization of approximately 7,000 acres of rangeland along Orofino Creek, Sand Hollow Creek, and Dry Cottonwood Creek;
• the implementation of road improvement practices such as tree revetments and drain dips on the Sand Hollow Road for erosion control purposes; and
• the installation of a stock water system consisting of a shallow well adjacent to the Clark fork River, a pump, 15,000 feet of pipe, two 10,000-gallon storage tanks, and 16 1,000-gallon stock tanks. This system was implemented on the Broken Circle ranch in order to add flexibility to their grazing program.

To date, most of the projects implemented have been with the landowners south of Deer Lodge. Future plans involve expanding the project area to the north of Deer Lodge and into the Peterson Creek and Cottonwood Creek watershed areas. An educational landowner meeting took place on Nov. 28, 2006, with the landowners north of Deer Lodge and in the Peterson Creek and Cottonwood Creek watersheds to introduce potential funding sources available for the implementation of conservation projects to these landowners.


Tour participants view a control cage for leafy spurge installed in 2003 in the Dry Cottonwood drainage south of Deer Lodge to monitor the success of sheep grazing on controlling the noxious weed.


Sheep graze leafy spurge along Dry Cottonwood Creek south of Deer Lodge.


One of eight 1,000-gallon stock tanks on the Sand Hollow pipeline project that provides water for livestock and wildlife.


Tree revetments for erosion control along the road adjacent to Sand Hollow Creek.

Last Modified: 06/26/2007