Restoring Habitat
PPL Montana has worked effectively with state, federal agencies and private groups to implement and cost-share a diverse array of stewardship projects for fisheries, wildlife, habitat, and water quality projects, including endangered species.
One of the major environmental projects that PPL Montana has committed to is investing $23 million over a 10-year period for recreation, fisheries, water quality and wildlife habitat development in Montana along a 524-mile portion of the Madison-Missouri River corridor.
The funding is one of the largest corporate environmental contributions in the history of Montana. The company will join with more than 20 other public and private partners to complete projects that are part of this commitment to long-term environmental stewardship for Montana.
PPL Montana employees participate annually in Adopt-a-Highway roadside cleanup programs and United Way Days of Caring in which tree plantings and other environmentally beneficial projects are completed.
We also have worked to:
- Increase juvenile populations of the endangered pallid sturgeon in the Missouri River.
Complete several stream and riparian and wetland habitat restoration projects toward a goal of restoring 26,000 acres of riparian and wetland habitat adjacent to the Madison and Missouri Rivers.
Restore the rare fluvial Arctic grayling, pallid sturgeon and other fish species in the Madison and Missouri River watersheds.
Restore forests, including cottonwood habitats, along river shorelines on the Missouri River northeast of Great Falls.
Use the skills of a senior fisheries biologist to conduct regular exams of the health of rare and native fish in the waters close to the company’s hydroelectric plants.
Install a fish ladder at the Thompson Falls Dam to aid two rare species of trout in reaching their native spawning waters on the Clark Fork River.
Partner cooperatively with government agencies that include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, Montana Department of Environmental Quality and Montana Conservation Corp, as well as nonprofit organizations such as American Rivers, Trout Unlimited and the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy.