Calendar Events and Chapter Projects:
The Madison-Gallatin Chapter of Trout Unlimited is involved in many local fundraising and rehabilitation efforts to maintain healthy river ecosystems. Many of the most recent events are listed below.

Fish Screens on Irrigation Diversions:

This is a new project for our chapter. Rotating drum screens have been developed that can be placed in the mouths of headgates where water is diverted from rivers. The screens rotate to prevent the buildup of debris and can prevent fish from entering the irrigation ditch where they can become stranded and killed when the headgate is closed at the end of irrigation season. Large irrigation diversions can result in the loss of several thousand fish each year. We are looking at the Valley Garden ditch on the upper Madison as the location for our first fish screen project.

Black Sand Spring:

Black Sand Spring is a spring creek near West Yellowstone that flows into the South Fork of the Madison and serves as a major spawning area for Hebgen Lake and South Fork fish. Last August, MGTU assisted the Forest Service in placing woody debris in the spring creek to develop more rearing habitat and cover for young fish , as well as creating current seams to improve access to spawning gravels. This work was done to approximately 30% of the fishery and will be evaluated this spring. If the results are favorable, the plan is to go back later in the summer to install additional woody debris.

Duck Creek:

The culvert that carries Duck Creek under Highway 191 north of West Yellowstone has developed into a barrier to the migration of spawning fish from Hebgen Lake. The level of the outflow from the culvert is much higher than the creek bed below the culvert and a significant number of migrating fish are being blocked from access to the upstream spawning habitat. The Forest Service, Fish,Wildlife & Parks, Department of Highways and MGTU are involved in putting together a project to raise the level of Duck Creek below the culvert to allow unimpeded fish passage. This project is tentatively planned for summer of 2004.


MSU Fishery Biology Student Scholarship:

MGTU provides an annual scholarship, known as the Jim Belsey Scholarship, in the amount of $500 to the MSU Biology Department to be awarded to a worthy fishery biologist student.

Native Fish Restoration:

The Madison-Gallatin Chapter is a leading proponent in the State of Montana for native fish restoration. Currently, our chapter is involved in providing funding for Grayling and Westslope Cutthroat. Last fall we donated $5,000 to a multi-agency project being conducted in Yellowstone Park. This project is located in the Fan Creek area. The purpose of the study is to identify the habitat conditions that have allowed these fish to persist in the area in order to find other unoccupied habitats with the same qualities or to restore degraded habitat back to that quality. The end result of the project will be to reintroduce Westslope into these habitats witht he goal of developing self-sustaining populations. MGTU also donates $1000 annually to the Grayling restoration work being done on the Big Hole River.

FERC/Hebgen Dam:

Fall River Rural Electric Cooperative, Inc. (an Idaho electric utility) is in the process of preparing an application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to obtain a license to install turbines at the Hebgen Dam in order to generate electricity. The Madison-Gallatin Chapter has intervened in the process so that we will have the ability to participate in the application review process. Our concerns relate to the potential impacts the expanded facility would have on the fisheries and aquatic habitats, both above and below the dam.