The Montana Conservationist, May 1

Happy May Day, readers! Today we have a veritable flood (the good kind) of conservation news from across the state. In this week’s issue:

• Broadwater CD’s Big Sky Watershed Corps Member Katie Mumford was awarded NRCS Montana’s Earth Team Volunteer of the Year
• A Rosebud farmer who thought he was practicing no-till methods is taking it to the next level with a holistic approach
• In Polson, students recently took a Mussel Walk to get hands on learning about aquatic invasive species.
• Spring flooding is already taking its toll across the state, and as warm weather and rain (hi, May!) continue, it’s bound to increase
• A study in Sweden is throwing some (flowering) shade at the popular practice of planting pollinator strips, suggesting that they’re minimally effective and a varied landscape is much better
• And as the invasive mussels check station season gets underway, a boat carrying zebra mussels has already been stopped in Montana on its way to Puget Sound.
• Negotiators for Canada and the US have started work rethinking the Columbia River Treaty, which otherwise automatically renews in 2024. Participants at a recent conference in Missoula are hoping that ecosystem function will be added as a third purpose for the treaty, alongside hydro-power generation and flood management.
• Finally, the 2018 Farm Bill was recently passed out of its first House committee, and NACD has a blog on the components of the bill and how they’ll impact the work of Conservation Districts.

While you wait for the May flowers to finally bloom, read The Montana Conservationist for May 1, 2018: TMC 2018-05-01