2024 Conference Presentations

Plenaries & Conference agenda

2024 Conference Agenda

  • Stephanie Ewing, Director, Montana Water Center

    A message from the Montana Water Center

    • Charles Luce, U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station

      Climate change influences on fire and water in Montana: Understanding the physical drivers of change

    • Sheila Murphy, U.S. Geological Survey Water Mission Area

      Wildfires in watersheds: What determines the water-quality response?

    • Kelsey Jensco, Montana Climate Office

      Building climate preparedness through enhanced soil moisture monitoring

    Session 1

    Climate

    Session 2

    Water Quality

    Session 3

    Restoration & Management

    Session 4

    Water Quality (Continued)

    Session 5

    Pollution Ecology

    Session 6

    Water Quality (Continued)

    Session 7

    Hydrology

    Session 8

    Ecology

    Session 9

    Hydrology (Continued)

    Session 10

    Groundwater

    • Zachary Holden, USDA Forest Service

      Potential Drivers of Groundwater Declines and Increasing Vulnerability in the Wildland Urban Interface of Western Montana

    • Elizabeth Meredith, Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology

      MBMG GWIP Study of the Billings Aquifer

    Session 11

    Collaboration & Communication

    Session 12

    Modeling

    Poster presentations

    • Jonathan Shikany, Montana State University

      Characterizing the colonization of pathogenic free-living amoeba and associated microbial communities in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

    • Katherine Chase, U.S. Geological Survey

      Climate and hydrology for the international St. Mary and Milk Rivers Study in Montana, U.S., and Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada

    • Raeya Gordon, Montana State University/Department of Natural Resources and Conservation

      Quantifying deep percolation and soil water storage on irrigated fields

    • Karin Hilding, City of Whitefish

      Climate resiliency planning: an EPA Whitefish case study

    • Bryanna Angood-Hardy, National Ecological Observatory Network, Batelle

      NEON in the Northern Rockies: Aquatic Data and Resources to Understand Changing Ecosystems

    • Michelle Fillion, U.S. Geological Survey

      Exploring metal/metalloid transfer across aquatic-terrestrial interfaces: impacts of mining activities on macroinvertebrates and ecosystem health in the Clark Fork River and Kootenai River/Lake Koocanusa Basins, Montana

    • Jacob McArtor, University of Montana

      Wildfire effects on heavy metal concentrations in streams and benthic macroinvertebrate communities

    • Emma Tate, Montana State University

      Microbial mediation of water quality in a central Montana agricultural landscape

    • Jake Atkinson, Montana Department of Environmental Quality

      Clean Water Act Section 319 restoration project effectiveness reviews - lessons learned

    • Kaitlin Boren, Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation

      Effects of CCAA streamflow management and riparian ecosystem restoration on water temperature and species abundance in Steel Creek, a major spawning and rearing tributary of the Big Hole River for Montana Arctic grayling

    • Tera Ryan, Montana Salinity Control Association

      Planting for a change: Land use, saline seeps, and shallow groundwater interactions

    • Audrey Wright, Montana Conservation Corps

      How Montana Conservation Corps is working to mitigate the impacts of climate change on the region's water resources

    • Riley Henson, University of Montana

      Extreme flood response in East Rosebud Creek and global fluvial geomorphic resilience

    • Bruce Boles, Montana State University

      Unique challenges and potential solutions for surface water models in high relief, mountainous catchments with vulnerable alpine glaciers

    • Harrison McGillen, University of Montana

      3D modeling of changing precipitation type and its impact on mountainous groundwater at a watershed scale

    • Shawn Kuzara, Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology

      Quantification of groundwater recharge from flood- and pivot-irrigated fields

    • Caroline Martin, Montana State University

      Evaluating wildfire effects on groundwater quality

    • Evan Norman, Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation

      Basin studies and groundwater monitoring: providing evidence based solutions for water resources issues

    • Rachel Suhs, Missoula Valley Water Quality District

      Long-term nitrate trends in the Target Range area of the Missoula Aquifer

    • Ann Hanson, Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology

      Exploring 30 years of Montana groundwater quality data with censored statistics

    • Brian Hogenson, Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes

      CSKT Groundwater Monitoring Network

    • Ashley Peterson, Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation

      Montana stream gage network

    • Drew Shafer, Gallatin Local Water Quality District

      The state of the GLWQD's surface water monitoring network

    • Adam Sigler, Montana State University

      Linking datasets and partners to characterize increasing nitrate in Gallatin Valley groundwater

    • Rodney Caldwell, U.S. Geological Survey

      U.S. Geological Survey national groundwater climate response network

    • Camela Carstarphen, Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology

      Delivering Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology's groundwater characterization data within an interactive map environment, Lincoln and Sanders study area data map

    • Sara Edinberg, Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology

      30 years of groundwater monitoring at Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology

    • Russell Conti, Montana State University

      Tracking a watershed's nutrients across time and space in a quickly developing mountain west community

    • Sonny Gray, Aaniiih Nakoda College

      Impacts to water quality from the mining in the Little Rocky Mountains in streams on the Fort Belknap Reservation, Montana

    • Michelle Hornberger, U.S. Geological Survey

    • Nicklas Kiekover, Montana State University

      Characterizing risk for contaminants of emerging concern in Montana water supplies

    • Hannah Riedl, Montana Department of Environmental Quality

      Fresh plan for freshwaters: Updating the nonpoint source pollution management plan

    • Weslyn Schilling, Aaniiih Nakoda College

      Source water assessment for Snake Butte Spring as drinking water source for Fort Belknap Community

    • Haylie Brown, U.S. Geological Survey

      Conceptual approach for identifying drainages of co-located legacy mine sites and possible future burn areas as compounding risk factors to water quality in Montana

    • Jack Buban, Gallatin River Task Force

      Analysis of long term water quality trends in the Upper Gallatin River Watershed near Big Sky, Montana

    • Madison Chavez, Montana State University

      Investigating water quality at Chief Plenty Coups Spring near Pryor, Montana: A fifty-year legacy of wastewater management and cultural significance

    • Matthew Smith, Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology

      Geochemical evidence against oil brine contamination in North Willow Creek, Fergus, Petroleum, and Musselshell Counties, Montana

    • Vicki Watson, University of Montana

      Long term trends in nutrients and attached algae levels in the Clark Fork River