Spring has finally sprung, and March has been a busy month for the PSPP team with many outreach events attended and lots of progress made on our water quality monitoring plan.
We are excited to announce that the PSPP team has selected our first sites for pesticide monitoring! These focal sites, as we refer to them, consist of 25 locations situated at or near US Geological Survey (USGS) or Department of Natural Resources (DNRC) stream gage stations. Gage stations provide important data on stream flow, which combined with pesticide concentration data, will allow us to better understand pesticide loading rates. These sites were selected based on stream width/order, the surrounding land use type (urban, suburban, agriculture, forest, or a mix), and access considerations. Focal sites will be visited monthly or bimonthly throughout the field season. The rest, and the vast majority, of the sites sampled this year will be broken down by land use category and pesticide use risk level. These will be sampled once or twice, taking the seasonality of pesticide application into consideration when determining the timing of sample collection. Check back next month for even more updates on our monitoring framework.
The PSPP team attended many outreach events this month to continue to spread the word about the program. In the first week of March, we attended the Western Montana Conservation Commission’s Water Quality Awareness Day at the state capital in Helena to engage with legislators and fellow conservationists. We share how the PSPP is working to improve water quality through monitoring, outreach, and education. Later in the month, we attended and presented at the Pesticide Education Course hosted by MSU Extension in Kalispell. Connecting with our local community is key to the success of PSPP, and we are grateful to the Extension team for welcoming our contributions to a great event. There were many more events throughout the Columbia River Basin this month where PSPP materials were displayed, and we are continuing to broaden our reach and engage with as many people as possible about pesticide best practices.
That’s all from the PSPP team this month! We will soon release a call for applications for our competitive contracts which support small-scale, local projects that align with program goals, so stay tuned. Stay engaged with the PSPP by joining our monthly newsletter and check back here next month for more updates and information.
