Flathead Lake Biological Station surpasses fundraising challenge
<p>Clara, 9, uses a spray bottle to simulate a rain storm during a field trip to the UM's Flathead Lake Biological Station Thursday. Clara was one of many Linderman Elementary School students to enjoy the experience."I learned how sediments can pollute water and farmares can use pesticide that can empty into the lake during a thunderstorm," Clara said. "She enjoyed making it rain on the miniature watershed model. "There were different things we used to simulate fertilizer and things. It was very realistic, like a real watershed."</p>
<p>These students in Keryl Lozar's class are Keiton Flamand, Stanley Redwood, Aaron Cummings, Karli Owens, and Jeremiah Coutts.</p>
YELLOW BAY – The University of Montana’s Flathead Lake Biological Station exceeded its $1 million goal to match a lake monitoring challenge grant, according to a press release.
In late 2011, FLBS began a three-year campaign to raise a $1 million endowment to match an anonymous pledge for its Flathead Lake Research and Monitoring Program.
Hundreds of families, foundations and businesses came through.
“This incredible generosity will help protect the quality of Flathead Lake’s water for years to come,” said FLBS Director Jack Stanford. “Our team of faculty, staff and students gives a heartfelt thanks to the community and everyone who donated and made this possible.”
FLBS scientists specialize in ecological research and education with an emphasis on freshwater, particularly Flathead Lake and its watershed.
Actor John Lithgow owns a Flathead Lake home and actively supports the work of FLBS.
“At a time of deep concern for the Earth’s fragile environment, the Flathead Lake Biological Station continues to do a magnificent job monitoring the Flathead’s complex water system,” Lithgow said. “All of us who treasure this beautiful lake owe the station a great and ongoing debt of gratitude.”
The research program depends almost entirely upon grants and gifts.
FLBS faculty and staff members are forging ahead on the next set of priorities for community support.
Current projects for which they seek funding include:
• LakeNET, the environmental sensor network around Flathead Lake, which provides real-time weather and water data to Flathead Lake residents and recreationists.
• The development and application of an environmental DNA test for aquatic invasive species. The test will allow researchers to rapidly determine from a water sample whether invasive species have reached Flathead Lake and other water bodies in Montana.
• Continued ecological discovery at FLBS’s long-term floodplain research site, the Nyack floodplain on the Middle Fork Flathead River.
The quality of water in Flathead Lake affects property values, tourism, agriculture, outdoor sporting and health.
Yet officials were concerned the lake’s only water-quality measuring project was in jeopardy due to massive reductions in state and federal funding and increased competition for dwindling grants.
The ongoing monitoring project supplies data for at least six other regulatory agencies, said station research scientist Tom Bansak.
Those agencies decide how to keep the water clean enough to balance economic growth with protecting the ecology of the lake.
UM economists estimate the lake increases shoreline property values by a collective $6 billion to $8 billion. Nature-based tourism accounts for more than 20 percent of the economy of Flathead and Lake Counties, according to station officials.
Founded in 1899, it is one of the oldest active biological stations in the country, according to university officials. It costs between $200,000 to $250,000 annually to keep the project alive, Bansak said.
But the recent cuts threatened the continuation of the project.
Two years ago, a local anonymous donor pledged $1 million to preserve the monitoring program if the communities surrounding the lake could match it.
Kalispell real estate broker Dusty Dziza is so concerned about maintaining the lake’s water quality, she pledges a portion of her sales commissions to the monitoring program.
About 300 families responded to a Lake Monitoring Challenge Grant mailing in 2013 by donating $55,000.
In March, station officials were challenged with an unexpected expense of pulling the iconic yellow buoys from the lake for repairs and maintenance. They hope to get the buoys afloat again this summer.
The second $1 million will be placed in a UM Foundation endowment and the station would receive an estimated $50,000 in interest annually.
“The original grant amount, the principal, will never be spent,” Bansak said.
The state supplies $100,000 annually for the project and the rest of the funding would come from grants and endowments, he said.
A video about FLBS can be viewed at http://bit.ly/1kbi45H. For more information or to make a donation, call Tom Bansak, FLBS research scientist and development coordinator, at 406-982-3301 ext. 229 or email tom.bansak@umontana.edu; call Stanford at 406-982-3301 ext. 236 or email jack.stanford@umontana.edu. Donate online at http://www2.umt.edu/flbs/.