Clark Fork Coalition Information

Founded in 1985, the Clark Fork Coalition is dedicated to protecting and restoring the Clark Fork River basin, a 22,000-square-mile area draining western Montana and northern Idaho. The Coalition believes that community vitality and watershed health are inextricably linked. Driven by this organizing principle, we build diverse partnerships using a science-based, community-focused approach. Side by side with citizens, scientists, landowners, business leaders, and public officials, we have spearheaded initiatives that have delivered important gains: • After decades of planning, multiple large-scale Superfund cleanups have at last begun in the Upper Clark Fork (UCF) to remove 150 years of mining and smelting contamination. To date, more than a billion dollars have been either spent or earmarked for rehabilitation through the state’s Natural Resource Damage Program. • In the headwaters of the UCF, 28 miles of Silver Bow Creek have been restored. Native fish, macroinvertebrates, and riparian vegetation have returned to the creek, and in 2012 fishing permits were issued for the first time. • Near Missoula, the confluence of the Blackfoot and Clark Fork rivers is free-flowing once again after the removal of Milltown Dam. Today, hundreds of miles of river are open once again to migrating native fish, and a new state park is in the making that will offer trails, wildlife viewing areas, and new river access points. • In the UCF four creeks now run freely to the Clark Fork for the first time in decades, native trout are now swimming unimpeded into seven previously-blocked waterways, and chronically dewatered streams have been revitalized. • At multiple sites, toxic wastes at abandoned mine sites have either been contained or are slated for remediation, removal, and monitoring. • Thousands of adults and young people have been directly engaged in the river's recovery through learning workshops, continuing education programs, cleanups, floats, tours, and more.