It was a chilly morning on October 24, but that didn't stop our Darby Tiger Biology students from heading out to the river! Our goal was to help collect data for a river health monitoring study being conducted up and down the valley, and we completed the task. Dave Ward, president of the local Bitterroot Chapter of Trout Unlimited, was there to teach the monitoring protocol and the importance of quality data. The data our Tiger students generated will be used as a baseline from which to compare future river conditions. This data will help identify any harmful changes to the river in the future.
There are many reasons our Tiger students care about having a healthy watershed. These include recreational activities such as fishing and swimming, economic reasons such as tourism that keeps our small businesses running, wildlife habitat, and of course so we have a clean source of drinking water! If turned out to be a beautiful day and a great time was had by all!