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FORT BELKNAP WETLANDS MANAGEMENT PROGRAM
Impact/Purpose:
The Fort Belknap Indian Community Council recognizes the importance of preservation in the environment and realizes the goals of the Wetland Program's activities. The main impacts to our reservation are drought, overgrazing and no wetland ordinances. A more consistent method to assess wetlands needs to be implemented, using the Montana Natural Heritage Program's wetland assessment method, developed by Marc Jones. wetland mitigation for environmental impacts associated with past activities needs to be addressed as well as developing maps for wetlands to assist land managers.
The Fort Belknap Indian Community Council's overall goal is to develop a Comprehensive Wetland Mgmt Program for the Fort Belknap Indian Community. Specifically, the Fort Belknap Environmental Program proposes to develop the administrative, programmatic, legal, and regulatory framework that will allow them to assess, monitor, control, and protect reservation wetland resources. Currently the Reference Plant Collection consists of 115 vascular plants, that have been collected in Peoples Watershed which has been designated as a high priority watershed on this reservation. These plants will be used to cross reference other plants to help make identification easier. The Fiscal Year 2002 objectives, will include wetland assessments and completion of the Reference Plant Collection in all four watersheds on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation.
Description:
The product activities include: 1) Conducting wetland inventories and wetland assessments in the Milk River Watershed. This will include wetland delineations, and the collection of vascular plants and plant identification. Currently there is no baseline data of wetland activites in the Milk River Watershed. This goal will help satisfy that objective. Field studies will be coordinated with the tribal Water Quality Program so that more comprehensive information can be made available. 2) Researching Wetland Mitigation and Restoration methods and implementing these methods, including a database to track mitigation used on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. The research is intended to guide the program to fulfill the EPA's Core Essential Elements to receive operational support funding. 3) Mapping wetland assessment sites will be performed using GPS/GIS technology, the Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) which was approved in Fiscal Year 2000, already has the use of GPS/GIS technology incorporated into it.