Ripple Wraps Spring Season With 91,207 Students Served Since 2005
Ripple: The Center for Education and Ecosystem Studies has concluded their spring field season. Spring is often Ripple’s busiest season, and 2026 was no different. This Spring, Ripple’s team led 8 environmental science education and stewardship initiatives. Their programming included:
- Butte & Missoula’s Watershed Science Programs
- Missoula’s Osprey Program
- Trout in the Classroom lessons for rural schools
- The pilot year for Low-Tech, Process Based Restoration course for landowners
- CUBS stormwater clean ups
- Butte’s stormwater education festival
- Ripple’s summer teacher academy
- Butte Restoration Evaluation Services vegetation surveys
- Bird’s Eye View Education Program/Bird Banding
This spring, Ripple also crossed an exciting landmark number. Their team has now served 91,207 students since 2005. Each of those students learned about the history of Butte, superfund work in Montana, the importance of environmental stewardship, the incredible restoration work that has been done, and the work that remains. Now, Ripple has its sights set on 100,000!
During Spring, Ripple spends 3 months visiting classrooms throughout the Clark Fork River Mega Superfund Site from Butte to Missoula. Their team led a 4-day watershed science class focusing on superfund history, and conservation-based course for 5 schools from Butte, Philipsburg, Anaconda, Ramsay, and Deer Lodge, and 5 Missoula County elementary schools. Ripple’s Missoula team also led a newly developed osprey curriculum in Missoula County middle schools.
Butte’s watershed science course was also taught in 13 rural schools from Butte to Bonner and through the Clark fork and Blackfoot River Watersheds as a single day lesson and trout dissection or macro invertebrate identification.
As the snow began to melt, Ripple also began to work with community members and elementary schools in Butte.
Ripple organized 7 Clean Up Blacktail Stream (CUBs) clean up days with 23 Butte classrooms, and a full-day stormwater festival for 425 students from four schools, or 13 classrooms, during Earth Month in May. Each clean up and festival activity was carefully crafted to teach Butte students and community members the connection between stormwater pollution management, conservation, and stewardship.
June was dedicated to Ripple’s BRES vegetation surveys on Butte’s in-town remediated site caps and summer teacher academy in Red Lodge.
During Ripple’s BRES evaluations, our team evaluated over 50 remediated sites for noxious weed encroachment, total vegetation cover, and overall site integrity for Butte Silver Bow.
During the final weekend in June, Ripple hosted 3 Greater Yellowstone teachers in Red Lodge at the Yellowstone Bighorn Research Association (YBRA). Participants learned about, and gained resources to teach about, the migration of ungulates, waterfowl, and people through Montana over time.
This summer, Ripple’s Missoula team will continue their summer leaf pack decomposition student citizen science research in tributaries to the Clark Fork. This research gives motivated Missoula County High School students the experience and connections they need to jumpstart a career in ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ.
The Bird’s Eye View Education Program (BEVEP) continued their mission of research-based and community education focused bird banding programming. So far, the UM Bird Ecology Lab has led 20 BEVEP educational events in the Spring with 3 more on the calendar on August 4th, 6th, and 7th.
The Clark Fork Mega Superfund site is a stark example of the time and care required to restore a polluted and damaged environment. Ripple’s mission is to help Montana’s next generation of environmental stewards understand, care for the work that has been done to remediate and restore the mega superfund site we depend on for a sustainable future.
All of Ripple’s work would not be possible without our generous volunteers, donors, sponsors, grantors, and industry partners.
Ripple would like to extend sincere gratitude to the Natural Resource Damage Program (NRDP) as our primary funding partner for the watershed science and osprey classroom visits, BEVEP, and as a partial funder of many additional initiatives. We also thank ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈnological University for their support and resources, and our private donors and volunteers that support everything we do.
The Low Tech, Process-Based Restoration work was made possible by the Montana DEQ. We look forward to a public release of our course in the near future.
The CUBs days and festival are made possible by Water Environmental Technologies (WET), the Butte-Silver Bow Parks and Recreation Department, Clearwater Credit Union, Butte-Silver Bow Stormwater Program, and our amazing volunteers. Ripple also thanks Harrington Pepsi, Pizza Ranch, and Dominos for their generous contributions.
The Summer Teacher Academy and educator access to the history-rich Beartooth Mountains were made possible through support from the Yellowstone Big Horn Research Association (YBRA) and Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation. Arthur Blank’s support was also pivotal in the creation of the migration focused curriculum resources teachers will use to improve their own curriculum.
Our summer citizen science project is made possible by the Missoula Conservation District and NRDP.
Ripple’s work helps to create a future filled with scientifically literate, responsible environmental stewards that are empowered to create a more resilient Montana. The connection Montanans have to the environment that we depend on is at the core of everything Ripple does.