Ripple: The Center for Education and Ecosystem Studies has concluded their 2026 spring field season. The Spring is often Ripple’s busiest season during the year, and 2026 was no different. This Spring, Ripple’s team led 8 initiatives. That programming includes:
- Butte & Missoula’s Watershed Science Programs
- Missoula’s Osprey Program
- Trout in the Classroom lessons for rural schools
- Wrapped up the first pilot year for the Low-Tech, Process Based Restoration course for landowners
- CUBS stormwater clean ups
- Butte’s stormwater education festival
- Ripple’s summer teacher academy
- The Butte BRES vegetation surveys
This spring, Ripple also crossed the exciting landmark number of 91,207 students served 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 still needs doing. Now, Ripple’s team has set its sights on 100,000!
During Spring, Ripple spends 5 months visiting classrooms throughout the Clark Fork River Mega Site superfund between Butte and Missoula. Ripple’s Butte and Missoula teams led a 1-2 week-long watershed science, superfund history, and conservation-based course for the 
classes of 4 schools from Butte to Phillipsburg and in 5 Missoula County elementary schools. The Missoula team also taught their new osprey curriculum in 3 middle school classrooms.
Butte’s watershed science course was also taught in 13 rural schools and special education classroom from Butte to Bonner as a single day lesson and trout dissection or macro invertebrate identification.
As the snow began to melt, Ripple also began our work with community members and elementary schools in Butte.
During Earth Month in May. In celebration, Ripple organized 7 Clean Up Blacktail Stream (CUBs) clean up days with 23 classes and a full-day, stormwater festival for 17 classes. 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. The CUBs days and festival wouldn’t have been possible without help from Water Environmental Technologies (WET), the Butte-Silver Bow Parks and Recreation Department, Clearwater Credit Union, and the Butte-Silver Bow Stormwater Program. Additional thanks go to Harrington Pepsi, Pizza Ranch, Dominos, and ACE Hardware.
Finally, the month of June was dedicated to Ripple’s BRES vegetation surveys on Butte’s in-town remediation site caps and summer 
teacher academy in Red Lodge. During Ripple’s BRES evaluations, our team evaluated over 50 remediated sites over the month of June for noxious weed encroachment, total vegetation cover, and overall site integrity.
During the final weekend of June, Ripple worked with teachers in Red Lodge at the Yellowstone Bighorn Research Association (YBRA) to teach them about the migration of ungulates, waterfowl, and people through Montana. A huge thank you to the YBRA for their continued support, and for the incredible opportunity they gave to our teachers to access the history rich Beartooth Mountains.
This summer, Ripple’s Missoula team will continue their summer leaf pack decomposition 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 STEM.
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 to care for and continue the good work of past generations.
This work serves to create a future filled with scientifically literate, responsible environmental stewards that are empowered to create a more resilient Montana. From watershed science to superfund history to community clean ups, Ripple’s work helps the people we work with to understand their connection to the environment that we all depend on.