MONTANA FRESHWATER PARTNERS INC

Statewide In-Lieu Fee Program. This program provides compensatory mitigation for unavoidable impacts to Montana wetland and streams, and involves the collection of mitigation fees to pay for mitigation site planning, implementation, monitoring and maintenance. MFP accomplished the following for the program: collected mitigation fees, investigated new project locations, prepared project plans for new restoration sites, coordinated construction activities for restoration sites, and completed annual monitoring for existing sites across the state. Give Back to the Yellowstone Stewardship Program: This program uses grant funding and private donations to promote conservation, restoration, flood hazard mitigation, and public education and outreach to conserve, protect and restore the Yellowstone River. An important part of the program are volunteers, who contribute time working directly on projects in field and to helping with fundraising events. MFP accomplished the following for the program: prepared project plans for new restoration sites, coordinated construction activities for restoration sites, coordinated with partners and local landowners to identify new projects, convened a collaborative group of technical experts in water resources, provided technical expertise to the community around flood hazard mitigation and educated the community about natural river processes. Technical Services Program: Under this program Montana Freshwater Partners provides a limited set of technical services for project partners, nonprofit organizations, and private entities and collects fees for these services. MFP accomplished the following for the program: provided technical expertise to support project partners and nonprofit organizations projects that required mitigation technical expertise, wetland delineation and stream restoration technical expertise and water resourcepermitting/policy technical expertise.