Million dollar challenge will help Flathead Lake

The quality of water in Flathead Lake affects property values, tourism, agriculture, outdoor sporting and health.

Yet the lake’s only water-quality measuring project is in jeopardy due to massive reductions in state and federal funding and increased competition for dwindling grants.

The University of Montana’s Flathead Lake Biological Station’s ongoing monitoring project supplies data for at least six other regulatory agencies. Those agencies decide how to keep lake water clean enough to balance economic growth with protecting the ecology of the lake.

UM economists estimate the lake increases shoreline property values by a collective $6 billion to $8 billion. Nature-based tourism accounts for more than 20 percent of the economy of Flathead and Lake counties, according to biological station officials.

“People sometimes don’t realize how good we have it here,” research scientist Tom Bansak said.

Flathead Lake is one of the cleanest in the continental United State where people live, he said.

“It’s our goal to keep it that way,” he said.

Founded in 1899, the Yellow Bay facility is one of the oldest active biological stations in the country. Between $200,000 to $250,000 is spent each year to keep up with monitoring, but recent cuts threaten the project.

In March, station officials were challenged with an unexpected expense of pulling several iconic yellow buoys from the lake for repairs and maintenance. They hope to get the buoys afloat again this summer.

But just when it looked like the project would sink, it was tossed a lifeboat. Two years ago, a local anonymous donor pledged $1 million to preserve the monitoring program if lakeshore communities could match it. As of May 1, officials received more than $570,000 in donations.

“The people who have contributed know this lake is a very special place and worthy of their investment in its future,” station director Jack Stanford said. “We are very grateful for the outpouring of support.”

But station officials are scientists, not fundraisers or marketers, and they need another push. If the community can meet the fundraising goal, it would help fund the monitoring program in perpetuity. The second $1 million would be placed in a UM Foundation endowment, and the station would receive an estimated $50,000 in interest annually.

“The original grant amount, the principal, will never be spent,” Bansak said.

The state supplies $100,000 annually for the project and the rest of the funding would come from grants and endowments, he said.