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backcountry stream corps (BCSC)

2025 Crew Member Applications are now OPEN! 

If you have any questions about the application  or want more details about the program 

please email Stephie Novak.

MEET OUR PREVIOUS BACKCOUNTRY STREAM CORPS CREWS!
MEET THE LEADER - 2025
Five smiling kids sitting on a wood bench alond a trail holding PVC pipe stadia rod.
Summer Program for High School Students

Each spring WEN seeks high school-aged (15-18 years of age) individuals who like to ride bikes and are interested in working outdoors in our Missoula backcountry creeks become part of a 6 member crew during the summer. 

Students spend two weeks with WEN exploring and learning about the importance of a healthy watershed through stream monitoring on Rattlesnake and Grant Creek.

Training includes stream monitoring procedures, GPS 101, Leave No Trace principles, and safety gear.

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Indigenous land acknowledgment and Native American cultural connections are an integral part of each day.

A close up view of someone's hands holding a GPS unit.
Six people standing next to and looking at a beaver dam in a river.

The BCSC program has spent 2 weeks getting up close and personal with our Missoula backcountry creeks for the past 3 summers. Starting in Rattlesnake Creek, crews rode bikes up past Pilcher Creek and hopped into waders to explore beaver ponds and count large woody debris in the stream. The next year the BCSC crew completed the remaining parts of Rattlesnake Creek, and finalized a wood overview of the creek. This left an opportunity for BCSC students to expand this year into Grant Creek and conduct not only wood surveys, but also some of our Stream Team protocols. All the while BCSC crews have been refueling with tasty donated lunches from local businesses. 

A view from behind a group of people on mountain bikes riding down a trail surrounded by trees.

Applications are now open!

Program runs the last two weeks of July.

 

Orientation: July 13th, 1-4:30 pm

Week 1: 14th-17th, 9-5pm each day

Week 2: 22nd-25th, 9-5pm each day

Qualifications: 

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  • Experienced mountain bikers - on some days we bike gear 3-5 miles to a site.

  • Enjoy walking/hiking

  • Comfortable in a stream/river (knee depth)

  • Good at following directions, completing tasks and working collaboratively as part of a team.

Stipends: 

Crew members are paid a stipend of $200 at the end of the two weeks. 

WEN welcomes, embraces and respects the diversity of all people, identities, and cultures and we encourage anyone interested in the outdoors to apply!

Please email stephie@montanawatershed.org 

for any questions/concerns. 

A groupd of kids and instructors standing in river with waders on holding stadia rods and looking at the camera.
I Know Rattlesnake Creek
2021 BCSC Crew

The city lowered our standards, 

so the nature blew us away. 

Thinking of foliage, the water,

and smells to this day. 

Cobblestone streets, 

underneath the ripples,

walking through beaver ponds, 

getting lost in riddles.

The riddles of the cottonwoods, 

dogwoods

and mock-orange.

I know Rattlesnake Creek, 

cause we've been here for weeks.

Mountains rise to the sky,

fauna comes within sight. 

My eye hurts so good,

but let's keep looking for wood!

I know Rattlesnake Creek. 

Kids sitting around an instructor in a field surrounded by trees.
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