Evaluating grazing best management practices for protecting water quality in Montana

The use of certain grazing level indicators (GLIs) to monitor grazing in ri parian areas has been adopted as a grazing Best Management Practice (BMP) b y the State of Montana. In 1997, the Riparian and Wetland Research Program at The University of Montana was contracted to test four GLIs, stream bank stubble height, browse on riparian shrubs, stream bank alteration, and fora ge use in key grazing areas, for their ability to predict and protect water quality and stream and riparian area condition. Study sites are the Medici ne Lodge Creek watershed in southwestern Montana and the Box Elder Creek wa tershed in east-central Montana. The study is designed to span several year s to capture climatic variability and establish trends over time. Prelimina ry results from the 1997-1998 study period indicate that GLIs are not as ap plicable to Box Elder Creek watershed as to Medicine Lodge Creek watershed. After one full year of monitoring,GLIs seem to have more predictive value for channel morphology and riparian area condition than for water quality, although the relationship between GLIs and water quality may become more ap parent after several years.