River Science

The Madison River is one of the most studied rivers in Montana, maybe in the Country, maybe in the world…. but there is still much to learn because Mother Nature never holds still.

The Madison River Foundation operates from a research-based science and technology approach. Using science to protect the health of the Madison River and its ecosystem, our long term goal is to form an advisory committee of experts in Biology, Ecology, Hydrology, Environmental Science, Range Management, and other sciences, hopefully all from the local area, to propose and advise on projects to fund.

Recently we have funded two science based projects….a Natal Stream project, carried out by Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks, to evaluate what proportion of fish in our river spawn in the tributaries versus the main river. The results of that project will allow us to focus our future projects on protecting the most important spawning habitats and rearing areas

The second project is support for an MSU led effort to understand the impact of tributary flows and water temperature on aquatic insect life in the river. This project will also seek to evaluate many years of aquatic insect data to track long term history of types and abundances of our favorite bugs---salmon flies, stone flies, caddis, and mayflies. Data will be collected by an MRF staff member in summer 2024 on the Salmonfly emergence.