Low Flows Hot Trout: Climate Change in the Clark Fork Watershed had a great reception. The Clark Fork Coalition conducted extensive outreach surrounding its release. The report was introduced at a press luncheon in downtown Missoula that was attended by over 250 individuals, including conservation partners, local government leaders, interested citizens, and the press. Shortly following this inaugural luncheon, the Coalition hosted a “Headwaters Summit” conference at the University of Montana, bringing together water and land conservation partners from across the Pacific Northwest to discuss the impacts of climate change on their region. Since the conference, they have continued to roll out their report at the local, regional, and national level. Locally, they presented the report to business groups, realtors, conservation groups, students, and Kiwanis groups. Regionally, they showcased the report at the Headwaters Summit, to state conservation partners, and to state legislators. They have also presented the report twice at River Network trainings and national conferences in 2010. These presentations have served to jumpstart initiatives by other watershed groups dealing with the impacts of climate change. For example, the Utah Rivers Council used the report as an impetus to develop adaptation strategies and write a similar report for different Utah watersheds.

In addition, the Clark Fork Coalition is working on ways to increase the effectiveness of their outreach as well as making sure their local story is told to a wider audience. For example, they have created a website for the report, which is intended as a central resource for local and state policy makers and community leaders as they work toward developing adaptation strategies. The Clark Fork Coalition continues to conduct outreach and promote strategies based on findings in Low Flows, Hot Trout. They will give two presentations in 2011, one to the 2011 River Rally in Charleston, SC, and one to the Colorado Watershed Assembly at their 2011 conference in Vail, CO. The Coalition is also involved in the ClimateWise process as a convening partner, which will offer data regarding the impacts of climate change on ecological and economic sectors in Missoula County. The Coalition is tasked with bringing stakeholders together, hosting a two-day workshop, and disseminating a report and recommendations based on the findings throughout the process.

Meanwhile, on the policy end, they are working to accomplish the following: using legislative, administrative, and legal levers to fix the “exempt well rule” in Montana, which encourages subdivisions to use multiple individual wells without oversight of impacts on streams, groundwater, land sprawl, or other water users; revising and funding the Montana Aquatic Invasive Species Act; protecting Montana’s instream flow laws; and engaging citizens in the pending sale of Missoula’s private water utility, Mountain Water Company, to The Carlyle Group, a $98 billion global investment firm.

Other action items and outreach measures include: galvanizing community support and buy-in for buffering streams from development and climate change by identifying and presenting Stream Care Home Awards and leading an accredited “Living Near Streams” course for real estate professionals and property owners; demonstrating 'restoration for resilience', which helps buffer aquatic systems from climate change impacts by designing and facilitating stream and riparian projects on public and private land; facilitating “Watershed Restoration Certificates” to offset water footprints and develop tools exploring the links between energy production and water use; promoting the City’s Green Blocks program, which offers free energy and water audits to qualified homeowners; assisting in writing the City’s Climate Action Plan; advocating for restoring and maintaining ecological values at the 3,400-acre Smurfit-Stone site, a former industrial zone; recommending best steps for decreasing energy costs at the wastewater treatment plant; and implementing innovative market-based water transactions that increase flows in dewatered streams and rivers in the basin—including designing pressurized pipeline watering systems for landowners to reduce energy costs as well as greenhouse gas emissions.