COMMUNITY EDUCATION
RAIN BARREL WORKSHOPS
Conserve water and reduce pollution in our rivers and streams while saving money on your water bill! Your flowers will thrive with clean, collected rain water!
SRWG’s rain barrel workshops are a great way to begin conserving water and reducing nonpoint source pollution! Participants learn how to build and install their own rain barrel and receive their own barrel and hardware kit. SRWG also supplies painting supplies and stencils for anyone who wants to decorate their barrel before taking it home.
Workshops are not held every year and locations may vary, so be sure to check back here for future event dates and locations. This is a fundraising event for SRWG - registration is by suggested donation.
Past rain barrel workshops have relied on support from: Coca-Cola & High Country Distributing, Rain Barrel Depot, Cascade Conservation District, Montana Association of Conservation Districts, Montana DEQ, Big Sky Civil & Environmental, and the Beacon Icehouse.
WEED WHACKER RODEO
Since 1998, SRWG has hosted an annual Weed Whacker Rodeo in Sun Canyon. The event, now held the second Saturday in July, involves a few hours of pulling weeds - with a focus on knapweed - and ends with a BBQ lunch and door prize drawing. Participants will learn why it’s so important to control weeds and how to properly remove them, as well as how volunteer safely in grizzly bear country.
On July 8, 2023, SRWG will hold the 25th Annual Weed Whacker Rodeo! This is sure to be an extra-special event, so be sure to check back here and on our events page for updates.
SRWG would like to thank Sarah and Mike Cobb for donating Cobb Charolais beef and the Waldner family from Choteau for volunteering their BBQ talents, as well as partners: USFS, FWP, Rocky Mountain Front Weed Round Table and the many local businesses that donate door prizes. We’d also like to thank Al Rollo for his work to organize the first 20 years of Weed Whacker Rodeos!
FREEZEOUT SPENT AMMO CLEANUP
SRWG’s newest volunteer event is a spent-ammunition and trash clean up at Freezeout Lake. This project is organized in partnership with Montana Wildlife Federation and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks.
Freezeout Lake is a popular place to view snow geese, which stop over in the spring and winter during their migration. It’s also a popular place to hunt waterfowl. All of this recreation tends to result in trash - largely spent ammunition casings - being discarded and left around the lake.
The volunteer cleanup at Freezeout Lake is a new event and dates vary depending on weather - snow and vegetation cover trash and ammo for a large part of the year. Check back here and on our events page for this year’s cleanup date.
SRWG also hosts unique education events and workshops each year and participates in events organized by our conservation partners. This has included FWP’s Arctic Grayling Rescue, the Great Falls Chamber of Commerce World of Work event for 8th and 10th graders, painting aquatic invasive species information on watershed boat ramps, Cascade Conservation Districts’ Ag Days & Envirothon, and many more events. If you have an event and would like SRWG to participate, or if you would like to participate in an SRWG-organized event, please contact tracy@sunriverwatershed.org. SRWG’s events page is updated regularly and has more information.
