Lake Seventeen Watershed Plan-Environmental Assessment Underway

The United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), in cooperation with the Fort Belknap Indian Community, will be preparing a Watershed Plan-Environmental Assessment (EA) for Lake Seventeen and Little Suction Creek and associated watersheds in Blaine and Phillips Counties. To share information about the project and collect comments from the community, NRCS will host two public meetings.

“This project offers exciting opportunities to conserve and improve habitat for fish and wildlife, enhance public recreation, and manage agricultural water,” said NRCS Watershed Program Manager Rob Molacek. “We encourage the community to attend a public meeting and share information about the watershed, so the project team can better understand the natural resource concerns, stakeholder values, and potential opportunities for the area.”

Two public meetings will be held, the first on Tuesday, Sept. 17, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Agency Bingo Hall, at 400 Agency Main Street in Harlem, and the second on Thursday, Sept. 19, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Kills At Night Center at 2192 Hays Road in Hays. Each public meeting will have the same content to share and will begin with a brief presentation, followed by an open house meeting format. Written public comments will be collected.

For those who cannot attend either event, written comments may also be submitted via email to [email protected] or by mailing comments to USDA NRCS Montana, Attention: Alyssa Fellow, 10 East Babcock Street, Room 443, Bozeman, MT 59715-4704. Comments must be postmarked by October 4, 2024.

The Watershed Plan-EA will be prepared under the NRCS Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations Program and will consider opportunities to conserve and improve habitat for fish and wildlife, public recreation, and agricultural water management in conjunction with Lake Seventeen, its dam, and diversion channel; Little Suction Creek; Duck Creek and/or Peoples Creek.

The project is currently in the scoping phase, which involves identifying natural resource concerns in the watershed and exploring potential opportunities to address these concerns. The intent of scoping is also to collect stakeholder value information and understand your desired outcomes.

For more information about the Lake Seventeen and Little Suction Creek Watershed Plan- EA project, visit http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/montana/watershed-and-flood-prevention.