Missoula Linkage Lunch

The Linkage Lunch program was launched to engage, inform, connect, and motivate our Missoula community around landscape conservation.

The general focus of Linkage Lunches are presentations from experts to discuss conservation of habitat, connectivity, wildlife, water, or wildness…and all things in between. They may have a local, statewide, nationwide, or global context. But our goal is that each presentation will include some level of connection to how each of us can help tackle connectivity conservation at home in some way.

Come join the Center for Large Landscape Conservation and other practitioners, agency staff, conservation professionals, and any interested members of the public in these exciting lunchtime talks. You won’t want to miss it! Bring your lunch, if desired. All are welcome!

Our May 2026 Linkage Lunch will feature Dr. Kellie J. Carim, Research Ecologist at the US Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, discussing how eDNA is being used to conserve a culturally important fish species. Pacific lamprey were once abundant throughout rivers of the Pacific northwest, where they fed and upheld identities of Indigenous peoples. Over the last century, they have suffered dramatic declines, from human development, particularly construction of hydroelectric dams that block fish passage. This presentation describes a regional, collaborative effort to assess the distribution of Pacific lamprey using environmental DNA, and develop occupancy models to inform conservation efforts.

We hope to see you there!

Cheers from the Center for Large Landscape Conservation’s Missoula staff:

Brendan Moynahan, Katie Deuel, Gabriel Oppler, and Kylie Paul

_{Banner photo: Lolo Creek, Lolo National Forest, Montana – Adobe Stock}