Specifications include, but are not limited to: Video 1: AIS Monitoring Training Video: Focus on building citizen science efforts. In situations such as now with COVID, and often mid-season, it is difficult to bring people together for a training. Video would be used to provide a primer on AIS (MT species, impacts, etc.), go over required equipment, explain how to conduct monitoring (likely limit to plankton tow and macrophytes), send samples and decontaminate your gear. The focus will likely be on citizen scientists and the video could be cut into shorter segments by topic.; Video 2: AIS Industry Training Video: This video concept is similar to the AIS Monitoring Training Video above and could include parts of that video but will be focused on training the seasonal and permanent staff at water-based businesses (e.g., marinas, fly shops, boat shops, outdoor retailers). The video would provide a primer on AIS (MT species, impacts, rules, and regulations, etc.), show footage of native and invasive species that can be found in Montana waterways, and have a citizen science message focused on getting folks looking around in the water for these species while they are out recreating. This video can also be used as a general AIS-101 and ‘what to look for’ video to disperse to industry professionals/businesses in the basin during our ‘industry outreach’ project utilizing the Big Sky Watershed Corps member. Many businesses have indicated that they would be interested in having a short training video for staff that went over the impacts of AIS and what they can look for/do to help prevent the spread. It would likely be 15-25 minutes.; Video 3: Wader/fly fishing AIS PSA: Partners love the Clearwater Resource Council’s PSAs targeting different audiences. One area we’ve identified we would like to target more for E&O is the fly-fishing community/guides/wade anglers in Montana. Similar to this Angler PSA but solely focused on wade anglers, the implications of dirty gear, and instructions to Clean, Drain, and Dry that gear (waders, boots, nets, rods, etc.). This would be a 30 second PSA specifically targeting wade/fly fishermen. We could possibly partner with fly-fishing groups (Trout Unlimited, Lary’s Fly shop, other MT AIS ‘champions’).; Videos 4-8: Water Quality Focused PSAs: The Flathead Basin Commission is launching the “Montana Waters” campaign in the spring/early summer of 2022 and will be looking to develop 4x short water quality focused videos on nonpoint source pollution issues (e.g., stormwater, septic leachate, agricultural runoff, erosion, etc.) and/or education/outreach messaging. The campaign will serve as both a call to action and a pride of place (think “Keep Tahoe Blue” campaign) targeting both residents and visitors in the Flathead Basin.; In addition to the videos, the State is seeking a contractor who can convert old videos to digital files for future use and potential including in the water quality PSAs detailed above.; Conversion of old PSAs to useable/digital files: The Flathead Basin Commission also has old (1980s-1990s) PSAs on nonpoint source issues that we would like to have converted to digital files and possibly portions of to be used in the production of new water quality PSAs (depending on quality and content). The old file formats are varied.
