MISSOULA — Blending Western science with tribal knowledge, the University of Montana and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes are working together to build infrastructure to combat the growing threat of wildfire smoke exposure in Montana.
UM’s Montana Climate Office and CSKT joined forces to install the first comprehensive PurpleAir network across the Flathead Reservation. Affordable PurpleAir monitors collect real-time, air quality data, providing communities with the information they need to know about local conditions and how they compare to national air quality standards.
“When you’re partnering with tribes, it’s important to understand what you can help provide while still honoring tribal sovereignty,” said Kyle Bocinsky, the MCO director of climate extension. “By working closely with the CSKT Climate Program and the Salish Kootenai College Extension office, we have ensured that CSKT maintains agency over their environmental monitoring.”
The data generated by the air quality network are publicly available to health researchers statewide who are trying to understand the unique health implications of smoke exposure. These trailblazing efforts are helping create a model for Montana to take steps toward improving its air quality in the ongoing fight against wildfire.
From Spark to Spread
CKST’s air quality sensor network plugs into a larger initiative by the tribes, known as the Climate Change Strategic Plan. The plan is one of the first tribal programs in the U.S. to generate a framework for community climate change adaptation. CSKT’s climate change strategy includes multiple sectors: air, water, forestry, wildlife, land, fisheries, people, culture, infrastructure and human health. An early version of the ArcGIS StoryMap based on this plan recently received a Native Nations Traditional Ecological Knowledge award.
Mike Durglo, the CSKT Climate Program director, leads the climate change strategic plan. The first iteration was completed in 2013, and updates will incorporate even more tribal knowledge. With the help of Bocinsky, the tribes applied for funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — specifically its National Integrated Drought Information System — and was awarded financial support to help get the air quality network up and running.
The Flathead network plugs into an overarching effort by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to improve air quality monitoring across the state.
“Implementation is where the real work starts,” Durglo said.
The first seven air monitors the tribes received were donated by Dr. Lori Byron with the Montana Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate, an organization made of healthcare workers who recognize the Flathead’s unique vulnerability to smoke. As of 2023, thanks to NIDIS funding, there are 30 monitors installed at a majority of the schools, fitness facilities and tribal health clinics on the reservation.
The tribe also is working to improve indoor air quality in schools and tribal buildings, with plans to develop a communications network to support public awareness and engagement. To date, schools — namely students and teachers — have been the liaisons for translating the importance of air quality to the community.
Bonnie White, a math and science teacher who also oversees the environmental science club at Arlee High School, said student participation has been impactful. Students have not only been integral for rolling out some of the fundamentals for the air quality network but have also led the charge in many ways.
Arlee High School was one of the first on the Flathead to get a PurpleAir monitor due to concerns about wildfire smoke’s impact on students' outdoor activities. With the fun new device, the students came up with the idea to use the monitor to track PM2.5 particles emitted by the school’s coal-burning furnace in the winter.
Equipped with information on the harmful air particulates coming from the furnace, students went to the school board to petition for an updated heating system. They even helped to write some grants needed to fund it, and Arlee High School updated to an all-electric heating system in 2018.
“The PurpleAir data transcends math and science classes,” White said. “It allows the students to dive in, see what’s happening in real-time and learn as they go. It’s pretty rewarding to make connections that can lead to solutions for your community.”
White said the newly deployed network plugs into a nationwide map, which allows students to compare their experience to other places impacted by wildfire. Recently, her classes looked at how the L.A. fires compared with the historical data of air quality on the Flathead during wildfire season. Students and teachers across the reservation also are working on a system to report the daily air quality level to the Flathead community.
According to Durglo and Virgil Dupuis, the Salish Kootenai College extension director, who helps lead implementation of the monitoring program, CSKT is exploring the possibility of integrating air monitoring into school maintenance plans and the student curriculum.
In partnership with health experts across the state, they hope to develop a network that helps foster public awareness of the impacts of smoke and the importance of indoor air quality. The goal is to eventually include proactive measures for mitigating air pollution, like proper burning practices, monitoring indoor air quality by managing building fresh air intakes, assuring proper filters are in place, and the designation of safe indoor spaces for people to gather when outdoor air quality is bad.
Everyone involved with the initiative underscored the importance of real-time data. Having this information, they say, helps make more informed decisions that lead to better practices involving air quality. Through word-of-mouth, the tribes are leveraging student’s enthusiasm about the initiative to educate the wider community.
“This project has created an opportunity for the next generation to shine,” White said. “They can come up with modern ways to cast a wider net of awareness.”
Hazy Health Implications
The Treasure State ranks in the top four in the U.S. for smoke exposure and has the second-highest number of households that use wood burning stoves for heat.
That gives many citizens here two distinct seasons for smoke pollution – wildfire summers and wood burning winters – putting people at an overall higher risk for PM2.5 inhalation.
Erin Landguth leads a team of UM scientists in the College of Public Health, wielding PurpleAir data to understand the long and short-term impacts of PM2.5 exposure. Their research integrates climatic, environmental and socioeconomic factors over time to deduce which elements contribute to adverse health consequences.
Through different methods of modeling, they are working to generate more accurate air quality models for the unique topography and weather patterns of mountain west states.
“Our goal is to understand how long-term PM2.5 within our unique intermountain rural communities influences health outcomes,” Landguth said.
UM’s Center for Population Health Research also helps proliferate better air quality monitoring, with researchers Dave Jones and Ethan Walker pairing PurpleAir monitors with high schools across the state. The PurpleAirs in Schools Project, a collaboration between the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and the Center for Population Health Research, has gotten many high schools active on the network.
For every outdoor monitor supplied by the Montana DEQ, the research center has provided an indoor air monitor. These monitors work in tandem to provide accurate insights into each school’s local conditions, and the research team is working on ways to break down access barriers so that school administrators can leverage data for public health decisions.
“High schools are often at the center of the community and where everything happens,” Jones said. “This makes it a representative place to monitor air quality and get the public engaged.”
Few studies have looked at wildfire smoke as an independent source of toxicity. With both the statewide and reservation air monitoring networks in place, consistent, real-time data will help health professionals understand what frequent, and at times extremely high, smoke exposure means for the human body. In the event of poor air quality, health professionals echo that the best thing people can do is stay up to date about both wildfires and air quality in their local area.
Collective efforts among UM researchers, tribes and statewide professionals are creating a robust air quality monitoring network that can set an example for other Western communities impacted by wildfires.
“PurpleAir is truly a citizen-monitoring system,” Durglo said. “It provides individuals and communities an opportunity to take agency over how they prioritize their public health outcomes.”
