The Rattlesnake Creek watershed is located just north of Missoula, Montana and is valued for its ecological, cultural, and recreational abundance. The watershed is in the historic homelands of the modern-day Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes where the original Peoples were sustained by the prolific bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) in the creek. In recent history, European settlers, and modern day Missoulians have relied on the creek as a direct municipal water source through the 1980’s. The Rattlesnake Creek watershed offers an abundance of recreation opportunities and is beloved by Missoulians for its year-round access to a pristine, federally recognized, Wilderness and National Recreation Area within a 20-minute drive from downtown Missoula. The Rattlesnake Creek Watershed Group (RCWG) was established in 2008 based on a grassroots response to invasive plants encroaching on habitat in the lower Rattlesnake Creek neighborhood. Over the past 15 years, the group has facilitated between stakeholders in the watershed, actively engaged in watershed planning, and being a voice of the watershed to the public. In recent years new threats have emerged to the health of the watershed. For example, the water rights of the creek, and the management of multiple wilderness dams that have exceeded their useful life, have shifted from private to public ownership with the City of Missoula. Decisions must be made on whether to rehabilitate these dams, and potentially use them to augment stream flows, or to decommission the dams and return the lakes to their natural state. This talk will focus on a new collaboration between RCWG and the O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West at the University of Montana to build partner capacity and conduct restoration planning via a Bureau of Reclamation WaterSMART grant. I will discuss (1) our approach to make the RCWG a clearinghouse of ecological and cultural information in the watershed, (2) how we are engaging with the many city, county, federal, tribal, and non-profit stakeholders in the watershed to prioritize specific needs, and (3) initial baseline data collection, research, and watershed restoration planning.