FWP finalizes Fish Creek management strategy
Laura Lundquist
(Missoula Current) After about two years of consideration, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Region 2 in Missoula has finalized its recreation “strategy” for Fish Creek State Park and the surrounding Fish Creek Wildlife Management Area west of Missoula.
Instead of creating a management plan for Fish Creek State Park apart from the wildlife management area, FWP hired the University of Montana Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Global Park Solutions to develop a strategy for what FWP could do to address recreation throughout the entire 45,000-acre complex. Sixteen of Montana’s larger state parks use management plans to direct each park’s activities and long-term development.
According to the Sept. 30 FWP announcement, the strategy "does not lay out specific management actions for these areas but instead provides general guidance. Implementation of many next steps would require more planning and review.” In March 2023, former Region 2 supervisor Randy Arnold tried to explain why a strategy was chosen instead of a management plan.
“It’s not a management plan, which has a ton of specificity and description, but instead a strategy. This strategy will give us direction on how we’ll manage across major themes, some really clear specifics, but then give us space where individual project actions can be handled when we have capacity and time,” Arnold said.
To allow FWP to deal with projects when it has the capacity and time, the strategy created three phases, where Phase 1 projects are those that FWP can do in the near-term with existing resources while Phases 2 and 3 are considered actions that require more resources, engagement and formal planning so they have to wait until a later time.
A few details of the final strategy differ from those of the draft strategy published a year ago, and there are several changes to how various actions are prioritized, which affects when the department will carry out the actions.
One of the most notable changes deals with wade-fishing opportunities in Fish Creek. While the draft strategy considered closing the small creek to recreational floating, the final strategy doesn’t mention any closure. Instead, the strategy only says FWP staff will “assess recreational floating, user conflicts and the alteration of fish habitat.”
In a 2022 FWP public survey that received almost 700 responses, 82% of respondents said they would support a float closure on Fish Creek to prevent the removal of woody debris that is critical for fish habitat.
More people have engaged in dispersed camping throughout the area, especially during the pandemic, and that has increasingly caused damage to habitat. The draft strategy would have delineated existing dispersed camping areas to limit heavy use, installed portable vault toilets and later would have created designated areas in Phase 2. But the final strategy says dispersed camping is allowed on FWP property in accordance with FWP Public Use Rules. Later, in Phase 2, FWP may delineate areas or designate dispersed camping areas if approved by the FWP commission.
For developed campgrounds, the draft strategy proposed creating short-term options for having staff onsite to directly manage the campgrounds and later in Phase 2, an environmental assessment could explore adding more campsites. In the final strategy, all actions are suspended until an environmental assessment could be written as part of Phase 3.
One of the goals that didn’t change much deals with safety and enforcement, which includes improving public information and signs and trying to increase FWP contact with visitors. The only change was delaying an option to have site hosts until Phase 3.
During public meetings, several commenters complained about the lack of enforcement or at least the appearance of FWP employees onsite and said they didn't want to see any further development of the area if FWP couldn’t properly manage current levels of recreation.
When it comes to adding more trails for motorized and nonmotorized recreation, the final strategy added an option of redeveloping connector routes to create new seasonal loops or out-and-back opportunities. For motorized recreation, the final strategy adds one more loop, the Nemote Loop, to three open road systems, including the Hay Creek, Bear Point and Williams Pass loops. It also added an option to explore adding motorized access to the Williams Peak Lookout Tower.
When it comes to signage, the final strategy flips the order of actions proposed by the draft strategy, prioritizing the addition of more signs and an information kiosk before the development of an interpretive plan.
In 2010, FWP acquired the Fish Creek property from The Nature Conservancy for a wildlife management area. After that, former FWP Director Joe Maurier decided to carve 5,600 acres out of the middle of the wildlife management area for a state park.
That subsequently led to public discord when FWP proposed a state park plan in 2013 that would have created several amenities in and outside the park. Among other things, the proposal included construction of a 40- to 60-unit RV campground; a hut-to-hut trail system with rental yurts and access for hikers, bikers and off-road vehicles; and promoting the park as an off-highway vehicle or OHV park. Sportsmen, wildlife advocates and others opposed all the development.
The 2013 plan was put on hold. In 2022, FWP renewed the effort with a series of smaller stakeholder meetings, then public meetings and a survey to develop the current strategy.
When the 2022 survey asked for general comments, fish and wildlife was still a primary concern with 61% of respondents supporting additional seasonal closures in areas to protect winter range for wildlife in the Wildlife Management Area. Many respondents were concerned about the increasing recreation pressure and said something should be done to curtail its impacts. Suggestions to limit damage from recreational use included clearer signage, enforcement, and education, as well as developing existing camping amenities to concentrate use.
The FWP announcement said staff will work with the public and other partners as the strategy prompts specific planning efforts and management considerations. Requests for comment from stakeholder groups weren't returned by press time.
Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at lundquist@missoulacurrent.com.