Montana News
Citizens committee will discuss solutions for river crowding
With Montana News, I'm Eleanor Smith. Montana's rivers are beloved for fishing, floating, and fun, but crowds are growing issue. A council will soon meet to discuss solutions. As MTPR's Ellis Julin reports, a collaboration in Missoula may be a model for the state. It's a quiet crisp morning on the banks of the Clark Fork at the Chiron Fishing Access site in East Missoula. In September, the area is pretty empty, aside from the occasional duck flying by. But on summer days, Jaden Green watched flotillas of paddleboards and inner tubes pass through. How does part of the day we're seeing within like three hours, almost 1,000 people using this area? Green led the Missoula River Ambassadors Program this summer. The team of four collected data on the number of users, how they used the river, and educated visitors on not overcrowding the boat ramp, using aluminum cans instead of glass bottles, and cleaning up garbage. Our mission is to make the river a viable resource for all sorts of use. River access sites across Montana are seeing more users. Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks recently formed a Citizen River Recreation Advisory Council to find solutions. Chrissy O'Shell with FWP says crowding is a problem in other parts of Western Montana, like the Blackfoot River. We are changing from what was once dominated by angling to now a much more diverse, different types of recreation use on the Blackfoot. Morgan Valiant with Missoula Parks and Recreation says the River Ambassadors Program may be a solution for other crowded rivers. Just literally having someone to direct traffic is huge and reduction of conflict. Valiant says the crowds aren't going anywhere. They just need to be managed better. One of the unique things about, and one of the great things about the river, it's some of the cheapest recreation you can do. On a hot summer day, when you don't have air conditioning in your house, you can come down here and hang out for a couple dollars. FWP's Citizen Council will meet the second weekend of October and release its recommendations later this year. In Missoula, I'm Ellis Julin.