MISSOULA — In the summer, it can feel like all of Missoula is out floating the Clark Fork. But, for managers, figuring out exactly how many people hit the river is a challenge. The river ambassadors are looking for volunteers to help out with the 2025 Clark Fork River Use Count.
“It's been about five years since we got really good numbers about recreators on the river. This year, in 2025, we're repeating the river recreation user counts on the river,” said Lily Haines, community programs manager with the Clark Fork Coalition. “Volunteering really looks like posting up at one of Missoula's prime river real estate access points and just some really good people watching and some really important data taken on those data sheets.”
This float season, keep an eye out for the river ambassadors. The team have been a staple along the banks of the Clark Fork for years, as part of a program from the Clark Fork Coalition, with help from Missoula Parks and Recreation and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks.
“You can recognize them in their bright yellow shirts,” Haines said. “They're often carrying around helpful materials for people who are out there floating, helping to pump up tubes, providing trash bags to people getting on the river and really emphasizing that ethic of community care for the river when we use it and when we recreate on it.”
But, this year, a whole squad of citizen scientists has joined them. Volunteers in grey shirts will be posted up on the beach all summer, collecting data on how people use the river. The Clark Fork Coalition says the data is a big help for river managers.
“What they're doing is just tallying up the number of river users who are floating through a particular stretch of river,” Haines said. “They're counting how many people are using an access as a put on or as an area to take off from their float. Then we're also getting a better understanding of how many just beach users and casual stop-by, pop in the river and swim users are out there.”
Managers from the city and state use the data to help inform decisions about the river. Numbers from the first count, in 2015, and a 2018 follow up helped develop plans like the Clark Fork River Restoration and Access Project, which is under way this summer.
“This data is exceptionally important in the way that it's going to inform our watershed management agencies,” said Tami McDaniel, river ambassador coordinator with the Clark Fork Coalition. “There's been this surfacing of recreation use impact for better and for worse. That is the rivers have become cleaned up and become a place that beckons to play. There's a new management issue that's surfaced, and that is the recreation impacts.”
Volunteers help the ambassador staff collect data. But, on the ground, that really looks like hanging out on the beach while taking diligent notes for a three hour shift. Right now, there are about 30 volunteers, each donating nine hours of their summer to the project.
“We've got young college students up to retired citizens and everything in between. We've even got a woman coming from Spokane who just sees the value of this work and comes to visit a friend here and takes some data for us,” McDaniel said. “It’s inspiring, just seeing the public's interest in contributing and that's born of their own value for our beautiful watersheds and the resources that they provide for us.”
But, the project is a big undertaking. The team is still looking for more volunteers. Trainings are taking place Friday, July 18, from 2 to 3:30 and Saturday, July 19, from 5 to 6:30.
“The data collection right now, definitely the feedback we're getting is it's a lot of fun just to sit and watch all the mayhem and joy that happens on our rivers,” McDaniel said.
