A working group started laying out their desires for what trails and roads they want to see in the Fish Creek State Park and Wildlife Management Area, but a few question why trails are being considered before education and enforcement are worked out.
A 10-member collaborative trails planning group recently held its second workshop within a week to discuss recommendations for potential roads and trails on the 45,000-acre Fish Creek complex near Alberton Gorge. The group members represent bicyclists, e-bikers, motorized vehicle users, horsemen and hunters, the Missoula Current reports.
Facilitator Cody Kenyon asked each member of the group to present their top-three recommendations for what they want after last week’s general discussion of trail preferences and an earlier field trip to the Fish Creek complex.
“This is not the endpoint of the process. But this will be the end of the collaborative meeting,” Kenyon said. “We want you to have the opportunity to put your ideas on the table and to the group. Because if they’re not on the table and in the general recommendations, then it is going to be harder to consider them going forward.”
This is FWP’s third or fourth round of trying to develop a plan for the Fish Creek complex after FWP acquired the property in 2010 from The Nature Conservancy to be a wildlife management area. Later, former FWP Director Joe Maurier carved out 5,600 acres in the middle of the 42,000-acre wildlife management area to be a state park. That led to public discord as sportsmen and wildlife advocates pushed back against a 2013 state park plan that promoted the development of more amenities.
In 2022, FWP started again, but this time, the managers were developing a “strategy” for the complex, not a more defined management plan like other state parks have, and divided the area into four zones to be managed for different priorities. Strategies don’t use indicators or thresholds to guide management actions and members of the public again pushed back in March 2023, saying the law enforcement and monitoring were already insufficient and questioned why there wasn’t more protection for wildlife habitat. There are no seasonal closures for wildlife on the Fish Creek complex, unlike other wildlife management areas.
The final version of the strategy was released in Fall 2024, and little had changed. According to the Sept. 30 FWP release, 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.”
FWP recently convened the planning group to concentrate on what roads and trails should be built. However, the recommendations they put forward on Thursday weren’t approved by consensus. Instead, FWP will summarize all the recommendations in a document that will eventually go out for a 30-day public comment, Kenyon said. Then FWP will choose what to do in an internal review and then produce an environmental assessment before the final decision.
A majority of the group members said they’d like to keep public use concentrated in the state park portion of the complex, referred to as Area A, although many were interested in trails from Whitetail Flats to the Williams Pass lookout. John Stegmaier, representing mountain bikers, said the benefits of concentrating use in the state park were easier enforcement, signage and a trailhead and facilities that could be used by several groups. Ken Brown, representing backcountry horse riders, agreed, saying much of the area is very steep, which doesn’t make for safe riding, so he was thinking of a 5 to 6 mile loop in the flatter sections of the state park.
The three group members representing motorized use - motorcycles, ATVs and larger UTVs - want to open a lot more of the Fish Creek complex, but all want trails rather than roads. Jim Merifield presented six potential routes for OHV/ATV riders that would use existing roads through the state park and wildlife management area, although 80% of them are currently closed. Short connectors would also need to be built between dead-end roads to create loops.
Jerry Hatcher, representing the side-by-side UTV drivers, recommended that all roads be opened but turned into trails.
“We have to make this a destination where people want to come to,” Hatcher said. “I can tell you there’s a lot of interest — there’s 500 people who signed a petition that want this from the UTV population. I’m sure people don’t want to hear that, but if we can open it up and get to the Forest Service and (Bureau of Land Management) land, we can disperse that.”
Group member Jane Whetzel said all recreational groups are currently able to use Fish Creek the way it is without too much conflict, so she’d rather see the initial focus be on education, enforcement and consideration of how much recreation is too much in an area that was originally intended for wildlife. She didn’t want any new roads or trails for now.
“I feel like we’re putting the cart before the horse. I’m seeing impacts in the area that are huge. That is anecdotal. But I see human impact that is way different now than it was 6 years ago. So we have to be thoughtful; we have to focus on recreating responsibly.” Whetzel said. “In a national park, there are places wildlife can go. If we destroy the wildlife habitat, that will be gone too. And then it will be a different form of recreation, one I wouldn’t enjoy as much.”
At the start of the meeting, FWP had given a presentation on wildlife and fisheries in the Fish Creek Complex. The entire area is important for elk, although some large areas to the south and north are more important as winter range. Other large areas of higher elevation are important to mule deer, the populations of which are struggling across the state. Moose also use a lot of the area, but Thompson Creek is a priority area for them. Finally, although grizzly bears don’t reside in the area, a large swath along the western side is identified as important for connectivity.
Sharon Sweeney, a hiker and e-biker, said she didn’t want to see more use on the wildlife management area, although she could see a bike trail west into the Rock Creek drainage on the WMA. But if that happened, she wanted the spur roads leading off the trail to be closed.
“If you make a designated route, people are also going to ride the little pieces off of there. Essentially then, you’re opening the entire area, which is really hard on the critters,” Sweeney said.
Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at lundquist@missoulacurrent.com.
