River plan making progress, but very slowly
An angler in the North Fork on the Flathead River.
JP EDGE/Press file photo
A draft of the Comprehensive River Management Plan for the three forks of the Flathead River in Montana won’t see public scrutiny any time soon.
Hungry Horse/Glacier View District Ranger Rob Davies told folks at the North Fork Interlocal that the plan — which would update river use regulations on the Wild and Scenic portions of the three forks — is still at least several months out.
The plan has been delayed several times over the past few years. The latest delay was when the contractor that was working on the plan said they couldn’t complete it without more funding.
Now the Forest Service has tapped Mary Riddle to write and edit a draft of the new plan. Riddle retired from Glacier National Park recently and has decades of experience writing environmental reviews and other technical documents for the Park Service.
“Maybe next fall. Maybe next winter,” Davies said. “Can’t announce a solid timeline yet.”
The broad-ranging plan could potentially call for a permit system to float some sections of the rivers. Davies said the Spotted Bear District is considering a free, but mandatory, permit to float the South Fork of the Flathead River in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, even before the CRMP is out.
Meanwhile, use of the rivers has surged and has even drawn lawsuits. The Blankenship area has been front and center in recent years as a dispersed campsite along the Middle Fork has raised the ire of neighbors.
They filed suit in federal court, but lost.
Last July, Judge Donald Molloy found that while the camp may be unsightly, the forest’s 2010 travel plan allows for motorized travel 300 feet from an established road at Blankenship.
At the Interlocal, Flathead National Forest Supervisor Kurt Steele said he didn’t see resource damage in previous seasons on a large scale.
“I’m not going to shut down an area because of a few individuals,” he said.
But it’s been a long wait for even a draft of the river plan — the first meetings on the plan were more than five years ago, with little to show from it to date.