By Jessianne Castle EBS ENVIRONMENTAL & OUTDOORS EDITOR
BOZEMAN –
Progress—albeit small—is underway for a comprehensive recreation management
plan on the Madison River, a blue-ribbon trout stream lauded as one of the most
popular rivers in Montana.
During the
regular Nov. 12 meeting of the Fish and Wildlife Commission, commissioners
heard regulation proposals from four stakeholder groups and took public comment
from individuals on the topic of three separate petitions.
Following statutory
legal proceedings, the five governor-appointed commissioners that make up the regulation
decision-making branch of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks were obliged to
consider each petition individually and either approve to initiate the
rule-making process, or else deny the proposal.
Amid strong
representation and opinions coming from the Madison River Foundation, fishing
outfitters, the Ennis business community, affiliated anglers and area
landowners, the commissioners voted unanimously to deny the three petitions,
agreeing that further public input was necessary from interested parties that
were not in attendance at the meeting.
“I think
petitioners deserve to be applauded for the courage it took to put the idea out
there, unfortunately I don’t feel like either of the three petitions as is, or
as written, quite gets us to where we need to be today,” said Commissioner Pat
Byorth of Bozeman, adding that despite denying the petitions, “I’m real
reluctant to delay this.”
“Everything
we’ve heard today, or pretty much everything, deals with less than 20 percent
of the usage on the Madison,” said Commission Vice-Chairman Richard Stuker,
referring to the department’s statistics that approximately 20 percent of
Madison recreation comes from outfitted angling and the remaining 80 percent is
non-commercial use.
“My concern
is I’m not hearing anything about the other 80 percent of usage … The pressure
is only going to continue to grow from that non-commercial use,” Stuker added.
“We need to get this right. We do need to get it done, I think, as soon as
possible.”
Stuker and
Byorth echoed sentiments expressed during the public testimony that some form
of management action is needed, though some members of the public and
commission expressed an immediate need for regulation while others preferred
pumping the brakes in order to devise a precise management plan.
“We need a
time to coalesce and write our future. Our future is dependent upon that
river,” said fly-fishing outfitter and Ennis fly shop owner John Way during
public testimony. “I look at this issue as there are too many people.
“Because of
the [Office] of Tourism doing such a good job, it’s raised the regional
seasonal business economies of the town of Ennis and the guide economies have
risen to fill the need,” he added. “This seems diametrically opposed to what
Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ mission is. Fish, Wildlife and Parks is trying to
eliminate or scale down the number of tourists and the Governor’s own mandate
with the [Office] of Tourism is trying to bring more in.”
The three
petitions brought forward to the commission were developed by stakeholders and
included proposed regulations that would have limited commercial use.
“We
submitted the petition … because of our disappointment in the lack of action
from the commission,” said Quincey Johnson on behalf of the Madison River
Foundation. She is the project and outreach coordinator for the member-based
nonprofit, which filed the first petition.
The Madison
River Foundation petition urged the commission to initiate recreation rules
that would be effective in 2020. These rules were originally proposed in April
2018 and rejected by the commission at that time. They included banning glass
on a stretch of the river, establishing wade-only areas, capping the number of
commercial-use permits and creating year-round non-commercial stretches of the
river.
“To let a
river decline before taking action is beyond negligent, and possibly a fatal
mistake that both the river and local economy could never recover from,”
Johnson said. “In April of 2018, Montanans’ voices weren’t heard, as most
Montanans can’t attend meetings from 9 to 5. Not to mention, the conversation
around the recreation plan has been far from civil. When people have disagreed,
they’ve been threatened with violence, their home has been vandalized and their
car broken into. This is not conducive for people who want to speak up.”
During
public testimony, landowner Faith Conroy echoed Johnson’s concerns.
“I’m
reluctant to speak out because I do live in one of those wade … areas and I
have experienced the wrath of some of the guides personally and there has been
vandalism on our property,” she said. “In asking guides and their clients to
remain in the water I have been verbally attacked … Not all guides are like
that, there’s probably just a handful of them, but the problem still exists.”
Steve Luebeck
of Butte presented on the second petition, which also urged the commission to
adopt the April 2018 rules. This second petition was filed with support from
the George Grant chapter of Trout Unlimited, Skyline Sportsmen Association,
Anaconda Sportsmen Association and Public Lands Water Access Association.
The third
petition was presented by Mike Bias, the executive director of the Fishing
Outfitters Association of Montana. He offered suggestions to manage commercial
use after holding a series of meetings with Montana angling outfitters,
ultimately endorsing an allocation-type system as opposed to some form of
rest-and-rotation or boat closures.
“We felt it
was our prerogative to deal only with commercial use because we are commercial
users ourselves,” he said “We’re not bringing any recommendations regarding
other user groups.”
While the
Montana Outfitters and Guides Association did not submit a petition, executive
director Mac Minard was granted time to speak on the organization’s support of
a fourth regulation option comprised of implementing a Fishing Access Site
ambassador program, stopping the issuance of special-use permits and seriously
pursuing recreational land easements that would give wade anglers more access
to the river.
“It’s been
reminded to me that speed is good, accuracy is better,” Minard said. “We need
to be careful … not for the purpose of obstruction or some other derogatory
term, but for the purpose of getting it right. MOGA’s interest has to do with a
statewide application as well. I think when we’re done here, we hope that we
have a model that is transportable and that we can apply as these issues grow
onto other rivers.”
Following
their rejection of the petitions, the commissioners directed FWP Fisheries
Division Chief of Staff Eileen Ryce to collate the most recent inventory of comments
and submit a series of draft regulations to the commission by Nov. 15, with the
intent to release a selection of these draft regulations for public comment in
the near future.
These recent
regulation talks are the latest in a long legacy of recreation management
attempts on the Madison, which have included surveys, public meetings, public
advisory councils and numerous regulation proposals.
