Fish Creek comment period ends

SUPERIOR – The public comment period for the draft management plan on the Fish Creek State Park came to an end last week, ending the discussion on some of the controversial topics.

The plan covers an area of approximately 41,000 acres acquired by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks in 2010. One eighth of the land was designated for use as a state park later that year. The area designated for the park is roughly 500 acres.

According to Jennifer Lawson, spokesperson for FWP, the area has great potential as a recreation site. The plan would make the area available for hikers, bicyclists, hunters and a variety of other outdoor activities. It would enhance the accessibility of the area so more people could enjoy the natural beauty.

“It’s proven that when you manage recreation well in an area, there is less degradation of the resource,” said Lawson. “What we do is extend this excellent opportunity to allow more people to experience the great outdoors.”

One of the big issues raised about the plan was the use of some of the area for all-terrain vehicle recreation. Many in the public raised strong objections to this and felt the ATVs would ruin the peace of the park with noise pollution.

The area already sees ATV use on some of the roads in the area, both legally and illegally. At the moment, there are no rules or regulations on vehicles in the area. Part of the plan would create trails specifically for ATVs with rules on how they can be used. According to Lawson, there are no state parks with ATV trails at this time.

The ATV area would not be through the entire park but would be kept to a specific area. With such a large area available for the park, it would be entirely possible to never encounter ATV users or hear their noise.

Lawson also emphasized how the creation of ATV trails was a recommendation and had not become a certainty yet. She said it is important to remember this was a draft of the management plan.

The comment period for the plan ended at 5 p.m. on Friday, February 7. The next step will be for FWP to look over all the comments to discuss their validity and whether or not to implement them.

“The comments, basically, are analyzed [and] put together thematically,” said Lawson.

She said there were typically many comments with the same information. These would get bundled together and consolidated into the core of each comment. They would then be put up for consideration.

After all the comments have been investigated and discussed, a final management plan will be written up for the park. Lawson estimated this would be done sometime in the next few months.

Lawson felt it was important to note the draft management plan was a vision of how the Fish Creek State Park would progress over the next 10 years. She said any new development would need to have an environmental assessment and public comment period done. These are required by the Montana Environmental Policy Act. The developments would also hinge on whether funds were available.

As a result, nothing in the plan is final. When the final plan is created, a review of the plan’s budgetary needs will be done to determine what parts can be afforded on the Parks Division’s budget.