FWP looks to help more public-private park projects

A statewide survey in 2012 showed that 77 percent of Montana households either went for a hike or rode their bike. In the next four years, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks hopes to facilitate more projects that will make hiking and biking and a host of other outdoor activities easier.

FWP is currently drafting its next four-year Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP). A recently released draft of the plan notes that demand for outdoor recreational opportunities is expanding. Use of state parks from 2008-2012 was up 10 percent, compared to 16 percent at Glacier National Park.

The idea in the next four years isn’t to simply add more state parks, said Dave Landstrom, a park manager at the FWP Region 1 office in Kalispell. Instead, FWP will try to help facilitate public and private partnerships to make projects better.

A prime example of this is snowmobile trail grooming in Northwest Montana. In the North Fork, for example, private snowmobile clubs partner with FWP and the Forest Service to groom trails.

Another project that has FWP’s interest is a proposed bike path from Columbia Falls through Bad Rock Canyon along U.S. 2 to Glacier National Park.

Fundraising is already well underway to extend the Gateway to Glacier Trail from Coram to West Glacier, but the hope is to run the trail from Columbia Falls along the Flathead River, through the canyon and across a new bridge over the South Fork of the Flathead River. There it could connect with an existing trail from Hungry Horse to Coram.

FWP may be able to leverage federal funding to contribute to the project if it comes to fruition, Landstrom said.

FWP currently has 13 state parks in Region 1. Most are near lakes south and east of Columbia Falls. The largest park in the region is Wild Horse Island in Flathead Lake, which is only accessible by boat.

The draft SCORP plan is available online at http://stateparks.mt.gov/news/publicNotices/board/pn_0002.html. Comments were taken until Nov. 18.