Comprehensive River plan still in the works, Davies says

The Flathead National Forest recently received funding to finish a Comprehensive River Management Plan for the three forks of the Flathead River, Hungry Horse/Glacier View District Ranger Rob Davies told people attending the North Fork Interlocal last week.

Davies said the funding will allow the Forest to extend its contract with Hydro Solutions on an environmental assessment of the plan.

The Hydro Solutions’ contract ran out at the end of last year. Davies said the EA will take some work in the next few months and he expects another round of public meetings by this fall.

The plan was in limbo last year due to coronavirus as many Forest Service employees worked remotely and having large public meetings wasn’t allowed.

The plan will look to set upper limits of use on all three forks of the river.

“That’s what’s required by law,” he said.

Davies acknowledged there

were problems last year at dispersed campsites that are free. The worst one was at Blankenship where people camped in droves, sometimes there were 35-40 campers at a time.

The Forest Service ended up putting portable toilets at the site, he said.

“We had unprecedented use at dispersed sites,” he said.

He said the key this year would be educating the public. He also noted that some places north of Polebridge also saw high use.

While human waste is definitely a concern, tests of the North Fork for E. coli bacteria were very low, he said.

He also asked the public to keep the Forest Service informed about possible illegal activity.

In other Forest news he said the expectation is a final decision on the Frozen Moose logging and fuels reduction project to come within a few weeks.

He said one aspect of the project that called for cutting down trees

with chainsaws in recommended wilderness to benefit whitebark pine would likely be struck from the plan as it doesn’t comply with the Forest plan. Some prescribed burns in recommended wilderness also likely wouldn’t happen.

He said the Forest is considering amending the Forest plan to allow future management actions like those.