As river use surges, private rafters raise red flags

Joe Basirico and Mike Burr have been floating the North and Middle Forks of the Flathead collectively for decades. But the changes the men have seen in river use — and often abuse — are alarming to them.

They see more trash, evidence of human waste in meadows, camps with multiple fire rings and to be blunt, simply too many people.

They say the Forest Service, which is largely charged with patrolling the rivers, isn’t doing enough to protect them under existing law and policies.

One big problem is the surge in river usage over the past few years, they claim.

The numbers bear that out. On the lower Middle Fork, defined as being from Paola Creek to the House of Mystery, from 2017 to 2020, commercial outfitters, on average, had about 55,250 permitted service days on that stretch of river.

The total number of service days is calculated by multiplying each service day by the number of clients on the trip, according to the Forest Service.

In 2021 that number ballooned to 100,037 as the east half of Glacier National Park was closed due to the pandemic and the Park also instituted a reservation system for the Going-to-the-Sun Road.

The number of outfitted days dropped the same stretch of river to 70,867 in 2022, but still remained well above the long-term average.

The lower North Fork, from Big Creek south, also saw a surge in outfitter numbers, they noted. In 2020, for example, there were 483 outfitter days, by 2022, the number was 1,410 — a 191% increase.

Those figures don’t include private rafters, out for a weekend afternoon float.

The two men say they’re not trying to demonize commercial outfitters — the four companies that operate on the rivers provide a valuable service to the visiting public.

But they also say the Forest Service is permitting too many trips, well above what is allowed under the existing comprehensive river management plan.

“The (Forest Service’s) job isn’t to protect (raft companies) income, it’s to protect the resource.

The men expressed frustration when meeting with Forest Service officials on their concerns. They noted they had to file a Freedom of Information request just to get the above-mentioned commercial use data, which they, in turn, shared with the newspaper.

The Forest Service admits it has been allowing growth in commercial use on the rivers.

Hungry Horse/Glacier View District Ranger Rob Davies said the Forest Service was allowing about a 5% annual growth rate of priority use days, but has since lowered that to 3%.

“We’re slowing their growth,” he said in a recent interview.

But he also notes that outfitters provide a valuable service, as they guide visitors safely down what can be treacherous stretches of rivers. He noted the surge in visitor use, particularly in 2021, was due to the pandemic, where folks across the U.S. flocked to public lands and national parks to get away from urban centers, and Glacier implementing a reservation on the Sun Road. If a party didn’t have a Sun Road reservation, they had to wait until 5 p.m. to get into the park, so they went rafting.

The raft companies asked for more service days and the Forest Service released them.

Davies also said the Forest Service expects to have more river rangers this summer — they now have two permanent seasonal staff and hope to add two more staff this summer as well.

On the subject of human waste, Davies noted that having portable toilets is required for everyone, commercial or private on overnight trips.

Burr and Basirico have also suggested raft companies have portable toilets, known as groovers — on day trips as well.

Davies said that could be worked into new permits for the companies, all of which come up for renewal in 2025. But he also noted that most day trips are short —from Moccasin to West Glacier on the Middle Fork. There’s a bathroom at both the put-in and takeout.

As far as the longterm, there could very well end up being caps for river usage under the new Comprehensive River Management Plan during the peak season.

But those caps will also apply to private users as well. During peak season, the whitewater stretch of the Middle Fork is about 70% outfitter, 30% private. It’s about a 50-50 split the rest of the time.

The new CRMP could easily be a few years off — the Forest Service hasn’t even set a timeline. One thing is for certain, the weather will warm over the coming months and soon another rafting season will be here.

Joe Basirico and Mike Burr would like to see private river users have more say in the interim.

Basirico remembers days when you wouldn’t be surprised to see a bear or an elk along the river.

“You see more trash, eroded river banks and lots and lots of people,” he lamented.