If the Paradise Valley’s fishing access sites on the Yellowstone River were crowded this summer, blame your neighbors not out-of-staters.
A survey conducted by the University of Montana’s Institute for Tourism & Recreation Research revealed that 81% of the people crowding boat launches and the parking areas in a 30-mile stretch from Emigrant to Livingston were from Montana. The majority of those state residents were from nearby Livingston (44%) and Bozeman (41%). Only 19% were nonresidents.
The purpose of the study was to develop a way to assess river use on the nearby Madison River, said Don Skaar, Habitat Bureau chief for the Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks.
“Our intent there was to test drive some survey techniques and approaches we might use on the Madison River next year,” he said.
“This wasn’t a shot across the bow to do a recreation plan on the Yellowstone,” he added.
Commercial use is already monitored or managed on the Madison, Bitterroot and Blackfoot rivers. Floating the Smith River, whether a commercial or private party, requires a permit.
Maddy
New rules were recently adopted for the Madison River by the Fish and Wildlife Commission in an attempt to address crowding. FWP will pass on survey data collected next year to the commission and newly formed working group to discuss how best to address the situation.
“That’s something FWP will be grappling with soon,” said Norma Nickerson, director of the UM institute. “I don’t know how they’re going to do it.”
New rules for fishing on Madison River outlined
One of the past proposals was to require any users of the river, whether anglers or people floating in inner tubes, to purchase a stamp. The stamp was meant to assess noncommercial river use. A special recreation permit is already required for commercial use on the Madison.
Information provided by Northwestern Energy, which monitors the Madison River because it operates Hebgen Dam, provides insight to river use. In 2019 Northwestern found more than 300,000 people used fishing access sites on the lower Madison, below Ennis Lake. Figures from 2018 show more than 245,000 unique visitors on the upper Madison.
In addition to being popular with recreational boaters, the Madison is recognized by FWP as being one of the most heavily fished rivers in the state. The lower river, below Beartrap Canyon, sees a high amount of recreational use as inner tubers from nearby Bozeman float the shallow, warmer waters that many anglers avoid. Whereas fly anglers chase hatches of bugs like caddis or stoneflies that spur fishing, locals refer to the tubers as the bikini hatch.
Based on the Yellowstone River data, private boat use is bigger on rivers even though outfitters and guides are often blamed for crowding, Nickerson said. The amount of use will swing widely, however, depending on the weather and day of the week, she added.
Skaar questioned how accurate the data collected in 2020 will be given the unique circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Data
Some of the information gathered on the Yellowstone River provided insight about who is using fishing access sites, which are funded and maintained largely through fishing license sales.
“A lot of people are using these resources but not putting anything into them,” Nickerson said.
Although at one time anglers may have been the main users, that’s no longer the case as water sports like rafting, stand-up paddleboarding and kayaking have surged. In the 2020 survey, anglers were only 40% of users on the upper section of the Yellowstone.
Past sessions of the Legislature have struggled with the topic of access site funding, suggesting licenses for all watercraft (only motorboats are now required to be licensed) or some type of vehicle pass. So far none of the proposals have passed.
Out of the groups interviewed at the fishing access sites, 73% had at least one person with a fishing license. That leaves more than a quarter of user groups with no fishing license. Seventy-five percent of Montana groups using one of the sites had a fishing license, compared to 60% of nonresident groups.
Of the more than 1,000 recreationists interviewed at the nine fishing access sites, 19% were nonresidents.
Besides boating and fishing, the other uses of the river access points included exercising and dog walking. That was greatly influenced by the fact that Mayor’s Landing is in the town of Livingston and Carter’s Bridge is close to the community.
One other statistic of interest is that 85% of those interviewed had visited the area in the past, so repeat visitation is high.
How crowded were the sites? Mallard’s Rest FAS was the worst with an average of about 35 vehicles and a peak of 93. Emigrant FAS was the next busiest with an average of 25 vehicles and a peak of 76.
Large use on certain days, or even months, makes it difficult for FWP to justify increasing parking lot sizes, Nickerson noted, because at other times the lots may be adequate. This year was also unusual in that guides and outfitters met their clients at the access site rather than driving them there, she added.
Despite sometimes crowded conditions, most users were satisfied with the access sites, Skaar noted.
Tourism
As the report noted, “Outdoor recreation in Montana is touted as a $7.1 billion industry supporting 71,000 jobs,” according to the Outdoor Industry Association. “According to a Bureau of Economic Analysis report, Montana is second in the nation, just behind Hawaii, in terms of the contribution of outdoor recreation activities to state gross domestic product.”
One of the challenges the report mentioned is how the state must “ensure that the quality of the outdoor experience is maintained amid increasing use” if it wants to remain a top outdoor destination.
“What is known is that along some waterways there are complaints from users saying there are too many people on the rivers, that trash along shores and in the waterways is increasing, and that use of the access sites has increased substantially,” the report noted. “The visitor experience, both at the access sites and on the water, is likely eroding in these instances.”
Nickerson noted that the upper Yellowstone study doesn’t assess how the increase in river use is affecting fish, wildlife and their habitat.
Still to come from this summer’s research on the Yellowstone River is a report on using mounted cameras to remotely collect river-use data.
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