It’s a quiet, crisp morning on the banks of the Clark Fork at the Sha’Ron Fishing Access Site in East Missoula. In September, the area’s pretty empty aside from the occasional duck.
But on summer days Jaydon Green watched flotillas of paddle boards and inner tubes.
“The hottest part of the day, we’re seeing within three hours almost a thousand people using this area,” Green said.
Green led the Missoula River Ambassadors program this summer. The team of four collected data on the number of users, how they used the river, and educated visitors on not crowding the boat ramp, using aluminum cans instead of glass bottles, and cleaning up garbage.
“Our mission is to make the river a viable resource for all sorts of use,” said Green.
River access sites across Montana are seeing more users. Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks recently formed a citizen River Recreation Advisory Council to find solutions.
Chrissy Oschell with FWP says crowding is a problem in other parts of Western Montana, like the Blackfoot river.
“We are changing from what was once dominated by angling to now a much more diverse, different types of recreation use on the Blackfoot,” said Oschell.
Morgan Valliant, with Missoula Parks and Recreation, says the River Ambassadors program may be a solution for other crowded rivers.
“Just literally having someone to direct traffic is huge in reduction of conflict,” said Valliant.
Valliant says the crowds aren’t going anywhere, they just need to be managed better.
“One of the unique things about, and one of the great things about the river, it's some of the cheapest recreation you can do on a hot summer day when you don't have air conditioning in your house. You can come down here and hang out for a couple dollars,” Valliant said.
FWP’s citizen council will meet the second weekend of October and release recommendations later in the year. .
