FWP eyes Beaver Creek easement

A Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks official said Monday that the agency is close to making a proposal to solve a controversial issue at Beaver Creek Park — the park charging access fees to fish waters stocked by FWP.

Tom Flowers, FWP Region 6 regional manager in Glasgow, told the Hill County Park Board that the agency is working on a proposal to purchase a recreational conservation easement from the park.

He told the board at its monthly meeting in May that people had complained about being charged to fish in areas stocked by FWP, when buying a fishing license is supposed to gain that access. The agency legally cannot stock waters that do not have public access, he said.

Flowers said he expects a proposal to be ready within a couple of weeks, saying he and regional fish manager Steve Dalby have been spending a lot of time talking to agency officials in Helena about that proposal.

“(The easement) would involve some direct exchange of moneys from Fish, Wildlife and Parks to the Park Board for the purpose of allowing fishing within the park boundaries free of charge,” Flowers said. “It wouldn’t affect any other activity or any other fee the park wants to charge for camping or hiking or whatever else. It would just be specific to fishing opportunities within the park … .”

“What we’re waiting for specifically is an amount. What can we offer the board … ,” he said. “We are making progress. We do have a commitment from Helena for this.”

Board member Renelle Braaten asked if $1 million is too much.

“One million probably isn’t in the ballpark,” Flowers replied, to laughter. “At least we got that right out.”

Hill County Commissioner Jeff LaVoi asked if the easement would put any restrictions on what the park could do in the areas in question — Beaver Creek itself and Beaver Creek Reservoir, commonly called the First Lake or Lower Lake.

The park does not charge for access to Bear Paw Lake, the upper lake, which was built by FWP in the 1950s.

Flowers said the only restriction would be that the park couldn’t charge people for access to fish.

“I’m not even sure if I’d call that a restriction, actually,” he added. “It’s sort of an alternative.”

Braaten asked if FWP is proposing a one-time fee or a yearly fee.

Flowers said the proposal is for a “significant” one-time fee using money the agency has now.

“Although, as far as I’m concerned, that’s probably negotiable,” he said, adding that it probably would be easier for FWP to do a one-time fee with money now available.

LaVoi said a one-time fee could make it difficult down the road to make up for losing the revenue.

“I think it would be easier, or better, for us, if we had an annual fee,” LaVoi said.

Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson added that it might be easier for the agency to come up with a smaller amount each year than a large one-time fee, adding that another option would be for FWP to pay a larger amount every five or 10 years instead of a one-time or a yearly fee.

“There’s plusses and minuses both ways. I think we should look at those, discuss all options,” he said.

“It’s not set in stone yet, that’s for sure,” Flowers said. “The challenge — this is such a unique situation — the challenge has been to make it as agreeable to both parties up front, as best we can.”

Later in the meeting during the superintendent’s report, when the number of day-use and annual permits sold so far this year was listed — to date, 315 day-use permits have been sold at $10 each — Braaten said that information could help decide what to do with FWP’s proposal, citing a comment from LaVoi at previous meetings that the park could move away from day permits. She said money from FWP could help with that.

“(We could) skip the day permits and start charging camping fees,” Braaten said.

“If we can get that same income (we wouldn’t need to charge that day-use fee),” LaVoi replied.

During the discussion with Flowers, LaVoi applauded FWP for looking for a solution.

“We commend you for that. We want to work together, too,” he said.

Flowers said the agency wants to help the county maintain the park, and the agency knows that fishermen impact the park.

“It’s a great opportunity to have that park here,” he said. “We want to keep it the way it is.”