Hill County Park Board debates a burn ban

The Hill County Park Board discussed instituting a burn ban during its meeting Monday due to drying vegetation and a prediction of temperatures hotter than 100 degrees later this week.

Board and audience members said the East Fork Fire from last season, which burned more than 20,000 acres in the Bear Paw Mountains including on the south edge of Beaver Creek Park, is on their mind and a burn ban would be a good idea.

Hill County Commission Chair Mark Peterson said he doesn’t think a ban is necessary.

Peterson said most people are behaving themselves about not lighting campfires, and most fires in the county are starting from trucks, combines and and other farm equipment causing sparks, such as by hitting rocks.

The public has been careful with campfires in dry weather, he said.

“The public knows better.”

Many on the park board disagreed and said something needs to be done.

Board member Tony Reum said the cheat grass in some areas is “bone dry.”

“One little spark and it’ll explode,” Reum added.

The board and audience discussed the fact that Blaine County instituted a burn ban July 18.

Peterson said another question is the level of the ban.

“I don’t know that we’re interested in going beyond Stage 1,” Peterson said, “if we do go to Stage 1.”

Stage 2 is very restrictive, he said.

“Policing a countywide ban puts a huge load on officers,” Peterson said.

Stage 1 restrictions ban fires unless they are in a site with specific exemptions, such as in fire pits. It also bans smoking, unless within an enclosed vehicle, building, developed recreation site, or area three feet in diameter cleared of all flammable materials, a Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks web page says.

Under Stage 2, all fires are banned, as is smoking as under Stage 1 restrictions; operating motorized vehicles off designated roads and trails; using explosives, welding or using an acetylene torch or other torch with open flame, and operating any internal combustion engine from 1 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Park Board Chair Steve Mariani suggested having Beaver Creek Park Superintendent Chad Edgar monitor the situation and institute a burn ban on the park if he deems it necessary.

Edgar said he could put up a sign but would have no teeth to enforce it without the commissioners implementing a ban.

“If we do it, it’s because there’s a dangerous situation out there,” a board member said.

“Even if the ticket doesn’t hold up in court, it’s a great deterrent. If we can prevent something, let’s do it,” another added.

Peterson said the weekly regional fire restriction call with state agencies today, which is held Tuesdays, could allow the discussion of the situation on the park.

He said the commission could post an agenda to vote on fire restrictions at its weekly business meeting Thursday.

‘One of the best Julys I’ve ever had’

Edgar said July in the park “started off extremely busy. Fourth of July weekend went extremely well. Usage was really heavy in July. It was one of the best Julys I’ve ever had.”

Park attendance has tapered off to a moderate pace in the last three weeks, he said.

He added that picnic tables had been refurbished with new planks and repainted, lawns had been mowed, campsites cleaned, bushes hedged, cattle stock tanks cleaned, brush cleared and all haying complete, which he said was slightly less than average this year. He said he also had torn down the old shooting range and some old fence posts that were an eyesore.

“Looks a lot nicer,” Edgar said.

Keep cattle out of south pasture

Audience member Dave Molitor, who owns land adjacent to the south end of the park, asked if fence destroyed by the East Fork Fire will be repaired in time for cattle to go on the park during grazing season.

The park board leases grazing on the park from the day after Labor Day to Jan. 1.

Molitor said he has heard that Justin Boyce, who contracted with the park board to repair the fence, may not be able to complete it in time.

“I’m pleading with you,” Molitor said, “please don’t turn any cattle out on that south pasture until we get the fence put in.”

He said he has been buying and installing fencing himself, and others also are donating supplies, but the work has to be complete before cattle are put on the park.

He said he already is having problems because cattle have gotten onto the park and have made it onto his — and other ranchers’ — land because the fence is not complete.

That causes even more problems for him, Molitor said, because he is on a Natural Resource and Conservation Service program to not graze the land until November, to allow grass to recover from last year’s East Fork Fire, and he is trying to avoid a fine.

Board members agreed.

“Dave … for him to lose his contract, that would just be wrong,” one said.

Edgar said Boyce knows the deadline and told him he would be finished on time.

Edgar also said he is asking Steve Boyce to cut down trees along the fence line so they don’t fall and damage the fence.

He added that Havre Public Schools Education Foundation made a $500 donation to use toward fire recovery, which might be able to pay for removing the trees along the fence.

“I’d like to thank them for that,” Edgar said.

Grazing allotments

The board approved recommendations from its grazing committee to keep grazing allotments for this season at a three-year average of previous allotments.

The board agreed with the committee that conditions were not good enough this year to increase allotments, as some grazers had requested.

The board also agreed that the committee will look at updating grazing and haying policies at its meeting in December.

Audience member Lowell Alcock said one policy that needs a written rule is that haying on park lands is for personal use only and the hay is not to be sold.

“Whether it’s going to them or market is a big difference,” Alcock said.

Several board members said that people who hay on the park typically won’t sell it.

“It has been common practice,” Hill County Commissioner and Park Board member Diane McLean said.

Another board member added that “it’s gotta be written down.”

“If a person’s going to profit from it, it should be the park,” Alcock said.

The board agreed that after the Grazing Committee discusses the issue, the board’s Policies and Procedures Committee will address it, followed by the Rules and Regulations Committee.

Monitoring water quality

Lou Hagener, who has been spearheading setting up environmental monitoring at the park, reported on water quality monitoring progress.

Hagener met with representatives of Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality and Montana State University’s Extension Service to talk about setting up protocols, he said.

They discussed Beaver Creek water quality data, including Montana Environmental Training Center Director Barbara Coffman’s list of data from studies already done.

Hagener said the meeting also reviewed the water quality data’s impact on the park, the sampling areas, algal blooms, and things that need to be measured, such as heavy metals like nitrate, potassium and chloroform.

Commissioner Mark Peterson said the continuity of the board’s water quality monitoring project was important.

“We don’t all live forever,” he said, “so we need to have it set up so people know how to do it.

… We want to make sure that the data we take today is comparable to the data we’ll take 40 years from now.”

Hagener agreed that testing methodology changes over time and he suggested that adhering to the department’s scientific protocols was the best answer to Peterson’s concerns.

“Sampling has to meet a certain standard,” Hagener said. “For example, E. coli has to be processed within six hours of inspection.”

Hagener added that some of the baseline sampling should be done in winter, when the water is less affected by weather.

Peterson said he wanted the public to understand that as much as the park board plans ahead, much of the data will not be up to future standards.

Algal blooms

Board members questioned Hagener about recent algal blooms in the park.

The Montana Department of Health and Human Services web page reports that toxic algal blooms are a seasonal occurrence in the state.

“A (harmful algal bloom) can cause harm by producing toxins that can poison humans, fish, seabirds, aquatic animals, livestock, wildlife and household pets (such as dogs) that are near the water, consume the water or swim in the water,” the page said.  

Algal blooms have been reported, last year at Beaver Creek Reservoir on the park and this year on Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation as well as in Beaver Creek Reservoir.

Hagener said hot and stagnant water could have caused the blooms. Another possible cause is a chemical imbalance, like potassium, in the water, but the exact cause of algal blooms is not known.

Diane McLean said that algal blooms are living organisms and, as such, are constantly in flux.

The recent bloom almost immediately disappeared, Hagener said.

Not all blooms are toxic, he said, and some algae are even good.

The next park board meeting will be held Sept. 10.