New campground, new boat inspection station at Tiber Marina

Using a new location for a boat inspection station and creating 12 new campsites for Tiber Reservoir is under discussion.

"I think this development and the way we're going to set this up is going make it more convenient for sportsmen and recreationalist that come off the water and provide us with the needed protection from seeing mussels," Gary Bertellotti, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks regional supervisor for Great Falls, said during a meeting at the reservoir Wednesday.

The public meeting was organized by Montana Sen. Russ Tempel, R-Chester, and included representatives from FWP and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation as well as members of the community.

Tempel faces Havre Democrat Paul Tuss in his bid for re-election in November.

The plan is to move the inspection station at Ru's Tiber Marina to the intersection of the roads going to Tiber Marina and the island campgrounds, so that all boats that pass through can be properly inspected. The officials also discussed building 12 new spots for campsites near the new inspection station to provide inspectors living accommodations and open up the 12 spots now used by them.

BOR Tiber Lands and Recreaction Supervisor Charles Hueth said Tiber Reservoir has had no detection of invasive mussels since 2016.

The mandatory inspection station was set up to prevent mussels from spreading to other bodies of water and to prevent new mussels from being brought to Tiber. He added that the waters have to test negative for five years before the inspection stations are no longer mandatory.

"This meeting is about getting a decontamination station set up in a logical area, so we can catch boats that are using the marina and also using the island rec area, too," Hueth said. "Making sure the boats are cleaned, drained and dry before exit."

He said Tiber Reservoir needed a workforce to run the inspection stations, and the state used 12 campsite to place campers for the employees to stay in. Hueth said the new campground would also need electrical service installed. He added that once the lake no longer needs mandatory boat inspections the sites will be turned over to Ru's Tiber Marina for recreational use.

Bertellotti said one of the issues FWP faces is that Tiber Marina is in a remote location, making it difficult to get and keep qualified inspectors interested in the job. At the moment, he said, FWP has provided its inspectors with campers to live in while at the job. These campers are located on 12 spots that were previously available for recreational visitors and next to the bathroom stall, Bertellotti said.

Bertellotti said that asking people to stay on site for 24-hours-a-day makes it a struggle to keep people.

Jorri Dyer, North Central Area Supervisor for FWP, said they have 26 inspectors at Tiber.

"We couldn't do the inspections adequate enough to actually prevent the potential of moving mussels out of here," Bertellotti said.

BOR Resource Manager Jeff Baumberger said getting qualified inspectors is one of the biggest challenges and with the new development he hopes there is less turnover and more efficient inspectors.

The new inspection station

Baumberger said moving the inspection station to the intersection between the marina and the island campground makes sense to help support the state's efforts to prevent the mussels from spreading. He added that 20 years down the road, there will be a long-term benefit to recreation.

Bertellotti said one of the concerns FWP has is that visitation has dropped because of the mussels themselves and the inspections have created some inconvenience to sportsmen.

"Hopefully, after putting this all together, the public will see that this isn't an inconvenience," Bertellotti said.

He added that most inspections take only three to five minutes.

FWP Bureau Chief of Aquatic Invasive Species Thomas Woolf said they are trying to work out a good strategy on how they set up inspection stations and invasive species prevention.

He said BOR has the funding so the inspection station can be set up right and give them the ability to do more good.

The new inspection station will be more effective and official looking, allowing the inspectors to better address the boats coming off the water. In the past, people were able to avoid the stations entirely, Woolf said.

He said access is always a concern, adding that last year they had discussed closing ramps so they could better address the boats. The efforts only are effective if the community is compliant, he said.

They had also worked with the public to create gated access, he said, which worked out pretty well. But people still want free access, he added.

"People need to realize that this water is different," Woolf said, adding that a culture change is needed.

"This is a moving target. We're kind of learning as we go and if there are better options and ideas out there we are glad to hear it," he said.

During the meeting a local man who did not identify himself offered Woolf his own property to help with the efforts.

"That's something we're going to take a close look at," Woolf said later, "that could potentially open up a new access."

Bertellotti said the federal government has recognized that the threat of aquatic invasive species is similar to the threat of invasive species on land, and combating them is in the national interest.

"It helps everybody nationally, it helps us within the state and, in the long run - the impact to their operations as well as the public's recreational opportunities for us to contain it - keeping it from going to other places, is a benefit to everybody," he said.

He added that the Flathead and Columbia basins have inspection stations as well because they don't want the mussels in their area "at all cost."

"I think this development and the way we're going to set this up is going to make it more convenient for sportsmen and recreationalists that come off the water, and provide us with the needed protection from seeing mussels," Bertellotti said.

Tempel organizing the meeting

If mussels are not detected for the next three years, Woolf said, the resources available for the future will be useful to everybody.

He said Tempel asked that they put this meeting together and bring the public in to meet that goal. He added that he thought this was a great idea and would help them figure out the best way to go forward with the project.

"This whole project was kind of on hold," Tempel said, "everybody was trying to figure out how to get together to try to do it. So we worked with BOR and Pete Stevenson, out of Billings, who has been involved with two or three projects that we have worked on out here before when I was county commissioner."

Tempel said he stopped in Stevenson's office and sat down and discussed some of the options with him. He added that he wanted the meeting to take place at Tiber Marina so everyone could see the same thing.

He said the meeting was very beneficial in his opinion and people have been communicating like never before.

"I believe we're heading in the right direction," Tempel said.

The problems the community is seeing needs to be brought to light, he added, to put the mussels issue in the past.

"We can make this work," Tempel said.