Special Report

Land Legacy: Access to Fish Creek, a Recreational Paradise, Preserved For All

By Jason D.B. Kauffman, 9-08-10

	Alvin Meeks, a longtime resident of the nearby Clark Fork Valley, stands along Fish Creek at the Big Pine Campground. Meeks has been recreating in the Fish Creek area since 1963 and was a strong supporter of the state's purchase of lands there for the Montana Legacy Project. Photo by Jason D.B. Kauffman.

In the history of complex land transfers in Montana, the Legacy Project stands alone. From the Swan Valley south of Glacier to Lolo Creek next to the Idaho stateline, much of western Montana was impacted in one way or another by this historic deal involving the Plum Creek timber company, the Trust for Public Land, the Nature Conservancy and state and federal land management agencies. Nearly all of the 310,000 acres of former Plum Creek lands will have shifted into public ownership once the last of the Legacy Project’s three phases concludes, which is expected later this year. We asked a few Montanans with close ties to the lands covered by the historic agreement what it will mean for the state’s future.

“I was up Thompson Creek way back up in the lodgepoles. I was bugling,” he recalls.

Pretty soon, two hair-tingling bugles echoed back to him across the crisp air. “I thought, well, one of them has to be a hunter. But I didn’t see anybody else in there,” he said during a recent interview at the Big Pine Campground in lower Fish Creek.

Meeks’ doubts immediately vanished when two bulls—both very real and now very close—charged in. Crouching low, he watched as the two monarchs scanned for this intruder in their woods.

Though mostly a meat hunter, Meeks quickly eyeballed the larger of the two bulls.

“One of them was a great big one. I was hoping he’d come closer,” he recalled. “But he stayed back and the other one came in. He came in, kind of rushed and turned sideways.”

Taking his cue, Meeks gently pulled his bow back and quietly waited. 

“Here I am all ready for him to come out behind this brush,” he said of the larger, more distant bull. “But he wouldn’t come out, wouldn’t come out. I knew I had to do something.”

Knowing he couldn’t hold his bow at full draw forever, Meeks gingerly let go of the tension.

“When I dropped down to release my arrow, he must have heard something. Both of them took off,” he said. “I can still see that picture of that big bull. He was standing about 50 yards away.”

There are clearly many such stories whose origins are tied to some patch of ground along Fish Creek, a cold, free-flowing tributary to the Clark Fork River. Beginning as a series of forks high in the Bitterroot Mountains along the Montana-Idaho state line, it’s a place that generations of Montanans have come to love as a favorite among backyard recreational lands.

But as with many places in Western Montana, those memories are tied somewhat tenuously to a patchwork of private timberlands. For years, a succession of private owners, beginning with the Anaconda Mining Company and ending with the Plum Creek timber company, had allowed public access on their 41,000-acre holdings in Fish Creek.

A new owner could have come in and changed all that in an instant.

Instead, the majority of the Fish Creek lands—the middle and upper former Plum Creek sections—will become Montana’s newest state park and wildlife management area.

Meeks--who has been coming to Fish Creek with his wife Theresa since 1963 and hauling along their two now-adult-age daughters--is happy to see the land become state-owned and supports how that’s playing out.

The Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land purchased the acreage from the timber company with the intent of then selling it to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) for both continued public enjoyment and wildlife protection.

It’s stories like Meeks’ that form the basis of the Trust for Public Land’s mission and contribute greatly to including Fish Creek in the final tally of lands wrapped into the Legacy Project, which was announced to the public in 2008. It’s believed by many that Fish Creek could become one of Montana’s most cherished public landscapes in the years and decades to come.

Montanans—and many tourists who travel to the state for its heralded outdoor adventures—want these kinds of spaces preserved now and in the future, said Deb Love, the Bozeman-based northern Rockies director for the Trust for Public Land.

“We’re an outdoor people,” said Love. “They want their children and grandchildren to have the same opportunities.”

PRESERVING A RECREATIONAL WONDERLAND

Fish Creek, both its more readily accessed lower and middle reaches along the mainstem, and its hard-to-reach, remote and rugged upper sections along the Montana-Idaho border, contains huge opportunities for public enjoyment.

Just 40 miles west of Missoula and easily reached from I-90, as a fishery, it has few peers. FWP says Fish Creek and its tributaries harbor the strongest bull trout and westslope cutthroat runs in all of the 120-mile middle Clark Fork watershed.

Fish Creek flows beneath hillsides that are still recovering from extensive logging and wildfires around the turn of the century. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the new owner of nearly 41,000 acres of former Plum Creek lands here, is focused on restoring these popular recreational lands. Photo by Jason D.B. Kauffman.

Pat Saffel, the Region 2 fisheries manager for FWP said that despite heavy logging over the past decades, Fish Creek is still considered a “resilient system.” And while a lot of that has to do with the pristine nature of the upper reaches of the watershed in places like the Great Burn roadless area, there remain significant opportunities in the mid to lower stretches of the creek.

“The riparian areas are relatively intact,” he said. “Through it all, it’s maintained cold, clean water.”

Much of the heaviest logging in these newly acquired Legacy Project lands occurred under Plum Creek’s watch. Driving along the main dirt road that parallels the mid-sized stream, there are near-constant views of miles upon miles of logging roads carved into the steep hillsides on both sides of Fish Creek.

Combined with burns that swept through this drainage within about the past decade, it’s clearly a compromised landscape.

“It needs some recovery,” said Saffel.

His is a view shared by Meeks, who spent his working years employed in several Western Montana sawmills. No opponent of logging, he is somewhat critical of the post-fire response.

“Plum Creek was real aggressive in terms of getting the timber out of here,” he said.

Still, as a firm believer in the rights of motorized recreationists, he’s hoping officials with FWP will keep open many of the old logging roads, especially loop routes.

For Meeks and his family, “Fish Creek was our mainstay…You had roads. Vast amounts of roads you could drive. You could see game—bear, deer, elk. There were enough roads up here that you could drive all day and never see the same one.”

Besides hunting, fishing and back-roading, the land is also know as a great area for hiking, wildlife viewing and camping. High up in what will likely become a state park, FWP is reportedly considering overnight rentals of the Williams Peak fire lookout. There’s also been talk of building a network of yurts along Fish Creek for overnight winter stays, Meeks said.

The state’s purchase cements a legacy here of public access into perpetuity. How to manage the lands is a decision for another day, Meeks said.

“My biggest concern was to get it into public use. Get it bought and in public hands,” he said. “The other parts we can work out as we go along.”

Immediately to the west of the Legacy Project lands is the two-state Great Burn roadless area, considered for wilderness designation for decades. This photo was taken near the head of Straight Creek, spawning grounds for bull trout and other fish that spend much of their lives along the lower half of Fish Creek. Photo by Jason D.B. Kauffman.

Mack Long, the Region 2 supervisor for FWP, said the agency is currently assessing just what it has on its hands in Fish Creek. On the lands that are becoming a new wildlife management area, the agency will need to evaluate the area’s 521-mile network of roads, invasive weeds, as well as fire and timber management.

“It’s in need of some TLC,” said Long.

Even with all of the challenges the agency faces in Fish Creek, it remains an ecologically functioning landscape, a story common to most, if not all, of the Legacy Project lands. The baseline data the agency is accumulating now in Fish Creek will help it restore the area to a much better state down the road, Long said.

“That’s only going to improve over the next 10, 20, 50 years,” he said. “That’s where Fish Creek really becomes valuable.”

FUTURE ACCESS FOR ALL

Despite the significant efforts needed to heal these former Plum Creek lands, officials believe the state’s expenditure in Fish Creek is an investment in Montana’s future. Most of the funds for the purchase of the 41,000-acre property—$17.35 million—came from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Pittman-Robinson grants for wildlife habitat work.

In all, the Plum Creek lands picked up by the state within the Fish Creek watershed contain 66 miles of riparian habitat, at least 182 wildlife species, elk and deer winter range and important forest carnivore linkage, according to an assessment written for the Montana Land Board’s March consideration of the purchase.

The overall Legacy Project deal is close to final across Western Montana. In early November, when phase three of the Legacy Project is finalized, areas that will be picked up by the state will total about 69,500 acres. They include parcels interspersed within the Swan State Forest, the Miller Creek area northwest of Missoula and the Marshall Block, a large contiguous stretch of former Plum Creek land northwest of Seeley Lake.

It’s a legacy that Montanans and all who care about the state’s open spaces can look to with satisfaction and relief, said Deb Love of the Trust for Public Land.

“Montana is going to continue to be America’s playground,” she said.

Meeks, who is still recovering from a kidney transplant he had in June, is hopeful he’ll be able to spend time in Fish Creek this fall, before the snow begins to fly. His recent visit to the Big Pine Campground was his first since the surgery and he clearly cherished the opportunity to return to his favorite haunt, if only for the afternoon.

He believes the Legacy Project certainly lives up to its billing in Fish Creek.

“I think it is going to be a big legacy here in years to come,” he said. “You’re going to have the openness. You can get your experience here.”

ALSO IN THIS SERIES

• The Swan Valley, Making Room for People and Bears
• In the Potomac Valley, Ranchers Back Transferring to the State Important, Grazed Acres

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