PFI, Park Board discuss boat launch
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
POLSON — Turning the regatta grounds at the Polson Fairgrounds into a boat launch has been discussed for the last 10 years, but it was discussed again at the Lake County Park board meeting on May 4 in the Lake County Commissioners office.
After other business, Tom McDonald, division manager for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Fish, Wildlife, Recreation and Conservation as well as a park board member, brought up Quagga and Zebra mussels and ways to prevent the spread of these invasive species. McDonald said there is “a dramatic need for a wash station and a place to quarantine boats. The regatta grounds has potential to be part of that.”
Clint Folden, Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribal aquatic invasive species specialist, agreed.
“Basically you need a space large enough to quarantine boats,” Folden explained. “The idea is to bring boaters into one specific place . . . check boats and give them a place to launch at the south end of the lake.”
The grounds would provide enough room to quarantine infected boats and provide parking and bathroom facilities.
Boats are coming to the Flathead from Lake Mead and Lake Havisu and may be bringing the tiny aquatic invasive mussels with them, according to Caryn Miske, executive director of the Flathead Basin Committee. Miske added that last year, the state of Idaho found seven boats with mussels. Already in 2011, seven contaminated boats have been found so “this is the right, incredibly critical time.”
“A massive education effort and a boat wash at the regatta grounds” could help, McDonald said. He also spoke about the economics of one boat launch on the south end of Flathead Lake, saying people will buy gas and lunch.
Weighing in, commissioner Paddy Trusler said Flathead County needs to be on board and a water quality district should be put into effect.
While he appreciated Lake County has to provide leadership, Trusler said, “… If we want to control aquatic invasives, we have to have cooperation on the north end … We don’t have a plan for the overall program.”
Polson Fairgrounds Incorporated secretary Una Rose Graham asked what constitutes a boat wash.
The Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks uses a heated pressure wash with the water at 160 degrees, Folden said, so when the water hits the boat its at 140 to 150 degrees. Then the boat — hull, fish tanks, bilge — is inspected, and the motor is tipped down and drained.
While PFI members are worried about aquatic invasives, Graham said one concern was launching boats on the river at the regatta grounds.
“There is a current; it is not an easy place to launch or land,” Graham said.
Once on the river, Graham noted you can go either right or left and most people choose downriver because it’s beautiful. Water skiers like the river because it’s calmer. But she added she’s been there when there were 35 boats on the river and jet skiers, too.
“It’s a miracle nobody has been killed,” Graham said.
If a boat launch were situated at the regatta grounds, more boats would crowd the river.
Big boats going as fast as they can cause big waves that erode the shore, Graham said, a fact about which “it seems the tribe would be incredibly concerned.”
The regatta grounds launch is also on the historic register for float planes so they need to land in an area where boats are being launched.
The PFI leases the fairground from Lake County, and access is restricted to PFI members, Graham added.
No action was taken, and the park board decided to work on the master plan.
