Flathead Wildlife Inc. would like to thank all of you who showed up to the Tuesday meeting at the Red Lion in Kalispell. Similar meetings were held in Polson and Missoula, but the attendance at the Kalispell meeting absolutely dominated the three. It was here that it was announced that a previous Pilot Project, containing a goal of removing 240,000 lake trout by using up to 1,000 gill nets, is no longer on the table. It is a clean slate, wiped clean to make room for new proposals, which will receive full due process under the National Environmental Policy Act.
Barely 30 members of the public came to the Missoula Meeting on Wednesday, and the Polson event attracted about the same. It is obvious that a huge amount of the angler base on Flathead live in or around the north end of the lake, and I truly hope that in the process that follows, those anglers and users voices are given a substantial weight.
Having attended all three initial meetings, I feel confidant in saying that the overwhelming concern is for the fishery. While there are a multitude of users of the lake and rivers, the fishing and the cost to anglers dominates the discussion.
Concern for the native fish seems to be high on most everyone’s list, but the cold reality is that despite everything that has been and may be proposed, there are no guarantees that there IS a fix that will change the makeup of the lake as we know it today. In the words of one of the biologists at one of the meetings, “this is a different lake than it was in the 80’s”. The obvious question remains, what is the cost of doing nothing?
The public now has the opportunity to have a definite say in what the management for Flathead Lake will look like in the future. Written comments were solicited and gathered at the three meetings. The opportunity to voice concerns and submit comments via email runs until the 17th of May and you may submit them to [email protected].
Flathead Wildlife INC, as well as many individuals and even other organizations, have worked diligently to get to this point, a wide open public process where we all have a say in where the next step of management in Flathead Lake goes. Now is not the time to step back and claim a victory. Now is when the real work begins. Will you be part of the process? Participate in the NEPA comment process, but don’t just SAY something, PROPOSE something and in that, make a difference.