State will consider Bull River restrictions at June 19 meeting
The typically tranquil Bull River has been a haven for area recreators to pilot their canoes, kayaks, john boats and tubes.
Their pursuits range widely, from those seeking quiet, some chasing trout, a refuge from midsummer heat and even hunters after the various species of waterfowl that are found there.
But after multiple speed boats powered through an area last summer where local landowner Paul Overman and two more generations of his family has spent decades enjoying the waterway, he sprung into action.
Overman sought and got the names of 271 people who signed his petition seeking a regulation that powered water craft will not be allowed on the Bull River from its headwaters in the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness to the confluence of the Clarkfork River near Noxon.
Most petition signers were from nearby Heron, Noxon, Trout Creek, Troy and Libby, but he also had signers from Montana locales as far away as Belgrade and Billings. And that doesn’t even include the people from South Dakota, Washington, Idaho, Georgia and Florida who signed.
The petition was received Sept. 27, 2024, by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
Following the acceptance of public comment and a public hearing last month, Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission members will decide at its June 19 meeting in Helena on whether to implement a complete restriction involving powered water craft, an alternative limiting the engine horsepower of boats on the section of river or no change.
According to previous reporting in the Daily Inter Lake, the commission voted to accept a petition calling for the regulation of motorized watercraft on the Bull River in western Montana.
“I’ve been playing on the Bull River since I was a boy, and now my kids, my grandkids. We all spend a lot of time by or in the river,” said the petition’s author, Overman told the Inter Lake. “It’s been a quiet peaceful safe river for years.”
“I am concerned that, if allowed, we will have more and more high-speed boats, jet boats, etcetera coming up the river that will put our stream banks at high risk,” said Overman.
Representatives from the Montana Wildlife Federation and the Cabinet Resource Group pointed out the disastrous impact that stream bank erosion and large boat wakes could have on threatened bull trout populations that spawn in the river.
Other proponents voiced concerns about the safety of floaters and anglers.
“I don’t want to have to worry about a boat coming around the corner. I’m not that quick,” Heron resident Colleen Hinds told the Inter Lake.
While nobody voiced opposition to the petition, several proponents said they hoped a final ruling would allow the use of low-power motors on the river. Commissioner Brian Cebull echoed this, urging the commission to consider alternatives to an all-out ban in the final vote.
According to a Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks information sheet, the Bull River petition is the third the commission has received in the last five years involving the restriction of motorized watercraft on state rivers as pleasure craft use has increased dramatically in the state.
In 2021, a petition was received regarding the Shields River in Meagher and Park counties. In 2022, another was received regarding the Boulder River in Park County.
The commission took action to adopt certain motorized watercraft restrictions on those bodies of water.
While not part of the Bull River petition, more use of jet boats on certain rivers in the region is causing more discussion about safety.
A 14-foot boat driven by a man from Harrison, Idaho sank in the Kootenai River below the Kootenai Falls in late March. No one was injured in the accident.
Three years ago in June 2022, four men died after a speed boat accident on the Pend Oreille River in Idaho in late June. The Bonner County Sheriff’s Office said excessive speed and alcohol consumption played roles in the fatal accident.