Lake community split over access site

Hungry Horse News

By the numbers, public opinion is about equally divided for and against Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks' proposal to build a public fishing access site on Lake Five.

FWP regional park manager Marty Watkins said about 40 people-primarily Lake Five residents-engaged in a "lively discussion" at a public hearing on the plan March 8 in Hungry Horse.

"The vast preponderance of the discussion concerned water quality, overcrowding and other potential impacts," she said.

Watkins said she has received "a ton of comments" since the meeting, mostly balanced and evenly divided. FWP will extend the deadline for comments to April 1 in light of the number of concerns, she said.

As proposed by FWP, Paul's Fishing Access Site would be located adjacent to the Lake Five Resort and feature 23 parking sites, a paved road, a live-in camp host, a vault toilet and a boat ramp, along with a well and septic system for the camp host.

Opponents to the plan expressed concern over gasoline spills harming water quality, littering on the lake shore, and overcrowding by personal watercraft and recreational boats, Watkins said.

"If the fishing access site is built, Lake Five would no longer be a private lake, and the 200-foot no-wake-zone law would go into effect," she said.

Watkins also said opponents felt the Lake Five fishery was not large enough to justify construction of a public fishing access site. Opponents felt the parking lot and launch facility would primarily be used by recreational users.

FWP fisheries biologist Jim Vashro said Lake Five was known as a good fishing lake in the 1950s and 1960s, when the state was still regularly stocking it with rainbow and cutthroat trout.

"In the 1970s, the state moved to a policy of not stocking fish where there was no public access," he said. "Fishing dropped off at Lake Five over the next two decades."

In the early 1990s, however, FWP began regularly planting kokanee salmon in Lake Five as a way to get more eggs for Lake Mary Ronan, Vashro said.

"That idea didn't pan out, but the kokanee fishery at Lake Five is doing very well now," he said.

More recently, FWP lowered the volume of planted kokanee in hopes of increasing their size, Vashro said. Kokanee make for good ice fishing and summer jigging and trolling, he said.

If the fishing access site is established, FWP would consider planting 20,000 rainbow trout every year in Lake Five, Vashro said.

"It could be a good rainbow sport fishery within 12 months," he said.

Vashro said a good perch fishery already exists there, and bass in the lake could benefit from the stocking.

Because it's a private lake, data on Lake Five water quality is not abundant, Vashro said. The available evidence, however, suggests no water quality problems exist, he said.

As for concerns about power boats and overcrowding, Vashro said a public process exists wherein local residents can petition the Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission for regulations limiting horsepower, use hours, speed and other factors.

James Ridenour, whose mother sold the 10 acres to FWP for a fishing access site, approves of that idea.

"I think Lake Five should be regulated by FWP rather than self-serving lake residents," he said.

Ridenour said his father, Harold Ridenour, had long been concerned about providing public access to the lake and always allowed people to cross their land to access the lake. He said his mother followed up on his father's wishes by selling the 10-acre site to FWP last September.

In November, a different offer was tendered to FWP by Kalispell-attorney Jeff Ellingson, representing the Lake Five Resort and the other half of the Lake Five Ridenour family.

The resort offered to sell 150 feet of Lake Five Resort lake shore property-about two acres in total-for use as a public fishing access site. In exchange, the resort would pay the state the fair-market difference and acquire the 10-acre site.

In a letter to FWP explaining the deal, Ellingson said the state could save money by taking advantage of infrastructure already in place at the resort. He also proposed "restricting the public access to non-motorized and low-speed motorized boating" and applying the same restrictions to Lake Five Resort customers.

Ellingson told the Hungry Horse News that the money FWP will use for construction of the fishing access site was donated by a mother whose son canoed and "was not a power-boat user."

Ellingson also said he didn't feel the Lake Five fishery was large enough to justify a public fishing access site.

Public comments on the proposed public fishing access site can be sent to: Regional parks manager Marty Watkins, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, 490 North Meridian Road, Kalispell MT 59901, or by e-mail to mawatkins@state.mt.us.