Love, war and State Parks

What do Montana's 55 different state parks mean to you? Montana residents who do not regularly visit our state parks may not realize just how beneficial the state park system is in their communities and everyday lives. Let's delve into some of those areas as it applies directly to our town of Seeley Lake, and the nearby Placid Lake State Park and Salmon Lake State Park.

When many people think of Montana State Parks they often think of a single park or campground, mistakenly thinking that our positive impact does not reach outside the park property. In fact, just recently, I was invited to a Seeley Lake Elementary class where I gave a lesson about some of the large animals that live all around us. It's always fun to share facts with the kids.

This year, while I was signing in as a guest at the front office, a different class of children walked past in single file. One kid excitedly asked if I brought bugs again.

"Not this time" I replied. "This time we are talking about bears, lions, and wolves." To which he quickly replied with excitement "Bears eat bugs!" The kid continued down the hallway with his class, I wasn't here to meet that particular class of kids.

Here is the backstory to that brief exchange. The year prior, I was invited to his classroom and that time we talked about insects. We talked about insect lifecycles and how important moths, beetles, grubs, and ants are to the diet of bears. In that brief 10-second exchange as the kids passed by, it was a rewarding experience to have that chance encounter in which a short lesson the previous year was retained.

That young kid recognized me in my uniform as the state park ranger who came to his classroom and talked about important bugs. When he learned I was here to talk about bears this time, he instantly re-made that connection between the mighty bear and the lowly bug.

At my previous duty location, I would regularly load a pickup truck full of priceless dinosaur fossils and drive them to classrooms hours away to share those resources and information to school classrooms, senior citizen homes, community functions, and many others.

I have heard people mention Placid Lake State Park and Salmon Lake State Park as locations created by the government with the intent to make money on campers, which is simply not true. In fact, the impetus behind the creation of these two parks was started by our own community fathers and grandfathers, through Champion Timber. In honor of three foresters who died in a tragic plane accident, Champion Timber donated these places to be maintained and cared for perpetuity.

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks – Parks Division was the best agency to fulfill that intent. The improvements and investments made at both Placid Lake State Park and Salmon Lake State Park since they became a park in 1976 has been significant.

From 1976 to 2004 the investment dollars came from a combination parks earned revenue (camping fees) and general fund dollars (tax dollars). However, in 2004 Montana State Parks quit receiving the tax dollars in lieu of the optional vehicle registration fee. That decision has largely been beneficial to Montana State Parks. We shouldn't forget that those funds are used for good things like providing clean drinking water, trash services, fire rings, picnic tables, and yes some of those funds even provide a means for park staff to travel to schools and other locations both near and far.

So, when I hear people lament that they won't support Montana State Park financially through park entrance fees or vehicle registration fees, it hurts me to think that it could affect my ability to travel to classrooms with animals' hides, dinosaur fossils and bugs in order to help people better understand - even when it's making the connection between bugs and our magnificent state animal, the Grizzly Bear.

The economic impact versus the resource impact are on opposite ends of the spectrum. It's hard to know exactly how many people have visited Salmon and Placid Lake State Parks since they became a state park in 1976, because for the first half of those years we really didn't have any mechanism to ascertain how many visitors we hosted every year. We have those mechanisms in place today.

Utilizing the information that we have today, I believe each park has hosted just over, or nearly, two million visitors. Two million visitors over 44 years have brought a lot of extra business to the town of Seeley Lake. Those visitors have made countless purchases in our businesses. While you might not realize it, when a visitor asks one of our park staff where to go to purchase food, drink, equipment rentals, motor parts, fishing equipment, souvenirs or go on a horse ride, we send them to our businesses right here in Seeley Lake.

And what is the corresponding resource impact of those four million people combined between both Placid Lake State Park and Salmon Lake State Park? Negligible because we are managing them all within a footprint of 31-acres of land at Placid Lake State Park and 42-acres at Salmon Lake State Park.

I have been to locations in Montana where annually only several hundred visitors go to recreate without oversight from an agency like Montana State Park and the contrast is stark and saddening. Those locations are littered with trash, waste, potholes in the roads, native vegetation trampled to dust, invasive weeds left to take over and virtually no financial stimulation in the local economy.

Montana State Parks are a valuable partner to have in our community. I hope that our community continues to stay aware of the threats and benefits to state park operations. Keep abreast of the various bills during the upcoming legislative session and please opt in when you renew your vehicle registration. A yearly $9 vehicle registration fee goes much further in our community.