The Upper Yellowstone River Recreational Use Study employed camera traps to document on-river realities including user density and activity choice. Photo courtesy Upper Yellowstone Watershed Group
by David
Tucker
In 2016,
mountain whitefish in Montana’s Yellowstone River were turning up dead. Dozens
were documented bobbing down the blue-ribbon fishery and washing up on
shorelines from Gardiner to Springdale. Something was wrong.
In
response, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks closed 183 miles of the Yellowstone and
all its tributaries to recreational activities, crippling the local economy and
sending the community into action.
“The river
closure sent a shock wave in a number of different directions,” Whitney Tilt,
project manager for Upper Yellowstone Watershed Group, told Mountain Journal in a
phone interview. “And there was some concern about any role recreation could
have played.”
On any
given summer Saturday, more than 800 people enjoy the Yellowstone River between
Yellowstone National Park and Livingston, Montana, and management agencies do
not have baseline data to help inform policy. Now, one pandemic, a 1,000-year
flood and an historic development boom later, the Upper Yellowstone River
Recreational Use Study
hopes to plug that gap.
“The
primary question, from the standpoint of recreational use, is how well do the
individual river access sites meet the public and commercial needs at times of
high demand,” Tilt wrote in the report. “River access sites are the primary
pinch point for public access to the water.”
Survey
respondents in the study gave the on-river experience overwhelmingly high marks
to the tune of almost 99 percent satisfaction, however they were less impressed
with the put-ins and take-outs along the waterway. Just 56 percent of surveyed
users were very satisfied with the put-ins in 2023, down from 92 percent in
2020, and only 36 percent were very satisfied with the take-outs, compared to
90 percent in 2020. Still, taken together, 97 percent of people are satisfied
with the access-site experience, an overwhelmingly positive response.
Survey from the Upper Yellowstone River Recreational Use Study. Courtesy Upper Yellowstone Watershed Group
While much
of the report supports what longtime river users already assumed, perhaps most
surprising for this world-famous trout water is the relatively low number of
anglers. On July 4 weekend in 2021, fisher-folk made up just 14 percent of the
total observed users, with the vast majority taking to the river on personal
crafts such as float tubes or individual kayaks, the so-called
“splash-and-giggle” crowd.
According
to Tilt, these are the kind of results that justify the study. With these hard
numbers, recreation managers and stakeholders can more effectively work to
improve the experience for all users. “The outcome we’re aiming for is that we
have a resource that is heavily used, without that translating into abused,” Tilt
said.
The report
concludes with a set of recommendations for improved river access, better etiquette
education, improved road safety measures, better resource management and
ongoing monitoring, but it does not include the impact all this recreation
might be having on ecosystem health. “From a fishery standpoint, there are
reasons for concern,” Tilt added. “We do think the fishery is not as robust as
it used to be.”
Recreation along the Yellowstone River has increased in recent years, and a recently published study hopes data-driven policy has improve the experience while better protecting the natural resource. Photo courtesy Upper Yellowstone Watershed Group
Once
again, FWP has remarkably little information on the health of the fishery, but
that could soon change too. With funding from the agency, researchers at Montana
State University are conducting creel studies on several iconic Montana trout
streams, and in 2025 that research will include the Yellowstone.
As
recreating on Montana’s rivers continues to increase in popularity, legislators
at the state level are also taking notice. On March 18, House Bill 762, the
so-called “river census” bill, passed 67-32. Bozeman Democrat Rep. Joshua Seckinger,
himself a fishing guide, introduced the bill that would require FWP to collect
data on 966 miles of 16 different waterways, including the Yellowstone below the
study area in the Upper Yellowstone Watershed Group report.
With HB
762, Seckinger hopes to bring more clarity to who is using Montana’s rivers and
when, allowing managers to implement data-driven policies that better reflect
the on-water realities.
“In recent
sessions we’ve seen various proposals aimed at regulating river traffic, often
based on anecdotal observations rather than comprehensive data,” Seckinger said
on the House floor on March 18. “This bill seeks to establish a clear baseline
of use.”
Mountain Journalis a nonprofit, public-interest journalism organization dedicated to covering the wildlife and wild lands of Greater Yellowstone. We take pride in our work, yet to keep bold, independent journalism free, we need your support. Please donate here. Thank you.
About David Tucker
David Tucker is a freelance journalist covering conservation, recreation and the environment in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
