Wildlife officials will consider new rules regulating the use of motorized boats on the Bull River south of Libby, following a petition from a local landowner.

The Fish, Wildlife and Parks commission voted Wednesday to accept a petition calling for the regulation of motorized watercraft on the Bull River in western Montana. The vote initiates a public comment and review process, after which commissioners will decide whether to adopt new rules. 

“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, Paul Overman. “It’s been a quiet peaceful safe river for years.” 

That changed when five boats sped through his property last summer, causing 2-foot wakes to crash over the loamy riverbanks. The incident moved Overman to submit a petition to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, urging the agency to ban all motorized watercraft from the Bull River’s headwaters in the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness to its confluence with the Clark Fork near the town of Heron. 

“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 streambanks at high risk,” said Overman.  

Representatives from the Montana Wildlife Federation and the Cabinet Resource Group pointed out the disastrous impact that streambank 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,” said Heron resident Colleen Hinds. 

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. 

The commission has not published a timeline for the public comment period. 

ANOTHER PETITION related to boating wakes on Swan Lake did not move forward on the advice of the commission’s chief legal counsel, Jeff Hindoien. 

“As it turns out, in terms of the petition itself, a large number, if not nearly all of [the requests], are related to things in our department publication that are actually statutory, things the Legislature has actually done,” said Hindoien. 

Hindoien suggested the commission deny the petition because of the difficulties that may arise in changing the identified regulations and said he was working with the stakeholders to develop a request that better aligns with the commission’s rule-making authority. 

Reporter Hailey Smalley can be reached at [email protected] or at (406) 758-4433.