More than 100 people both nights showed up at public meetings last week to learn more about the proposed action for the Flathead River Comprehensive River Management Plan.

Concerns ranged from proposed capacity goals to implementation of the plan itself, as some aspects of the plan could take years to put into effect.

The proposed action is just the first step in the process, with a draft plan with far more detail expected this summer and a final plan by early next year, which will set a management plan for the 219 miles of the river classified as Wild and Scenic.

Flathead National Forest Supervisor Anthony Botello said the plan is a top priority for the Forest and he expects to see it completed.

The Forest Service first wrote a proposed action in 2019, but it never came to fruition, bogged down by the pandemic and funding issues.

Front and center was user capacity tables in the proposed action for various sections of the three forks of the Flathead, from the wilderness sections of the Middle and South Forks, to the popular whitewater section of the Middle Fork near West Glacier, which sees thousands of floaters each summer.

Project leader Mary Greenwood said that user capacity is not a visitor use limit.

“User capacity is not an inherent property of place; it is a decision agencies are making based on our knowledge and best available data,” she noted.

The idea is to keep capacity at level that doesn’t compromise what’s termed “outstanding remarkable values.”

But some members of the audience seemed dubious.

Joe Basirico, a private rafter, noted the previous 1986 plan called for about 35,000 commercial user days on the whitewater section of the Middle Fork downstream from Moccasin Creek.

This plan calls for about 86,000 user days on the same section, which is still well above the five-year average of about 71,000 it sees now.

He noted that’s more than double what the ’86 plan saw fit.

Across the board, others noted, almost all of the user capacity numbers have been shifted upward in the proposed action, no matter what the section of river.

But MJ Crandall, recreation staff officer for the Flathead National Forest, said user capacity is not a goal.

“It’s what we feel the river can take,” he said.

He said the hope is to balance river use and manage for a “wide range of recreational opportunities.”

The Forest Service plans on starting out with a free, unlimited mandatory permit system for the rivers once the plan is finalized.

The initial priority segments would be on the South Fork from Youngs and Danaher Creeks to the swinging bridge at Spotted Bear and on the Middle Fork from Bear Creek to Cascadilla.

The South Fork is primarily wilderness, while the Middle Fork is a section is paralleled by the BNSF Railway tracks and U.S. Highway 2.

However, it also runs through Glacier National Park, and park officials have raised concerns about people and their pet dogs disturbing mountain goats that come to the gray cliffs to eat mineral soils in the summertime.

In the stretch from Bear Creek to Essex, dogs would be prohibited on river and onshore. From the Staircase Rapid downstream to Split Rock, which is 1 mile downstream from the Goat Lick, floaters would be prohibited from going a shore and would be required to continuously move downriver in the main current while floating.

Bill Hodge, the former director of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation and more recently, the Montana representative for the Wilderness Society, said the permit system, particularly in the South Fork, was a good idea and suggested volunteer groups could help in monitoring.

With the advent of pack rafts, floaters on the South Fork have increased.

Bob Jordan, a longtime outfitter and guide as well as boardmember of the Flathead River Alliance said he hoped the plan would have enough flexibility to make changes fairly quickly, rather than waiting two or three years for study results.

But Botello conceded that as it’s written, the plan will take time to take any management actions.

“But we have to start somewhere,” he noted.

The Forest Service is the lead agency on the plan. The Park Service is also very much involved, as the west boundary of Glacier National Park is the middle of the North Fork of the Flathead and  much of the southern boundary is the high water mark of the Middle Fork.

The public comment period ends Feb. 7. Comments including attachments may be submitted electronically at cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public.

The plan can be downloaded at: www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=56536

The Forest Service has already received more than 157 comments on the proposed action and there is a “reading room” on the project website where people can view the comments.