FWP plans to stop the party at White Bear may lead to summer reopening in 2025

The White Bear Fishing Access Site is a shaded oasis three miles south of Great Falls, where white-tailed deer browse beneath the cottonwood and sycamore trees and where wood ducks and beaver swim along the Missouri River’s northern shore. It has also been a constant source of aggravation to nearby property owners, who were regularly subjected to loud, raucous parties of intoxicated visitors who left behind trash and made traveling the rural roads hazardous.

The problems with undesirable and sometimes illegal visitor activities at the fishing access site (FAS) got so out of control that for the past eight years White Bear has been closed to the public each summer. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP), which manages fishing access sites across Montana, even considered selling the 41-acre site rather than contend with the constant stream of bad behaviors and landowner complaints flowing out from White Bear.

“There had been an increase in underage drinking, intoxication, drug use, people building fires and accessing the property at night and having parties, that kind of thing,” explained FWP Recreation Manager Cannon Colegrove. That was not something that was favorable to the public or to the adjacent landowners.”

“In 2015 the Fish and Wildlife Commission took that topic up and implemented a closure over the summer months as a way to curb that behavior that had been occurring,” he added. Specifically, from June until after Labor Day when younger kids are out of school, and everyone is out enjoying the summer.”

It has been an effective but unfortunate solution to the problems at White Bear, successfully eliminating most of the undesirable behaviors that had plagued the FAS, but also closing public access to one of the few remaining blocks of mixed forest bottomland close to Great Falls at precisely the time most people would enjoy using it.

Colegrove pointed out that while recreationalists enjoy a large number of river access sites downstream from Great Falls the options upstream are more limited. Other than an unimproved section of state land off Wilson Butte Road, White Bear offers the only public river access within a 20-minute drive south of the city.

“Those are really the only two access points to the Missouri River out in the Fox Farm area,” he said. “We have had a lot of people express that they would like to use White Bear to float the Missouri River, either as a take-out location from Cottonwood Grove (FAS) or Big Bend (FAS), and also as a launch point to float down to Great Falls and take out in town.”

Last September FWP released a draft proposal to install security measures at the fishing access site, and to develop new recreational opportunities to encourage more responsible, family-oriented use at White Bear. Included within the plan are installation of an automatic electronic gate at the FAS’s entrance that would prevent access into (but not out of) White Bear between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m., new security lighting, and a security camera positioned to capture video the electronic gate and parking area.

The plan also proposes to install a new crushed-stone trail leading to the beach at White Bear Island, a dog-waste kiosk so people can dispose of pet waste sanitarily, several benches and interpretive signage to explain White Bear’s environmental and historical significance. The trail will also double as an access road behind an existing locked gate for use by FWP staff, law enforcement and emergency services.

“It will also offer an easier pathway for people to walk from the parking area down to the river for hand-launching kayaks and canoes or just swimming,” Colegrove pointed out.

“Basically, our priorities with this site are improving the safety of visitors, staff and the adjacent homeowners,” he explained. That’s our first priority with any site that FWP manages. We do feel that this site is lacking in that area, especially during the summer. We’re taking a serious look at that with this proposal, and we do feel like we’re taking some serious steps that will mitigate some of those problems that we’ve had in the past.

“Also, we’re looking to improve that public experience. We want a site that the public can come out to and enjoy, where they can just walk and enjoy it without the other undesirable uses occurring at the same time.”

Persuading local property owners that the added security measures will eliminate the problems of the past has been an uphill battle. FWP begin contacting surrounding property owners last May to present their proposal and allow for public comment on the future management of the site. Response to an online survey that ended in June revealed that many were dubious that the gate, lighting, cameras and access road would be enough to solve the problems.

“I feel your ideas are great, but if this area is not monitored at all times and the trash picked up, I do not see it being as great as you would like it to be,” one respondent wrote. “This is an area far away from town that is not a boat launch and is very large. It has not worked in the past and has been a headache for the sheriff’s department and fish and game. It would be way better to just be sold.”

However, there was also enthusiastic support from many area landowners, who view the White Bear FAS as an important asset to the community.

“Great Falls needs to provide easily accessible natural areas,” another respondent wrote. “With the expansion of housing into previous farmland, keeping some places natural is essential. That means that the natural environment is preserved as much as possible, and that human use is limited to enjoying and relaxing in it without a lot of other activities. Also, that means that the sheriff's department has to be available to monitor the area for people who are exploiting it.”

A majority of local residents reported visiting White Bear anywhere from a few times each year to once a week, mostly to enjoy a walk in the woods or to view wildlife. Most residents said they did not support FWP selling the property and were generally satisfied with reopening White Bear during the summer months if the improvements FWP were implemented.

Residents were most supportive of the installation of an electronic gate, additional lighting and a complete ban on the possession of alcohol at the fishing access site. They were generally opposed to establishing any type of hunting season at White Bear.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials hope to begin installing the proposed improvements at White Bear next year, with an expectation that the site would be open throughout the summer of 2025 for public use. That hope is not yet guaranteed, as funding for the project is dependent upon the award of a $200,000 grant from the Missouri/Madison Rivers Fund.

The Missouri/Madison Rivers Fund is a public-private partnership among local government, state and federal agencies with matching funding from NorthWestern Energy. Since 2007 the Missouri/Madison River Fund has supplied $12 million in grants to public recreation enhancements along the two popular waterways, but the funding is competitive and not guaranteed.

“The application period just closed a couple of weeks ago,” Colegrove said. “We will know if we were successful or not in receiving this funding by mid-December is my understanding.”

What seems undeniable is that there is broad public support to make improvements at the White Bear Fishing Access Site, and that if the disruptive behavior problems are resolved the site will become a valuable recreational asset for central Montana.

“We want to be able to allow the public to utilize this site and have an enjoyable experience year-round,” Colegrove said. “It’s a great place to recreate, and it’s certainly valuable to the community of Great Falls.”

White Bear's historical importance

The area surrounding White Bear Fishing Access Site is listed by the National Park Service as an area of “high potential historic” significance because of its importance to Lewis and Clark and their exploration of the Pacific Northwest.

The site’s name is in reference to the cluster of small islands downstream from the fishing access site where the Corps of Discovery established their upper portage camp. Today, the two largest islands just south of the Meadowlark Country Club are know as Park Island and Taylor Island, but to the Corps of Discovery they were know as the White Bear Islands, referencing to the numerous grizzly bears that terrorized the men during exploration and hunting along this section of the Missouri River.

On June 14, 1805 Meriwether Lewis was nearly mauled by a grizzly while hunting bison at what is now West Bank Park.

“… a large white, or rather brown bear, had perceived and crept on me within 20 steps before I discovered him,” Lewis wrote, “in the first moment I drew up my gun to shoot, but at the same instant recollected that she was not loaded and that he was too near for me to hope to perform this operation before he reached me, as he was then briskly advancing on me.”

The site was then an open plain with no brush or trees closer than 300 yards away for Lewis to escape to.

“I had no sooner turned myself about but he pitched at me, open mouthed and full speed, I ran about 80 yards and found he gained on me fast, I then run into the water,” Lewis wrote. “The idea struck me to get into the water to such depth that I could stand and he would be obliged to swim, and that I could in that situation defend myself with my espontoon; accordingly I ran hastily into the water about waist deep, and faced about and presented the point of my espontoon, at this instant he arrived at the edge of the water within about 20 feet of me.”

The bear wheeled around and did not pursue Lewis into the water, then ran away at full speed leaving Lewis trembling in the water.

“So it was, and I felt myself not a little gratified that he had declined the combat,” the captain recorded.

The White Bear Islands are historically important unto themselves because they mark the end point of the 18-mile slog the men of the Corps of Discovery had to make hauling canoes and gear around the five cataracts that made up the Great Falls of the Missouri River. It was one of the most arduous tasks of the entire expedition, with the men cutting their feet on cactus and sharp rocks while straining to drag tons of gear across the prairie.

“The men has to haul with all their Strength, weight & art,” William Clark wrote on June 23, 1805, “many times every man all catching the grass & knobs & Stones with their hands to give them more force in drawing on the Canoes & Loads, and notwithstanding the Coolness of the air in high perspiration at every halt. Those not employed in repairing the Canoes are asleep in a moment, many limping from the Soreness of their feet. Some become faint for a few moments, but no man Complains all go Cheerfully on.”

This article originally appeared on Great Falls Tribune: White Bear Fishing Access Site in Great Falls undergoing rehab