Absurd boat ramp traffic jams… plummeting fish-per-mile counts on fabled rivers… absentee owners blowing up the real estate market… recurring threats to stream access… heck, even Tom McGuane said in a recent New Yorker interview, “I’ve had a long romance with Montana, but it’s one I find harder to grasp every year.” What’s the story here?
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3 Comments
Sounds like whining to me. If you judge by last summer, you’re getting a skewed sample because of Covid and the mad rush to lose cabin fever. I fished in MT for 2 weeks and found plenty of solitude and good fishing. Campsites and hotel rooms were tougher because of Covid easing/vaccinations and everyone taking a trip.
Crying about ramp-jams has a simple solution, get off yer butt and talk a walk.
I live in the Bitterroot Valley and the increase in river traffic is having a noticeable negative effect on the fishery and the fishing experience. There is too much of everything. Too many spring and summer visitors / anglers booking guided trips. Too many people buying homes to escape to the country. Too many locals up-in-arms about too many imagined and ginned-up grievances. A fishing season with guide trips extending into November and beginning in March. These changes are recent and worrisome.
Montana has been loved to death – we have met the enemy and he is us.
Thank goodness common sense appears to be prevailing on the WFK in the area – otherwise it too would be lost to the more-of-everything mentality.
Chambers of commerce / tourist development organizations have way too much impact on the quality of life for local residents all over the country.
Locals need to re-define ; ‘progress’ & soon.