SUSAN GALLAGHER Associated Press writer | Posted: Wednesday, October 31, 2007 12:00 am
HELENA, Mont. - Nick Dole has set up a hunting camp in the same area of the Lewis and Clark National Forest every year since 1982 and stayed there for up to five weeks at a time, so it bothers him that the U.S. Forest Service stands to break his tradition by enforcing a 16-day limit on camping.
Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., also finds the decision disturbing and wants the regional head of the Forest Service to intervene.
"Our personal camp has been - what, a 20-some-year situation - and they want to change it," Dole said Monday from the camp he and friends use as a base for hunting deer and elk in the Little Belt Mountains east of Helena. The site is an undeveloped piece of ground with no toilet and not even a fire ring, but the road access is good.
"We've been here for this many years, and we kind of know where the game is and where it travels," said Dole, who is 65, retired from the food delivery business and lives southwest of Billings. He and several friends set up their camp - featuring a tent with plywood walls, a gas-powered refrigerator and two stoves - in time for the Oct. 21 opening of Montana's big-game season and plan to be there until it closes on Nov. 25.
That's OK this year, but it won't be in 2008, the Forest Service says.
Starting next year, the agency no longer will waive a 16-day limit on camping. People who wish to dwell in the forest longer must move to a different place, at least five air miles away, the Forest Service said.
The five-week encampment "sanctioned for a quarter of a century by the Forest Service has become an important part of Mr. Dole's hunting heritage," Rehberg said in a letter asking Regional Forester Tom Tidwell to reconsider the policy.
"Reversing this decision would be another small, but important step in promoting hunting here in Montana," a sport in decline nationwide, said the congressman.
Tidwell received the letter Monday and is considering Rehberg's concerns, but finds forest managers were logical in supporting the 16-day limit, said Mike Oliver, a spokesman at the Forest Service's regional office in Missoula. Other forests in the region enforce limits of 14 to 16 days, Oliver said.
Staying longer both prevents other people from using what may be preferred sites and discourages public use of neighboring areas, said Dave Cunningham, public affairs officer for the Lewis and Clark forest. Under the code of camping in wild places, setting up a camp near one already established is intrusive, Cunningham said.
He said he knows of no formal complaints about extended stays, but Forest Service officials had heard comments that people settled in for too long. "We got the sense that some people thought they were being denied opportunities" to camp in places they liked, he said.
The Forest Service examined its waiver policy previously, decided it would get another look in five years, has conducted that review and now wants compliance with the 16-day rule to "provide the greatest good for the greatest number of people," Cunningham said.
Hundreds of people park trailers and set up tents to camp in the Lewis and Clark forest during hunting season, he said. Montana had 153,000 deer hunters and 103,000 elk hunters last year and the 2007 numbers could be comparable, according to the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, which issues hunting licenses.
Dole, who hasn't killed any game yet this season but did catch fish for Sunday night's dinner, said he was camping with four companions on Monday but at times during the hunting season, the number of people there could rise to a dozen or so.
"It's just a handy spot to be," said Dole, who described the camp as "a pretty elaborate little deal." Given that setting up takes most of a day and driving the equivalent of five air miles to relocate would require costly fuel, the 16-day rule doesn't make sense, he said. The Forest Service said the five-mile rule is intended to keep people from relocating just a short distance and monopolizing an area.
Dole said he contacted Rehberg after finding that the best way to communicate with the Forest Service "is to go above them and let it trickle back down."