From his van at Black's Ford fishing access site, Stan Smith has a front-seat view of the use and abuse of the Madison River.

"People for the most part care about it out here," Smith said, leaning against the van he uses to shuttle floaters back to their vehicles.

The users last Friday included sunbathers, canoeists, inner-tubers, anglers and even a group using a bright-green inflatable swimming pool as a raft. But there are also people who empty trash out of their boats onto the ground when they take out and beer drinkers who sit on the boat ramp and block others from backing in their boat trailers. On other rivers, complaints have included public urination, nudity and disorderly behavior.

"It's a people problem," Smith said as clouds of golden stoneflies danced in the air.

In response to ever-increasing use and surveys indicating that problems were brewing, the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, in conjunction with the Bureau of Land Management, last year implemented a special recreation permit program on 80 miles of the Madison River.

So far, Smith is pleased with the practice, although it's costing him money.

"The SRP is a good program because it's improving and educating people right here in this resource where I work," he said.

The special recreation permit is issued by Fish, Wildlife and Parks to commercial users, competitive events and organized groups on the Madison. The cost for the permit is a minimum of $95. Commercial users, such as whitewater guides and fishing outfitters, also pay 3 percent of their annual adjusted gross income. Last year on the Madison, the 187 permits issued raised more than $80,000. The money is used to pay the salaries of a river manager and a ranger, as well as maintenance of camping and access sites along the river.

The Madison SRP is nothing new. FWP has instituted similar rules on other rivers in the state to address crowding - including the Blackfoot, Smith, Beaverhead, Big Hole and Alberton Gorge on the Clark Fork River. Each stream is managed somewhat differently, but they all have one thing in common - recreational users initiated the management out of concerns about crowding.

But according to Charlie Sperry, river recreation management specialist for FWP, "Most people want the problem solved on the backs of someone else."

On the Beaverhead and Big Hole, the "someone else" is nonresident anglers and float-fishing outfitters. Between the third Saturday in May and Labor Day, the two groups are banned from floating sections of the rivers on weekends.

Tim Tollett, owner of Frontier Anglers fly shop in Dillon, said he didn't like the inclusion of nonresidents in the rule.

"It had a very negative effect on our business," he said, estimating that in the first year his business dropped 40 percent. He said some nonresidents who felt slighted have refused to return to fish in Montana.

Tollett said the restrictions make sense only during the busiest times of the summer on the two sections of the Big Hole. The rest of the season, there's plenty of room, he said.

The Madison is a different animal, though.

"It gets a little crazy at times," Tollett said. "It can be a little claustrophobic."

According to FWP's biennial angler survey, the Madison is the most heavily fished river in the state, with more than 100,000 angling days a year. (An angling day is one person fishing one river for any portion of a day.)

There are also inner-tubers, canoeists and rafters. Their proliferation on warm weekends on the Madison River is known locally as the bikini hatch. On the Blackfoot River, it's called the tuber hatch.

The fact that a throng of people is compared to a swarm of insects suggests how the pleasure floaters are viewed by some anglers - as an annoying affliction and an obstacle to catching fish.

Singling out users

Kris Kumlien takes issue with the word "crowded" when applied to the Madison. He grew up fishing the river and now guides anglers there. There are more people than when he was a child, but he can still launch early or late on the busiest days and avoid the crush.

Kumlien said the new permit system on the Madison felt like an attack on his industry - fly-fishing outfitters and guides.

"Everyone was sort of - not against it, but apprehensive about it," he said. "It was perceived as anti-outfitting."

He said he has no problem paying for the permit since the money goes back into the management of the river system. But he thinks there are other ways to ease pressure on the river, adding that the quality of the fishing has actually improved despite more anglers as rainbow trout numbers have bounced back following the onset of whirling disease.

According to a recent FWP survey, though, the increase in the number of recreational users on the Madison has resulted in 68 percent of avid resident anglers moving to other streams or avoiding the river altogether. The survey also points to other problems during the river's high-use season, including more complaints about the number of float anglers, recreational floaters and trespassing by river users.

Sperry, FWP's river management specialist, noted that despite the complaints, a majority of anglers who responded to the survey still rated the fishing experience as acceptable or very acceptable. A new survey to be conducted this summer will aimed at nonresident anglers and other river users.

"It will give us a more complete picture out there about how satisfied the public is," Sperry said.

In the future

Although more intensive management may not thin river crowds, managers hope it will make river users more respectful of the resource and of one another. To that end, free mesh trash bags are offered at fishing access sites on the Madison and Blackfoot rivers. Dumpsters have been placed at fishing access sites during summer months.

Smith, the shuttle van driver, said he's seeing a difference in just a year. The boat launch he stakes out is noticeably cleaner.

"Ninety-five percent of the people are responsible users of the resource," he said. "It's nice to have Dumpsters out here, it's nice to be proactive and do something about the issues."

Will river management soon be the norm on Montana's rivers? Will popular rivers near Billings, such as the Bighorn, Stillwater or upper Yellowstone, be next?

It could happen eventually, Sperry said, but it won't be initiated by his agency.

"That's a long way out and certainly not a goal," Sperry said. "But it could happen. We're being very cautious to not proceed too quickly and keep up with what the public desires."

Contact Brett French at french@billingsgazette.com or at 657-1387.