Poker Joe Fishing Access settlement reached
by KRISTIN KNIGHT - Ravalli Republic
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After a year and a half, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and landowners adjacent to the Poker Joe Fishing Access have reached a settlement.
The agreement ensures public access to Poker Joe through a road easement. It also establishes that FWP will continue to enhance management activities at Poker Joe and make several road and site improvements, including expanding parking at the site.
Access at Poker Joe has been limited periodically since November 2006 when several nearby landowners placed a chain across the access road in response to concerns about speeding, parked vehicles blocking driveways and gates, garbage and litter, and a string of vandalism that included breaking into cars and firing guns in the residential area.
“In some ways I feel like we lost and in other ways we haven't,” said landowner Melodee Franklin. “They've set up the speed bumps and put up speed limit signs, children-at-play signs and no-parking signs. We are going to give them an easement to the road, and by next July 31 parking will be expanded on their 10 acres.”
But, Franklin said, she and neighboring landowners still have concerns about late-night activity at the site when, according to Franklin, the site is designated only for day use. Franklin's husband, Ted Franklin, along with another neighbor, had recently installed a permanent gate across a bridge on the access road, but now have removed it. The gate would have been closed and locked every night to keep nighttime activity at bay.
“I'm disappointed about not being able to lock them out at night,” Melodee Franklin said. “But Fish and Game doesn't feel a private citizen should be allowed to do that and that it would be their job but they don't have the manpower to send somebody down at night to lock it and unlock it.”
She and her female neighbor are especially worried about the nights they'll be alone during hunting season.
“We hope things will settle down,” Franklin said. “It's just young punks causing this. They drive by and stop in front of our place and flip us off. It's just a small few, but those small few build up.”
Franklin said since no gate can be locked at night, if a car comes down at 2 a.m., she's just going to call 911.
“They're probably going to get sick of that, but it's our only option,” she said.
“This agreement is a win-win situation,” said FWP attorney Bill Schenk in a press release. “It preserves access and the site improvements will help to better serve the needs of the public and address concerns the landowners have.”
“To me, this has got to show the public that Fish and Game knows we did have valid reasons,” Franklin said. “We did have a good case as far as how we've been treated.”
Franklin said she has been pleased by the actions of local FWP officials and sheriff's deputies.
“The Fish and Game guys who have come down here know the problem and they've been so good to us,” she said. “And one sheriff's deputy in particular, I don't know his name, he's just been super nice and said when he's on duty he will come down and check on things from time to time. So we didn't lose completely.
“We did have some issues and FWP knows that and did follow through with maintaining the road and putting up signs. In a lot of ways we didn't lose. We've gotten much more than we ever had before.”
FWP asks hunters, anglers and recreationists to be aware of site regulations and respectful to the landowners and private property adjacent to Poker Joe.
Reporter Kristin Knight can be reached at 363-3300 or kknight@ravallirepublic.com
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