Table Of ContentS 1993 Montana state-
796.5 V7ide comprehensive
F2M outdoor recreation plan
1993 a draft for public
DRAFT review and comment
1993
MONTANA STATEWIDE
COMPREHENSIVE OUTDOOR
RECREATION PLAN
A DRAFT FOR PUBLIC REVIEW AND COMMENT
SEPTEMBER
1992
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Heiena, MT 59620
October 14, 1 992
Dear Recreation Enthusiast:
Enclosed for your review and comment is a draft copy of the 1 993 Montana Statewide Comprehensive
Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP). This plan maintains the state's eligibility to receive funding from the
federal Land and Water Conservation Fund Grants Program. For over 25 years the Montana Department of
Fish, Wildlife and Parks has administered Montana's share of this 50/50 match program, financing more than
750 p/ojects statewide representing a $60 million investment of federal, state and local dollars.
The 1993 SCORP differs from past SCORPs in that the 93 plan uses information gathered from previous
SCORP studies, as well as from recent research to identify the main focus areas presented in Section I!!,
1 suggest reviewing Section III carefully, since this outlines the areas that SCORP will focus on for the next
five years. Section II! also contains.a revised Land and Water Conservation Fund Open Project Selection
Process (OPSP) on pages 14-23. The OPSP is the means by which project proposals submitted by local
government agencies are evaluated and ranked for matching grant revenue..
Comments on any aspect of the SCORP are encouraged and should be submitted in writing to:
SCORP-Public Comment
State Parks Division
Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks
1 420 East Sixth Avenue
Helena, Montana 59620
A synopsis of public comments will be reported in Section V of the final report. All of the appendices listed
have not been included in this package due to excessive size. Requests for copies of the complete appendix
can be made to the Parks Division in Helena at (406) 444-3750. The official public comment period runs
from October 1 5 to December 15, 1992. The final document will be published in January of 1993.
I hope you will find the plan both useful and informative. Please contact me at (406; 444-38 1 8 if you have
any questions about the 1 993 SCORP, or if you would like additional information about the Land and Water
Conservation Fund Program.
Sincerely,
^James P. Domino
Outdoor Recreation Planner
Parks Division
I
enclosure
p t 3 '199^^
SECTIONS
INTRODUCTION
AN ANALYSIS OF TRENDS IN RECREATION
I.
participationANDSCORPPOLICYRECOMMENDATIONS
IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
II.
MONTANA WETLANDS
III.
oc;
i
1992
COMMENT
PUBLIC
IV. STATE LIBRARy
uci 6th AVE
'^^LENA, MONTANA
59620
APPENDICIES
V.
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2017 with funding from
Montana State Library
S
https://archive.org/details/1993montanastat1993mont_0
INTRODUCTION
''i
.
INTRODUCTION
Montana is endowed with an abundance of outstanding natural,
cultural, historic and recreational resources. Its citizens have
a outdoor legacy linked inseparably to the land. Montana is
derived from the Spanish word for mountain, with the western
third of the State dominated by the northern ranges of the Rocky
Mountains. The central and eastern portions of the state are a
composite of high plains, rolling hills and isolated prairie
mountains. It is within this diverse and vast landscape that
Montanan's develop and endow their rich outdoor recreation
heritage. Montanans place tremendous importance on ensuring that
their outdoor recreational needs are met, and that the State's
rustic attributes are properly managed and conserved for present
and future generations.
The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) through
,
the Parks Division, has prepared the Statewide Comprehensive
Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP) as a means to identify the
outdoor recreational needs and desires of Montanans, and as a way
of identifying programs and actions to fulfill those needs in a
way that will benefit all Montanans. The legal authority for
outdoor recreation planning in Montana is derived from Section
23-2-101, Montana Code Annotated (MCA) Section 23-2-102 MCA
.
authorizes Montana's participation in the federal Land and Water
Conservation Fund (LWCF) Act of 1965 (Public Law 88-578)
The Parks Division of FWP administers the LWCF program, which
provides matching grants to state and local governments for
acquisition, development and improvement of outdoor recreation
resources or facilities. The National Park Service is
responsible for administering the LWCF program for the federal
government. A SCORP is required from each state at least every
five years in order to remain eligible for LWCF revenues. In the
27 years since the act passed, Montana has received approximately
$60 million to fund more than 750 projects, ranging from half-
acre city parks, to 55,000 acre Wildlife Management Areas.
The 1993 Montana Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan
(SCORP) has been developed to provide guidance and cohesiveness
to the management of outdoor recreation resources in Montana, and
to facilitate services provided to users by federal, state and
local governments, as well as private providers. It differs from
previous SCORP documents in that a contemporary assessment of
needs, issues, participation in outdoor recreation activities,
and policies to address problem areas has been achieved by
looking at SCORP planning efforts over the past 27 years since
the first Montana SCORP was published in September of 1965, as
well as recently conducted public assessments and inventories.
The 1993 SCORP initiates what is hoped to be an on-going process
of self evaluation, assessment, and action to address a more
narrowly focused range of concerns. This will include planning
frameworks, needed research, and actual measurable outcomes, as
opposed to previous SCORPs which attempted to cover a broad
spectrum of outdoor recreation issues, and identified actions
with little or no evaluative substance. This is not a venture to
de-emphasize the many significant problems and challenges facing
natural resource conservation and outdoor recreation management
efforts in Montana, but simply an effort to transform SCORP to a
more workable and useable planning tool. Past SCORPs mainly
served as a comprehensive information source for a specific point
in time, requiring updating every five years. They generally
lacked clearly defined goals, measurable objectives, and did not
maintain social science methodological standards from one SCORP
to the next.
The Analysis of Trends section utilizes information from research
conducted outside, as well as within the seven previous Montana
SCORP processes to identify patterns in recreation participation,
issues, actions and policies, and recreation needs. Also
provided are recommendations for standardizing data collection
and survey techniques, and suggested guidelines for the
development of standard definitions for various recreational
activities. This information, and the data collected from other
studies referenced in the report serve as the basis for the three
focus areas addressed by the 1993 SCORP.
PUBLIC COMMENT AND PARTICIPATION
The 1993 SCORP utilized information and public comment and input
from past SCORPs in the development of the draft report, as
outlined in the trend analysis. The draft report will be
circulated for public review and comment a period of 60 days,
with comments received incorporated into the final report. The
1993 SCORP will be the most widely circulated of any previous
SCORP, with a copy of the draft document mailed directly to each
town, city, county, and Indian Nation government in Montana.
Included in this mailing will be other state government agencies
and selected federal agencies and special interest/non-profit
organizations. The SCORP will serve the purpose of providing a
means to address three important outdoor recreation issues, and
providing a source of information about the various programs
proposed or on-going that will assist in the provision of outdoor
recreation related goods, services and opportunities, such as the
revised Land and Water Conservation Fund Open Project Selection
process. A statewide news release will be published in each of
the major newspapers in Montana announcing the availability of
the draft SCORP for public review.
Additional public involvement was generated through various
surveys and inventories. The State Park Futures Committee Report
(appendix D) is based on series of 15 public meetings attended by
