Mandatory stops needed at Coram station

The need to upgrade a boat inspection station in Coram checking for aquatic invaders — including zebra mussels — was driven home by members of the Flathead Basin Commission at their Feb. 12 meeting in Kalispell.

Last year, the station on U.S. 2 was funded by the city of Whitefish, Bureau of Reclamation, Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, Flathead Basin Commission and Flathead Chapter of Trout Unlimited.

A total of 2,096 watercraft were inspected at the Coram site, but without Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks participation, vehicles pulling boats are not required to stop.

That didn’t sit well with some commission members, but Linnaea Schroeer, an aquatic invasive species specialist with FWP, said the agency wants to be sure the site meets traffic safety standards.

“I want to meet standards, but I also want the station up and running this spring,” FBC chairman Chas Cartwright said.

“It’s been on the table for a year now,” FBC executive director Caryn Miske said. “I’ve heard the Montana Department of Transportation can be very accommodating. If safety is the only issue, we need to close the gap and get the station running.”

Schroeer agreed, noting that FWP’s goal is to make all boat inspection stations in Montana mandatory. She noted that plans have been discussed to clear trees and build a turn lane at the Coram site to improve both safety and visibility.

The importance of the Coram inspection station increased with the discovery last year of zebra mussels in Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba, and seven boats contaminated with zebra or quagga mussels in Alberta.

Like Montana, a lot of Alberta residents are snowbirds who haul their boats south each winter to lakes and reservoirs infested with mussels. And a lot of Canadian tourists bring their boats to the Flathead in summer.

Ideally, a boat inspection station would be established somewhere on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation to handle watercraft from Canada and to protect lakes and streams on the reservation, the east side of Glacier National Park and along the Rocky Mountain Front.