Volunteers pitch in on Wild Horse Island for National Public Lands Day

“What’s your favorite public land?” Kallie Fox, the land improvement specialist for Flathead Lake State Park, asked a group of volunteers last weekend on Wild Horse Island.  

Answers from the group flooded the shore, many specific to Northwest Montana. Standing on the island, I smiled and said Glacier National Park. But looking around at the geography of Flathead Lake, it put into perspective the lived reality of Northwest Montana: it's a doorway to many sorts of landscapes, forests, lakes and more for public enjoyment.  

“I love public lands because they’re kind of that final defense against a lot of development and human interference. And our access to it is kind of a portal to a world beyond humanity,” Fox said.

Every public land is a good one, the consensus rounded out to be.  

For National Public Lands Day, which was Saturday, Sept. 28, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks took a group of volunteers to Wild Horse Island, a unit of Flathead Lake State Park, to help park staff thin ponderosa pines and Douglas firs from the landscape.  

While the two neighboring islands are owned privately, one by Boy Scouts of America, Wild Horse Island is majority publicly owned.  

The ponderosa pines provide important habitats for the island’s wildlife, including a cherished population of bighorn sheep. In an overgrown state, smaller trees compete with each other for resources, stunting their growth and health. By removing trees within 20-30 feet of a healthy, growing tree, the forest is healthier overall. 

Historically, fire would usually replicate this process across the landscape, removing the small, weak trees and leaving the healthy ones to thrive over newly burnt plains. Due to infrastructure and wildlife, fire is not an ideal management tactic, leaving manual removal to do the trick.  

Our day began at the Big Arm Unit’s boat launch of Flathead Lake State Park, where I, alongside around 20 others, loaded onto a Boy Scouts of America barge wearing bright orange life jackets. The water was calm and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, the perfect weather to take a boat and spend the day on Wild Horse Island, many attendees said in conversation.  

“We love doing these things. Not only because it helps the park and this beautiful resource we have here, but it's also an excellent way to engage with you guys and let you see what we do here,” said Zack Story, recreation ranger for the Flathead Lake Recreation District with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.  

When we arrived at the island, we joined together on the banks of Skeeko Bay and went over our plan for the day. I took a pair of loppers — big, curved scissors good for cutting sticks — and started climbing up to the grove we were headed to.  

Wild Horse Island, over 2,000 acres of mountains, forests and grasslands, is the biggest island on Flathead Lake. The trail quickly led us to two old structures on a hill, homes from the homesteading period, Story said. 

The island, and part of the lake, is located on the Flathead Reservation, which belongs to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, who used the island historically to pasture horses without the threat of theft. Wild Horse Island was officially reserved as part of the reservation in 1885 when the Hellgate Treaty was signed, but it did not end up staying that way. 

After the Dawes Act was signed into law in 1887, land on the island was available for homesteading outside of the tribal nation, bringing in European settlers.  

“Homesteading efforts out here would only last for about 10 years,” Story said, pointing at the last two buildings standing from that time. “No one could really get anything going, as you can imagine this is probably tough living. And homesteading in itself is already very, very difficult.”    

After homesteading efforts ended, the land was auctioned off, went through a series of owners but is now managed and owned by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.  

We stopped in a semi-open valley at one point on our hike. Story told us that the view was exactly what a healthy forest looks like — tall, strong trees with lots of room, mixed with smaller trees with room to grow.  

When we arrived at the grove of trees we were working on, the landscape was cluttered and overgrown. Together, we all grabbed our tools, communicated what trees we would keep and got to work removing the others.  

Some attendees had worked with the state agency on Wild Horse Island in the past, such as a trail-clearing expedition this past spring. Others saw the opportunity as a chance to get involved with their community by doing something new.  

“Just being on the island for the first time was beautiful,” said Melisa Phelps, Whitefish resident. She and her husband, John, were among the volunteers. “We love these lands; we have to protect them.” 

When we finished work, the difference was astonishing. What was previously thick brush had been cleared out, leaving space for the healthy trees to continue to grow. We broke for lunch — I had a well-deserved peanut butter and jelly — worked for another half hour and then began the hike back to the boat.  

We boarded our Boy Scout boat, returned to our orange life jackets and made our way off of the island, watching its large landscape get smaller and smaller with each minute we floated away.  

“Public lands are a blessing,” Fox said. “Especially in the West. We just want there to be parts of the past protected for life.”