Bill proposes to shake up oversight of state parks

A proposal to reshape the authority over Montana State Parks got its first look Feb. 7 during a lengthy hearing before the House Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee.

Rep. Bradley Hamlett, D-Cascade, said he proposed House Bill 324 after becoming concerned with the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ recent management of the parks agency. His concerns included the department’s abrupt dismissal of former agency administrator Chas Van Genderen in December, which FWP officials explained was a “personnel issue.”

Under Hamlett’s legislation, spending authority and day-to-day management over the parks would shift away from the department and to a new parks executive director, who would serve at the behest of the governor-appointed Board of Parks and Recreation created by the 2013 Legislature.

Recreation and conservation groups split on whether the change would ultimately benefit the state’s 55-park system, however.

The state’s chapters of the Audubon Society, Trout Unlimited and the Montana Wildlife Federation all testified against the measure.

“We’re carving off an incredible amount of responsibility to a new board, and giving autonomy to the potential executive director,” said Brian Ohs, with Montana Trout Unlimited.

Ohs also echoed concerns of other speakers, questioning whether the change would impact those parks properties that were paid for in part using federal dollars that carry specific requirements for how the land is administered.

Doug Monger retired as state parks administrator 11 years ago. While he acknowledged the tensions that have since emerged between the parks division and the state wildlife department, he said Hamlett’s bill would only deepen those divisions.

“We need to be inclusive. We need to unify the agency back to where the parks guys and the fish guys are in the same building and in the same room,” Monger told the committee.

Hamlett disagreed that his proposed administrative change would endanger the status of state park lands encumbered by federal money, and noted that fishing access points would remain under the jurisdiction of the department’s fisheries division.

In his remarks, Monger compared the department to a family with feuding children, telling the committee that the new director needs to be “knocking heads” to get the divisions to work together.

In response, Hamlett said, “The problem I see with the banging heads proposal is parks always loses and gets the concussion, and gets the director fired.”

“This was as painless a solution as I could find. It keeps them together, but it gives them some separation and I believe it allows them to do the best job each entity can do.”

The state has estimated that the administrative change would cost $1.8 million per year, contending that it will lose eligibility for federal funds and be required to hire new office space for the parks division, which currently houses its staff in regional FWP offices.

Hamlett disagreed with that estimate, suggesting it was a move by the department to kill the bill in a tight fiscal year. He said the change is purely administrative and the overall impact to the state’s finances would be “a wash.”

The committee has yet to take action on the bill.

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.