Motorized watercraft banned from lake near Glacier Park

COLUMBIA FALLS, Mont. – State wildlife commissioners have banned motorized watercraft from a lake near Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana at the request of residents worried about growing pressures from people moving into the area.

Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks commissioners voted unanimously for the ban last week, The Hungry Horse News reported.

It covers Tepee Lake, a shallow, 43-acre water body several miles from the North Fork Flathead River near the U.S.-Canada border. The lake hosts a family of loons and is publicly accessible.

About 70 per cent of the lake is surrounded by Flathead National Forest and the rest by private land. Property owners around the lake had petitioned the commission to make the rule change.

They said it was “inevitable a neighbour or visitor will eventually put a motorboat or jet ski on the lake” that could displace the loons, disturbing the quiet of the lake and harm its water quality.