FVLT open house at Lincoln Community River Park

The Lincoln Community River Park along the south shore of the Blackfoot River just east of the Stemple Pass Road bridge got a bit of a facelift following a fall open house hosted by Five Valley's Land Trust Saturday Sept. 24.

The open house involved about an hours worth of volunteer work to put up a couple new signs and to give visitors a chance to enjoy sandwiches and refreshments. The event was part of National Public Lands Day.

The sign identifying the park, and another new sign at the entrance to the walking path detailing some of the park rules are the first of a few new signs planned for the park.

"We're working on putting in an entrance sign and making it more obvious to people where there's a parking lot so they're not parking on the road," said FVLT Stewardship Director Jenny Tollefson.

Tollefson said the park is in good shape ecologically.

"All these aspens are coming back in. The main vegetation management we work on are Canada Thistle, which is always a problem. So we're spraying that. Houndstongue is also problem. We get most of that by hand-pulling, but also by spraying," she said. "Other than that it's just been kind of a dream. I think it continues to just be a nice place for people to come down and enjoy the beach and the water in the summer and fish."

"It's nice that it's right off the main road. Its a cool spot for accessibility for the community' said Katy White, the development coordinator with FVLT. She said it was only her second time to the River Park. She visited the park last year for a volunteer stewardship day and helped with invasive weeds and with removing some old fencing along the river.

While people have been pretty good about taking care of trash and litter at the River Park, Tollefson said a bear resistant trash can they installed last year has helped a lot. "We learned we have to have a garbage can here, otherwise stuff will get dumped."

The only other issue they're trying to get a handle on is dogs. "Dogs can be off leash in Lincoln, so we've put up some new signs," Tollefson said. The signs ask visitors to respect the park's neighbors and to keep dogs under control." I don't think it's an issue very often, but it can be if they run across the river. Either keep your dog on a leash or under voice control."

Although the River Park still doesn't have a formal local volunteer committee, Tollefson said theres a core group of local residents they can call on. "If we ever do anything more here in terms of improving the ttail or working more on bank stabilization or any bigger project we're going to have to look at that. But right now it's just kind of a low key place to enjoy."

Tollefson said she's looking forward to getting back to working with Lincoln school and on other education programs at the river park.

"I think its a matter of checking back in and making sure people know there are opportunities here," she said. "The Blackfoot Challenge coordinated programs down here, field days for kids, but I think COVID has kind or put things off the rails a little bit. It's time to bring that back around."