Birding trails grow in popularity

MISSOULA — Montana’s first birding and nature trail has opened in the Bitterroot Valley, after two years of planning.

“Birding trails have become the next step in wildlife-viewing tourism,” said Deborah Oberbillig, project coordinator.

Almost two-dozen states, including Washington, have successful birding trails capitalizing on a surge in bird-watching.

“Bird-watching it hot,” she said.

The trail links 25 prime birding and wildlife-viewing sites in the Bitterroot Valley, from Lolo Pass to Lost Trail Pass.

It is a pilot project for an eventual statewide network of birding trails, said Oberbillig, a wildlife-viewing consultant and interpretive writer in Missoula.

She joined with Sue Reel, a wildlife educator for the Lolo National forest, in creating the Bitterroot Birding and Nature Trail.

If wildlife watching were a company, its sales of $38.4 billion would rank it 33rd in the Forbes 500 list for 2001, just ahead of Motorola and Kmart, says a report by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The agency reports that 66 million Americans actively participate in wildlife watching, and 46 million people in the U.S. are bird-watchers.

Montana’s initial effort at creating a designated birding trail is different from those in many other states that concentrated only on the attraction of birds, said Oberbillig. The emphasis by the Montana organizing group was on nature and other wildlife as well as birding, she said.

The result was a selection of sites to suit a variety of different interests, ages and abilities, accessible by hiking, biking, canoeing and driving.

“There are some for those who don’t want to get out of their car,” she said, “and some for those who are more active.”

The history of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in the Bitterroot is a theme associated with the trail, and incorporated in the brochure.

Travelers’ Rest State Park, a campsite used by Lewis and Clark near Lolo, is one of the sites on the trail.

Site No. 7 on the trail is the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge, which also is the trail’s official headquarters.

The next step for organizers will be to raise money for signs along the trail.

The group plans to work with the Montana Department of Transportation to install signs to mark the route and sites, similar to the binocular signs along state highways that indicate wildlife viewing opportunities.