Thursday was the scheduled opening date for the disc golf course, but the day passed without much fanfare.
A sign reading “Folf Course Closed” greeted all who came to celebrate with a few tosses.
Local folfers are disappointed, but understand the situation, said Brian Bjortomt, president of the Garden City Flyers, a local folfing group. The concern, however, is the impact that Pattee Canyon's closure will have on other local folf courses.
“It's transferring the damage to the other courses,” said Bjortomt, 31.
The environmental damage that folfing has on public lands is becoming a hot topic in Missoula. Last August, the U.S. Forest Service - charged with protecting areas like Pattee Canyon and Blue Mountain, where folfing is popular - fenced off two holes of the Pattee Canyon course to rehabilitate an acre of wetland that had been trampled by folfers.
The act triggered foresters, folfers and concerned citizens to come together to brainstorm ways to mitigate the impact folfers have on the Pattee Canyon course.
What's possible, feasible or agreeable remains uncertain, but one thing is sure: Changes are inevitable at the Pattee Canyon folf course.
Over the last 20 years, the course - located alongside a picnic area - slowly evolved, gaining in popularity as time passed. In 1997, the Forest Service recognized the Pattee Canyon folf course as a bona fide recreational use, but no one predicted the sport's growth in popularity.
Upward of 300 folfers use the Pattee Canyon course during warm-weather months. Missoula has become known as somewhat of a hotbed for folfers in the Northwest because of its many excellent courses, Bjortomt said.
Each summer, thousands of people toting discs pass through the Pattee Canyon folf course chipping trees, trampling native vegetation and sometimes leaving trash behind. Pattee Canyon is the most popular folf course in the Missoula area, mainly because it's so close to town.
Porter Hammitt, director of Missoula Outdoor Learning Adventures, conducts frequent educational classes in Pattee Canyon. On Thursday, as he strolled along the folf course route, he'd stop occasionally to grab beer bottles abandoned in the grass.
“This is an incredible frustration for me,” he said. “It's not all the folfers, but there's a lot of folfers who don't show respect for the land.”
That kind of behavior is just as frustrating to Bjortomt, who fills trash bags during rounds of folf.
“There're those bad apples like in every sport,” he said. “A lot of us put in a lot of hours trying to keep the course looking nice.”
Part of Bjortomt's job as president of the Garden City Flyers is to educate the public about the game and change the perception that it's “just kids going up into the woods throwing Frisbees at trees.”
Bjortomt's submitted to the Forest Service a list of proposed changes to the Pattee Canyon folf course. They are things the Garden City Flyers would ultimately fund and help maintain.
“As the course becomes more professional looking, people start to take more pride in the course,” he said. “There's no reason for people to take pride in it right now.”
Suggested changes include replacing wood posts with baskets and installing tee pads at the start of each hole to alleviate the mud mounds formed by foot erosion.
Some of the holes are not appropriate for folf, such as the wetland currently fenced off near the picnic area, said Pittman.
Scientists need to take soil samples, perform plant surveys and quantify the impact to the land. It's a matter of identifying areas that can sustain large amounts of foot traffic.
There's possibly a need for a bridge across a swampy area where a forester several years ago put a Band-Aid on the problem by throwing down boards and a couple of crates to allow traffic to pass. Another idea is designating two folf courses - designed by a landscape architect - and alternating them on a yearly basis to give the land time to heal.
All of these changes are just ideas at this point. Folfing will remain in Pattee Canyon in some form or fashion, but not in the same shape it is now, Pittman said.
Mavis McKelvey, 80, is a member of the Friends of Pattee Canyon, and can't help but shake her head at all the ding marks in the trees from flying discs.
The Friends of Pattee Canyon warn the Forest Service about giving one type of recreation user so much space, she said. The folf course consumes 40 acres of the 1,600 acres that make up the Pattee Canyon Recreation Area.
“It's a precedent that's dangerous,” she said.
They'd like the Forest Service to close the folf course for two straight years to allow the land time to heal, a proposal to which the folf community objects. They'd like the course to stay open as changes occur.
Though changes are on the horizon, the course remains closed for now.
Becky Agner, the Missoula Ranger District's law enforcement officer, may have a half-million acres to cover, but she often walks the Pattee Canyon folf course.
Already this year, Agner has cited folfers for violating the closure order. Fines for violating a closed recreational order are as much as $75.
To keep up to date on what's happening at the Pattee Canyon folf course, check out the Garden City Flyers' Web site at www.gardencityflyers.org.
Reporter Chelsi Moy can be reached at 523-5260 or at chelsi.moy@missoulian.com
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