State park employees recently stabilized the shoreline at Finley Point on Flathead Lake in an effort to prevent erosion, a longstanding problem in the area.
The shoreline stabilization project cost $24,000, which came out of the major maintenance budget of the state parks division of the Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department.
The stabilization, called “dynamic beaching,” involved smaller and softer river rock being placed around the shore.
“This is a progressive way to deal with shoreline erosion and it uses a technique that’s been utilized elsewhere on the Lake,” Dave Landstrom, Region One manager for Montana State Parks, said in a news release. “This will prevent erosion in an ecologically sensitive way.”
Mark Lorang of the University of Montana Flathead Lake Biological Station designed the dynamic beaching technology.
Finley Point State Park is near the south end of Flathead Lake and features a campground with 16 motorhome sites, four boat slips with electrical service and water hookups and two walk-in tenting sites.
In 2011, from May-August, more than 16,000 people visited Finley Point, an 11 percent increase over 2010, according to FWP.