Missoula County Commissioner Josh Slotnick and Commissioner Dave Stromire hosted Jackson Lee, manager of Marshall Mountain Park, on the county’s podcast to update the public on the site’s transition to public ownership and near-term management plans.

Lee said Missoula County acquired Marshall Mountain Park in 2024 and that the 480-acre park sits between the communities of East Missoula and Bonner-West Riverside and is operated in partnership with the City of Missoula. “In the first year of public ownership, Missoula Mountain Bike Coalition received a grant award from the state to construct — we constructed over 5 miles of new beginner adaptive friendly trails,” Lee said, describing trails with wider corridors and gentler grades designed to increase accessibility.

The purchase and early work aim to protect Marshall’s long history as a learning site for winter skiing and, increasingly, as a year-round recreation hub for mountain biking, youth programs and community events. Lee said City of Missoula Parks and Recreation programs bring more than 2,000 youth participants to Marshall annually for camps and instruction, and that the park averaged roughly 75 users per day in 2023, with peak days reaching about 100.

County and partner priorities include completing the master-plan trail network, improving the base area to match current use and carrying out vegetation and wildfire-risk treatments. Lee said the county has a community forest plan completed in 2024 and will begin the first phase of forestry work in September under a project funded in part through the Missoula County Wildfire Program and a DNRC forest action plan grant. The scope of the initial treatment is about 65 acres; goals listed are improving forest health, lowering wildfire risk and increasing winter “skiable” space by thinning legacy ski runs.

Lee described several on-site management decisions already in place: current rules prohibit dogs and e-bikes at Marshall Mountain Park to reduce user conflicts; a proposal from the Missoula Mountain Bike Coalition to allow Class 1 pedal-assist e-bikes has been submitted but no county decision has been made. The county is conducting a visitor-use study with the University of Montana; Lee said University staff gave visitors GPS units to help map patterns.

County staff and partners also want to upgrade basic services at the base area to better match use. Lee summarized desired improvements as “shade, drinking water,” renovated lawn and trailhead facility upgrades including kiosks and a forced-service vault toilet. He said fundraising by Friends of Marshall Mountain (FOAM) and grant-seeking are intended to support base-area redevelopment and other capital needs.

Marshall currently supports a range of organized events that help attract new users, Lee said, including the Missoula XC cross-country race organized by MTCX and a newly created Marshall Mountain trail run that drew about 200–250 participants. He credited local partners — Missoula Mountain Bike Coalition and Missoula Adaptive Recreation and Sports — for early trail building, design work for adaptive trails, and ongoing trail maintenance.

On staffing, Lee highlighted the county’s park ranger, Silas Phillips, saying Phillips has hosted events, posted trail and snow reports on the park’s Instagram account and helped create “newbie nights” to introduce residents to hiking and biking at Marshall. Lee also noted that a core volunteer fundraising group formed during the acquisition has remained active; he called its fundraising and advocacy “a huge part of their story.”

Questions remain: the county has not decided whether to allow Class 1 e-bikes, and Lee said some management details — such as the final scope and timing of base-area redevelopment — will depend on securing grants and donor funds. For current information, Lee directed listeners to marshallmountain.com and the park’s Instagram account, which he said the county now operates and where staff post trail and snow reports.

Marshall’s managers and partners framed the park’s public ownership as preserving long-standing local recreation opportunities while widening access through adaptive trails, youth programming and planned base-area services. The county’s immediate steps will focus on trail completion, a 65-acre forestry treatment to reduce wildfire risk and a visitor-use study that will inform decisions about e-bike access and additional facilities.