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Well-known member
Illegal outfitters that is.
Officials: Outfitter may be operating illegally
By MICHAEL JAMISON of the Missoulian
WEST GLACIER - When Jorge Simental went fishing for publicity, this surely wasn't what he hoped to catch.
“We have charged him with two counts,” said Maryann Ries, top prosecutor in Pondera County. “And his attorney has filed pleas of not guilty, requesting a jury trial.”
Simental, who did not respond to repeated interview requests, is a longtime emergency room doctor and businessman who in 2004 bought the Summit Station Lodge. A historic landmark, the century-old lodge is near Marias Pass, just south of Glacier National Park.
Not long after purchasing the lodge, nearby land managers began crossing paths with Simental on area trails and rivers. He seemed to be leading groups of clients on fly-fishing forays.
“It sure looked like he was guiding, but we couldn't prove it,” Beth Burren told the Missoulian last summer, when concerns about Simental's activities first became public. “He said he was just taking a group of friends fishing.”
Burren handles outfitting permits for that portion of the Flathead National Forest.
She said she had received complaints that Simental was illegally outfitting, and used a chance encounter with him to “talk about the rules and regs. We had that discussion one day on the river.”
Officials at Glacier National Park also had that discussion with Simental, in formal correspondence.
“We've written letters to that particular individual,” Jan Knox said last summer. “He does not have a permit with us, and there are no commercially guided fishing trips in the park.”
Knox, chief of concession management in Glacier, said officials there also were concerned that Simental's advertising and phone message indicated his lodge was “in Glacier Park,” when in fact it was not.
And the Montana Board of Outfitters was concerned because Simental's advertising seemed to suggest he was offering outfitting and guide services, when he had no license to do so.
“So considering those prior discussions,” Burren said recently, “I thought it was pretty bold, that stunt he pulled with the helicopter.”
The “stunt” centered around a story that appeared in Kalispell's Daily Interlake newspaper in early June 2006, titled “Fishing on the fly: Resort uses helicopter to take anglers far afield.”
The reporter wrote about joining Simental and Summit Station Lodge guests on a heli-fishing trip into the Lewis and Clark National Forest. The article reported “Simental has a special-use permit on the Lewis and Clark National Forest that allows him to fly directly from Summit Station into remote mountainous areas.”
Problem is, Simental didn't have any such permit.
“Neither Summit Station nor Jorge Simental have any permits with us,” said Mike Munoz, head ranger on the forest's Rocky Mountain Ranger District. “In fact, there are no special-use permits on the Lewis and Clark forest that specifically allow aviation use.”
But yet there were the photos, right there in the newspaper. And the fly-fishing portion of Summit Station's Web site showed pictures of a helicopter at the lodge, a helicopter in the air, a helicopter that appeared to be streamside.
Adding to the problem was the timing of the article. Investigators allege the season hadn't opened yet on that particular stretch of backcountry river. And Simental, according to prosecutors, didn't even have a fishing license at the time.
Simental, 39, is expected back in court on May 3 to respond to misdemeanor charges that he fished a closed stream and did so without a license. More serious charges - such as outfitting without a license and illegally landing in what was perhaps a restricted area - could follow, as investigations remain open. But as of yet, no additional charges have been filed.
“Every person has an outlet for inner peace and balance in life,” Simental said in the Daily Interlake article. “My balance is achieved by angling untouched waters, mixed with the solitude of the surroundings.”
But what of the fellow who hiked in to that quiet stream with a pack strapped to his back, Burren wonders. What of his solitude, when the chopper buzzed in?
“Whether it's out-of-season fishing or illegal helicopters, that's just not the Montana way,” said Ben Long, chairman of the state's Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. “It doesn't respect Montana hunters and anglers, and it doesn't respect the Montana backcountry.”
The news article described stepping “out of the helicopter onto a gravel riverbank and into another world - Jorge Simental's world.” It was, the reporter wrote, “a remote location in the Lewis and Clark National Forest.”
Banning Collins, who has worked for Simental, identified the location as Badger Creek, saying Simental had taken several groups there.
“While anglers and a guide fished a series of deep pools with dry flies, a chef prepared a gourmet lunch,” the article reported. Then a table was laid, right there in mid-river.
“All the anglers had to do was wade right up to the table and enjoy the presentation of salad nicoise and smoked salmon served on a checkered tablecloth.”
A lovely scene, Burren admitted, unless you happened to be an angler who had hiked into that fishing hole for a bit of wilderness downtime.
“Montana,” she said, “just isn't ready for that sort of thing.”
The newspaper feature - intended to drum up business - instead sparked a whole host of investigations. State wildlife managers wanted to know about possible fishing violations. Federal land managers wanted to know exactly where on their forest that helicopter was putting down. Outfitting regulators wanted to know who the guide was, and why Summit Station advertised outfitting services without a proper license. Why did the reporter think Simental had a special-use permit? And why did Simental advertise guide services he could not legally offer?
For months, the investigations dragged on, and some continue still.
But state fish and game officials are confident enough Simental broke at least a couple of rules that they asked Ries to prosecute. If convicted, Simental could be fined $135 for each misdemeanor count.
But the real issue, Long said, is the apparent attitude that led to all the trouble.
“Legitimate outfitters and guides do a real service for the people of Montana and the people who enjoy Montana,” he said. “I think we really have to be vigilant and aware of people who want to cut to the front of the line at everyone else's expense.”
The idea that some can helicopter into quiet places everyone else must hike to smacks of two sets of rules, he said, one for the rich and one for the rest of us.
That, more than anything else, seemed to give the story a lifespan beyond the events themselves.
“On the Rocky Mountain District, I don't anticipate that activity as one that we would want to promote,” Munoz said of commercial heli-fishing.
In December, he sent Simental an order to cease and desist. To date, he's received no response.
Today, Summit Station's Web site (summitstationlodge.com) has changed.
Gone is any mention that the lodge is actually in Glacier National Park - which, of course, it isn't.
And gone are suggestions that the lodge itself offers a guide service. Instead, licensed guides from around the area are named, and their outfitter numbers are listed, as required by state law.
Rich Birdsell is one of those guides featured on Simental's site.
“But I don't really have any association with him,” the longtime Flathead guide said. “If he wants to send people my way, I'll take them fishing, but I don't work for him or anything.”
At one point, Birdsell said, “they made me a lot of promises that they'd sent me a lot of trips, but I sure haven't seen them. I think he sent one group my way, and that's it.”
If Simental or anyone else is guiding trips on rivers Birdsell is licensed on, then Birdsell wants to know about it.
“I pay good money to take commercial trips in there,” the outfitter said. “If anyone's in there who shouldn't be, that's my business.”
Also gone from the Summit Station Web site is reference to a heli-fishing trip that Craig Lang said once was advertised as part of an upcoming medical conference at the lodge. Lang handles permitting on the Rocky Mountain District of the Lewis and Clark Forest, “and I was pretty alarmed to see him advertising that. I'm glad it's gone now.”
But Wayne Johnston, executive director of the Montana Board of Outfitters, says not all the problems have been fixed, despite the many communications with Simental.
His board, he said, is there to protect both outfitters and clients, to ensure that guides know first aid, that they carry insurance, that they operate within the law and with proper equipment.
In addition to the contacts from federal agencies, Johnston said, Simental also received an order from the state outfitter's board last October, ordering the physician to “cease and desist from performing any outfitting or guide services in the state of Montana unless and until you obtain a license to do so.”
If Simental continued to advertise guide services as if they were his own, or to offer services without a license, the board threatened to seek injunctive relief in district court.
So imagine Johnston's surprise last week when he looked through current Summit Station advertising and saw that, at the lodge, “we pride ourselves in providing the best guiding in the area with our Orvis-endorsed fly-fishing guides.”
Trouble is, Summit Station still isn't licensed to guide.
Trouble is, James Hathaway, at Orvis, says his company has nothing whatsoever to do with Simental or Summit Station Lodge.
“That sort of thing,” Johnston said, “is exactly the problem we're talking about. It's illegal. I guess the outfitting board isn't done with this one yet.”
Officials: Outfitter may be operating illegally
By MICHAEL JAMISON of the Missoulian
WEST GLACIER - When Jorge Simental went fishing for publicity, this surely wasn't what he hoped to catch.
“We have charged him with two counts,” said Maryann Ries, top prosecutor in Pondera County. “And his attorney has filed pleas of not guilty, requesting a jury trial.”
Simental, who did not respond to repeated interview requests, is a longtime emergency room doctor and businessman who in 2004 bought the Summit Station Lodge. A historic landmark, the century-old lodge is near Marias Pass, just south of Glacier National Park.
Not long after purchasing the lodge, nearby land managers began crossing paths with Simental on area trails and rivers. He seemed to be leading groups of clients on fly-fishing forays.
“It sure looked like he was guiding, but we couldn't prove it,” Beth Burren told the Missoulian last summer, when concerns about Simental's activities first became public. “He said he was just taking a group of friends fishing.”
Burren handles outfitting permits for that portion of the Flathead National Forest.
She said she had received complaints that Simental was illegally outfitting, and used a chance encounter with him to “talk about the rules and regs. We had that discussion one day on the river.”
Officials at Glacier National Park also had that discussion with Simental, in formal correspondence.
“We've written letters to that particular individual,” Jan Knox said last summer. “He does not have a permit with us, and there are no commercially guided fishing trips in the park.”
Knox, chief of concession management in Glacier, said officials there also were concerned that Simental's advertising and phone message indicated his lodge was “in Glacier Park,” when in fact it was not.
And the Montana Board of Outfitters was concerned because Simental's advertising seemed to suggest he was offering outfitting and guide services, when he had no license to do so.
“So considering those prior discussions,” Burren said recently, “I thought it was pretty bold, that stunt he pulled with the helicopter.”
The “stunt” centered around a story that appeared in Kalispell's Daily Interlake newspaper in early June 2006, titled “Fishing on the fly: Resort uses helicopter to take anglers far afield.”
The reporter wrote about joining Simental and Summit Station Lodge guests on a heli-fishing trip into the Lewis and Clark National Forest. The article reported “Simental has a special-use permit on the Lewis and Clark National Forest that allows him to fly directly from Summit Station into remote mountainous areas.”
Problem is, Simental didn't have any such permit.
“Neither Summit Station nor Jorge Simental have any permits with us,” said Mike Munoz, head ranger on the forest's Rocky Mountain Ranger District. “In fact, there are no special-use permits on the Lewis and Clark forest that specifically allow aviation use.”
But yet there were the photos, right there in the newspaper. And the fly-fishing portion of Summit Station's Web site showed pictures of a helicopter at the lodge, a helicopter in the air, a helicopter that appeared to be streamside.
Adding to the problem was the timing of the article. Investigators allege the season hadn't opened yet on that particular stretch of backcountry river. And Simental, according to prosecutors, didn't even have a fishing license at the time.
Simental, 39, is expected back in court on May 3 to respond to misdemeanor charges that he fished a closed stream and did so without a license. More serious charges - such as outfitting without a license and illegally landing in what was perhaps a restricted area - could follow, as investigations remain open. But as of yet, no additional charges have been filed.
“Every person has an outlet for inner peace and balance in life,” Simental said in the Daily Interlake article. “My balance is achieved by angling untouched waters, mixed with the solitude of the surroundings.”
But what of the fellow who hiked in to that quiet stream with a pack strapped to his back, Burren wonders. What of his solitude, when the chopper buzzed in?
“Whether it's out-of-season fishing or illegal helicopters, that's just not the Montana way,” said Ben Long, chairman of the state's Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. “It doesn't respect Montana hunters and anglers, and it doesn't respect the Montana backcountry.”
The news article described stepping “out of the helicopter onto a gravel riverbank and into another world - Jorge Simental's world.” It was, the reporter wrote, “a remote location in the Lewis and Clark National Forest.”
Banning Collins, who has worked for Simental, identified the location as Badger Creek, saying Simental had taken several groups there.
“While anglers and a guide fished a series of deep pools with dry flies, a chef prepared a gourmet lunch,” the article reported. Then a table was laid, right there in mid-river.
“All the anglers had to do was wade right up to the table and enjoy the presentation of salad nicoise and smoked salmon served on a checkered tablecloth.”
A lovely scene, Burren admitted, unless you happened to be an angler who had hiked into that fishing hole for a bit of wilderness downtime.
“Montana,” she said, “just isn't ready for that sort of thing.”
The newspaper feature - intended to drum up business - instead sparked a whole host of investigations. State wildlife managers wanted to know about possible fishing violations. Federal land managers wanted to know exactly where on their forest that helicopter was putting down. Outfitting regulators wanted to know who the guide was, and why Summit Station advertised outfitting services without a proper license. Why did the reporter think Simental had a special-use permit? And why did Simental advertise guide services he could not legally offer?
For months, the investigations dragged on, and some continue still.
But state fish and game officials are confident enough Simental broke at least a couple of rules that they asked Ries to prosecute. If convicted, Simental could be fined $135 for each misdemeanor count.
But the real issue, Long said, is the apparent attitude that led to all the trouble.
“Legitimate outfitters and guides do a real service for the people of Montana and the people who enjoy Montana,” he said. “I think we really have to be vigilant and aware of people who want to cut to the front of the line at everyone else's expense.”
The idea that some can helicopter into quiet places everyone else must hike to smacks of two sets of rules, he said, one for the rich and one for the rest of us.
That, more than anything else, seemed to give the story a lifespan beyond the events themselves.
“On the Rocky Mountain District, I don't anticipate that activity as one that we would want to promote,” Munoz said of commercial heli-fishing.
In December, he sent Simental an order to cease and desist. To date, he's received no response.
Today, Summit Station's Web site (summitstationlodge.com) has changed.
Gone is any mention that the lodge is actually in Glacier National Park - which, of course, it isn't.
And gone are suggestions that the lodge itself offers a guide service. Instead, licensed guides from around the area are named, and their outfitter numbers are listed, as required by state law.
Rich Birdsell is one of those guides featured on Simental's site.
“But I don't really have any association with him,” the longtime Flathead guide said. “If he wants to send people my way, I'll take them fishing, but I don't work for him or anything.”
At one point, Birdsell said, “they made me a lot of promises that they'd sent me a lot of trips, but I sure haven't seen them. I think he sent one group my way, and that's it.”
If Simental or anyone else is guiding trips on rivers Birdsell is licensed on, then Birdsell wants to know about it.
“I pay good money to take commercial trips in there,” the outfitter said. “If anyone's in there who shouldn't be, that's my business.”
Also gone from the Summit Station Web site is reference to a heli-fishing trip that Craig Lang said once was advertised as part of an upcoming medical conference at the lodge. Lang handles permitting on the Rocky Mountain District of the Lewis and Clark Forest, “and I was pretty alarmed to see him advertising that. I'm glad it's gone now.”
But Wayne Johnston, executive director of the Montana Board of Outfitters, says not all the problems have been fixed, despite the many communications with Simental.
His board, he said, is there to protect both outfitters and clients, to ensure that guides know first aid, that they carry insurance, that they operate within the law and with proper equipment.
In addition to the contacts from federal agencies, Johnston said, Simental also received an order from the state outfitter's board last October, ordering the physician to “cease and desist from performing any outfitting or guide services in the state of Montana unless and until you obtain a license to do so.”
If Simental continued to advertise guide services as if they were his own, or to offer services without a license, the board threatened to seek injunctive relief in district court.
So imagine Johnston's surprise last week when he looked through current Summit Station advertising and saw that, at the lodge, “we pride ourselves in providing the best guiding in the area with our Orvis-endorsed fly-fishing guides.”
Trouble is, Summit Station still isn't licensed to guide.
Trouble is, James Hathaway, at Orvis, says his company has nothing whatsoever to do with Simental or Summit Station Lodge.
“That sort of thing,” Johnston said, “is exactly the problem we're talking about. It's illegal. I guess the outfitting board isn't done with this one yet.”
