Rec trail work moving forward - slowly

State report clarifies use of conservation easements on school trust lands

By RICHARD HANNERS/Whitefish Pilot

To say implementation of the Whitefish Area Trust Lands Neighborhood Plan and an associated recreation trail is complicated would be putting it mildly.

Debate about conservation easements on school trust lands has been to the Montana Legislature twice, and supporters of the round-the-lake A Trail Runs Through It project are focused on a big land exchange that could kick-start the project and a proposed timber sale that could impact viewsheds.

Conservation easements

A House Joint Resolution introduced by Rep. Mike Jopek, D-Whitefish, in 2007 created an interim study committee to look at how conservation easements could be used on state school trust lands.

The goal was to evaluate the benefits, assess alternatives and see if the easements could ensure multiple-use management, traditional uses and recreation. The Environmental Quality Council issued its report on the committee's work last week.

Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation director Mary Sexton, who participated in many of the committee's meetings, said the EQC's report clarifies the Montana Land Board's broad authority to sell easements. She also said DNRC has no plans to bring a bill to the 2009 legislature on this matter.

In 2005, Sen. Greg Barkus, R-Kalispell, carried a bill that would have allowed the purchase of development rights on school trust lands while protecting traditional uses — recreation, timber harvesting, grazing and agriculture. It passed in the Senate but died in the House.

Sen. Dan Weinberg, D-Whitefish, brought similar bills to the legislature in 2005 and 2007 that would have expanded the authority of the Land Board to grant conservation easements. The 2007 bill passed in the Senate but died in the House, and Jopek's study bill resulted.

Diane Conradi, a Whitefish attorney and EQC member, has a longtime academic and professional interest in the use of conservation easements on school trust lands. She has studied how the easements are used in states across the West.

"Everyone wants to see this tool created to preserve lands and generate revenue for schools," she said.

Conradi said past attempts to clarify the issue in the legislature failed because people confused the impacts of conservation easements on private land with those on public lands. The state doesn't pay property taxes on school trust lands, so counties will not lose tax revenue, she said.

Conradi said it's still unclear how conservation easements would be set up for the Whitefish Area Trust Lands Neighborhood Plan, but an individual who acquires a home site cannot hold the easement. It could be held by the city of Whitefish or even Fish, Wildlife and Parks, she said.

Sexton said DNRC is looking at using deed restrictions for the Mike Goguen land exchange proposal and a license to the city of Whitefish for the recreation trail. She emphasized that all land proposals must provide a "fair market value" for the state.

The EQC's report is now undergoing a public process. It's available online at www.leg.mt.gov/eqc or by calling 406-444-3742.

Comments on the report may be e-mailed to jkolman@mt.gov, subject heading "HJ57," or mailed to Joe Kolman, Legislative Environmental Policy Office, Room 171A, P.O. Box 201704, Helena MT 59620-1704.

Goguen land exchange

Supporters of the A Trail Runs Through It project are also anxiously awaiting the outcome of a big land-exchange that could jump start the recreation trail.

Silicon Valley entrepreneur Mike Goguen, who owns about 1,000 acres on the east and south side of Beaver Lake, wants to consolidate and improve his holdings by taking ownership of 440 acres of adjacent school trust land south of the lake.

When first announced in August 2006, Goguen offered to trade a 570-acre parcel on U.S. Highway 93 at Lupfer Road and place the 440-acre parcel under the terms of a conservation easement, as outlined in the Whitefish Area Trust Lands Neighborhood Plan.

Goguen also offered to pay some trail-building costs for the A Trail Runs Through It project, including a loop trail system and trailhead parking lot at the Lupfer Road parcel and trail construction where the project passes through his private land.

To top it off, Goguen offered $3 million in cash that the city of Whitefish, which will act as "landlord" for the A Trail Runs Through It project, can use for trail construction, purchase of additional easements or maintenance of the trail.

Since then, two more properties have been added to his offer — a commercial site at 140 Lupfer Avenue, in Whitefish's Historical Railroad District, and a 30-acre parcel on U.S. 93 just west of Twin Bridges Road.

Stillwater State Forest unit manager Brian Manning said the 440-acre parcel has been appraised more than $6 million, and the total package came out about $280,000 short.

Conradi, however, who is representing Goguen, said Manning was referring to "as-is" prices. Recent surveying and boundary-line adjustment work that will allow three home sites on the 570-acre parcel will increase the parcel's value and more than make up for the shortfall, she said.

The initial comment period for the land exchange ended in January. Manning said concerns that were raised included dust on Lupfer Road, how the recreation trail will fit in, whether it was a fair deal for the state and public access to recreation sites — all issues the state was already aware of and studying.

Manning said a public MEPA process on the land exchange has begun, and additional public comments will be taken.

Timber harvesting

Supporters of the recreation trail and the Whitefish Area Trust Lands Neighborhood Plan are also concerned about a timber-harvesting project that could take place west of Whitefish Lake as soon as next year.

The Beaver-Swift-Skyles Timber Sale Project proposes harvesting 2 million to 5 million board feet of timber from 500 to 1,000 acres at several locations around Smith, Skyles, Dollar, Beaver and Murray lakes.

According to DNRC, the areas currently have a high level of mortality due to insect and disease and are "at high risk for high-intensity stand-replacement fires and were chosen at this time to reduce fuel hazards in the urban interface." The goal is to create a mosaic pattern with a variety of age-classes of trees, thereby making the area less prone to insect and disease attacks.

Public comments on the project received last summer included concerns about aesthetics and viewsheds, particularly for property owners on Whitefish Lake, water quality impacts from roads and logging near streams, protection of old growth and wildlife habitat, and prevention of noxious weeds.

Manning said the state is taking all the concerns seriously, including coordinating harvest design work with plans for the recreation trail. He also said the state is working with users of a folf course in the area even though it is not a legal activity. The idea is to make it a licensed activity, he said.

Conradi said various groups and individuals have been working with DNRC to carry out the goals and visions of the neighborhood plan and the state has been very receptive in its timber-harvest planning.

The MEPA process for the proposed timber sale could be completed by this winter, Manning said, and logging could begin sometime next year.