Money and recreation license moves trail effort forward
Efforts to preserve school trust lands
around Whitefish for recreation made two significant steps forward
recently with the awarding of a $500,000 trails grant and Whitefish
City Council’s approval of a special recreational-use license from
the state.
Key players in the conservation effort
showed up at the Whitefish Trail’s Lion Mountain Loop Road
trailhead on March 2 to celebrate the grant award with an iconic
oversize check. Weather prevented Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s plane
from landing at Glacier Park International Airport, so he missed
the ceremony .
“Some may call it a big check. I call
it a big investment,” Whitefish Legacy Partners executive director
Diane Conradi said.
The grant money will be put to work
conserving viewsheds, wildlife, recreation and water quality,
Conradi said.
“I hope to see some of this money used
on future trails,” Whitefish mayor Mike Jenson said. “It’s time to
lay down some tread and purchase these long-term lease
agreements.”
Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region 1 park
manager Dave Landstrom explained that most grants from the
Recreational Trails Program total $70,000 over two years. Whitefish
Legacy Partners applied for much, much more, he said, and the
Montana State Parks Recreation Bureau recognized the value of their
work.
“This is a model for other communities,
and it’s spectacular to see,” Landstrom said.
The $500,000 grant is an 80-20 match
with some restrictions, Conradi said. The trails group can spend up
to $600,000 and be reimbursed for 80 percent. The money must be
spent within 2 1/2 years.
Whitefish Legacy Partners was formed in
2003 to help shape the future of the 13,000 acres of state school
trust lands around Whitefish. The effort manifested itself in the
2004 Whitefish School Trust Lands Neighborhood Plan and the 2006 A
Trail Runs Through It Master Plan.
The recreation trail, which may one day
run 55 miles around Whitefish Lake, was renamed the Whitefish Trail
last year. So far, 12 miles of trail and an improved trailhead have
been constructed.
Another 16 miles is slated for
construction by 2013, and a trailhead on Beaver Lake Road with a
vault toilet and parking will go in this year.
The special recreational-use license
approved by the city council on March 7 will allow Whitefish Legacy
Partners to conduct forest, recreation and conservation planning in
the Spencer and Beaver/Swift subunits of the Neighborhood Plan.
The $10,000 license fee will be paid
with money from the city’s A Trail Runs Through It fund, which is
all donated money and not taxpayer money. The planning effort will
also identify travel and access needs, as well as management and
operation needs, and provide implementation strategies.
During the one-year period, the Montana
Department of Natural Resources and Conservation “should limit the
initiation of new projects within the Spencer and Beaver/Swift
subunits,” the license states. Conradi notes that this agreement
does not stop DNRC’s proposed Spencer Lake Timber Sale.
A memorandum of understanding signed
last year created a Core Group for planning that includes the city
of Whitefish, DNRC, Whitefish Legacy Partners and FWP.
Among the Core Group’s recommendations
is establishing a $1 million restricted fund and using the interest
to pay for recreation and conservation transactions on the school
trust lands. The Core Group also recommended purchasing long-term
easements on the school trust lands for recreation or trails.
In addition, over the next 10 years,
Whitefish Legacy Partners should develop or promote conservation
proposals already contained in the Neighborhood Plan, the Core
Group recommended.
For more information, visit online at
www.whitefishlegacy.org or the DNRC Web site
www.dnrc.mt.gov/trust/WNP/default.asp.