A BLUEPRINT FOR BIGFORK

A 1989 blueprint outlines a Bigfork trail system that was never put into reality.

Bordering the village, the trail system had a footbridge crossing the Swan River and led into the surrounding forest. But funding for the community effort was hard to secure and over the years other projects were prioritized.

This month, the Community Foundation for a Better Bigfork announced it was time to try again.

During a community kick-off meeting March 22, roughly 80 people found a place to sit in the basement of Glacier Bank in Bigfork while more filtered through the door.

Greg Gunderson with Forestoration stood before the audience as the man charged with designing the trail.

“These ideas have been out there for decades,” Gunderson said smiling toward Chris Moritz, the creator of the 1989 blueprint. “Hopefully now, it’s just the stars are aligned or we’ve got the right energy to come together and really make some more of this happen.”

The existing 2-mile Swan River Trail overlooks the village’s dam and the “Wild Mile” section of the river.

The community foundation’s plan seeks to extend the trail by 6.2 miles for multi-use, non-motorized recreation. The draft plan includes creating a boardwalk along to the village’s historic power plant to connect Sliter Park to the system and a proposed footbridge near the dam that would make a 2-mile loop beginning and ending in downtown Bigfork. It also outlines possible new access and parking points throughout the trail system.

Paul Mutascio, with the community foundation, said nothing’s final yet. He said the end result relies on two things: the company that owns the land of the proposed network and funding.

“If the community doesn’t support it, we can’t go forward. It’s as simple as that,” Mustachio said.

MOST OF THE network would be located on the more than 270 acres of PacifiCorp property, the company that operates the village’s power plant, the Bigfork Hydroelectric Project.

When PacifiCorp renewed its license through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2003, it did so with an agreement to create some recreational opportunities and to allow other entities to propose, fund and maintain recreation site improvements on the land.

In alignment with its license terms, PacifiCorp released a 12-year Recreation Resource Management Plan Revisions in 2015 that identified recreational opportunities and visions for the future.

Diane Conradi with the Whitefish-based law firm Conradi Anderson, said the fact the company hasn’t wrapped up its proposed list of projects may leave for some “wiggle room.”

“Maybe times have changed, and maybe it makes more sense to do one project over the other,” she said. “We’d like to bring [PacifiCorp] in at every step of the way so it’s not that they’re considering something that’s coming in from the outside, but they’re part of shaping what they will consider going forward.”

She said the group hopes to bring the final proposal to PacifiCorp in June.

Conradi and Gunderson were a part of a group that worked to establish the Whitefish Trail. That group first started looking at the land for the system in 2002. It wasn’t until eight years later in 2010 when they finally cut the red ribbon on the first 5 miles of trail. Today, there is 36 miles of trail accessed by 10 trailheads.

“It’s a long process. Figuring out what you want, figuring out where you want it and then figuring out how to pay for it. Those are all challenges,” Conradi said. “You just have to get it teed up, so you can go to the next funding and the next funding, and sometimes you get it, sometimes you don’t.”

Outside of getting approval from PacifiCorp, the trail supporters still have to find funding, identify additional parking for trailheads and establish who would be responsible for trail maintenance — from collecting trash to removing debris off the path.

Mustachio said the concerns were valid hurdles. He said that’s part of the reason the foundation is looking for advice from the community.

The foundation reached out to possible partners such as Montana Land Reliance, Fish Wildlife and Parks and the Flathead Land Trust.

Dave Landstrom, the regional state park manager for Fish Wildlife and Parks, said it’s possible that Wayfarers State Park — which has about 1 mile of trail — could be an extension of the Bigfork trail system.

“Not only are we widely supportive of this idea … but we could also possibly provide some day-to-day operational advice, experience, help perhaps,” Landstrom said.

He said that could also come in the form of helping the foundation apply for recreation grants.

TOM JENKO sat among the crowd Wednesday night and was one of the people who approached the community foundation with the plea to pick up the effort. A Bigfork resident since 1981, Jenko doesn’t want the community to wait too long to finalize plans.

“I’m worried if we don’t get this in place, there will be development — mansions and commercialization,” he said. “But there’s so much potential.”

Though his 1989 blueprint eventually ended up in storage, Moritz said he traced the route for years.

The funny thing, Moritz said, is there are a lot of similarities between what he envisioned nearly three decades ago and the system in discussion today.

“It’s interesting to see this again, to see lots of interest,” he said. “Looks like it could happen.”