Protection of Haskill watershed a top-rated project

Protection of the Haskill Basin watershed has been named the nation’s top-ranked working forest conservation project. With that designation comes a major grant to help move the project forward.

A plan is in the works to permanently protect more than 3,000 acres of working forestland in Haskill Basin that is the source for most of Whitefish’s water supply through a proposed deal between The Trust for Public Land and F.H. Stoltze Land & Lumber Company.

The Trust for Public Land has secured an option through the end of 2015 to purchase the development rights from Stoltze. Thus guaranteeing that the land would be protected for water, wildlife and recreation, while still allowing sustainable forest management activities on the property.

The project was top-ranked by the Forest Service for its Forest Legacy Program, which provides grants to states to purchase permanent conservation easements and other property interests that protect forest land resources.

The Forest Service would provide $7 million of the estimated $17 million cost.

“We knew Haskill Basin was one of the most important projects in the country and this budget proposal just confirms that,” said Deb Love, Northern Rockies director of The Trust for Public Land.

Funding was named as a major hurdle when the project was announced last June.

“Without this grant, this project would have been dead in the water,” Whitefish Mayor John Muhlfeld said on Monday.

Love notes that more funding will be needed and that The Trust for Public Land will be working with the community to raise additional money.

The Forest Service ranks the Stolze project as its highest priority for the program in Fiscal Year 2015, which begins Oct. 1. President Barack Obama sent the government wide budget to Congress last week.

The request was part of the broader budget for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Obama proposed to fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund at $900 million.

Sens. Jon Tester and John Walsh, and Rep. Steve Daines all support the project.