Groups celebrate finalized Haskill easement

All parties have signed on the dotted line. The Haskill Basin conservation easement is officially a done deal.

The five-year effort to keep future development out of Whitefish’s main watershed was finalized last week when The Trust for Public Land, City of Whitefish, F.H. Stoltze Land & Lumber, and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks closed on the 3,020 acre conservation easement in the forestland east of town.

Whitefish Mayor John Muhlfeld was involved in the deal from its impetus. He called it an historic moment in conservation that will benefit the community for generations to come.

“After nearly five years of hard work and perseverance, I am just thrilled to see this monumental project close,” Muhlfeld said. “I owe a debt of gratitude to the good folks in Whitefish who realized the historic significance and importance of this project.”

Stoltze remains the landowner and will continue to maintain a working forest in Haskill, but the easement retires the company’s development rights to the land that includes two creeks that feed the city’s drinking water supply.

The Trust for Public Land brokered the $20 million deal.

“Almost 5 square miles of beautiful forestland will be preserved forever in the backyard of Whitefish, and remain part of the vital local timber economy,” said Dick Dolan of The Trust for Public Land.

Stoltze provided a donation of almost $4 million to the purchase and $9 million in federal grants was secured in 2013 to set the project’s financial foundation. But that still left a chunk of cash the city needed to chip in.

Then in April 2015, Whitefish voters overwhelmingly approved a 1 percent increase of the resort tax to provide an additional $7.7 million to complete funding.

Chuck Roady, Vice President and General Manager of Stoltze, said the company has long wanted to get a deal like this done.

“The Stoltze family will still retain the ownership of the land and the management of their timberlands, while providing permanent recreational access, water for the city of Whitefish, and a continuous supply of wood to their local milling facility,” he said.

Also included in the easement, the city now has legal access to its water supply intakes in Haskill, something that wasn’t previously guaranteed. About 75 percent of the city’s water comes from Second and Third creeks.

“It was strictly a handshake, gentleman’s agreement,” Roady said. “They assumed that land was going to belong to Stoltze forever and trusted us with their water supply.”

Praise for the easement came from all parties involved.

Alan Wood, science program manager, with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, said the deal was an example of many groups, both private and public, working together for a single effort.

“[T]hese lands will remain a valuable part of the local economy, a home for fish and wildlife, and a treasured recreational resource for generations to come.”