Building a Public Lands Legacy at Lost Trail

Fish and Wildlife Service proposes conservation easement on 100,000 acres of prime hunting and timberland owned largely by Southern Pine Plantations

BY TRISTAN SCOTT // JUL 13, 2020

If the sale of a prized swath of Northwest Montana forestland to an out-of-state investment firm was cause for consternation earlier this year, then a new proposal to conserve much of that land for public access, wildlife habitat and sustainable timber management ought to be cause for celebration.

That’s the consensus of federal and state land and wildlife resource managers leading the effort to place 100,000 acres of prime hunting and timberland into conservation easements, protecting parcels in Flathead and Lincoln counties from private development in perpetuity while also ensuring continued access for hunters, anglers, hikers, skiers, berry-pickers, and other recreational users, as well as allowing the property to be sustainably managed for timber production.

The proposed project lands form a sprawling checkerboard of ownership flanking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) Lost Trail National Wildlife Refuge near Marion. The lion’s share of the project area was recently purchased by Georgia-based Southern Pine Plantations (SPP), a real estate and timberland investment firm that paid $145 million in cash to the previous owner, Weyerhaeuser Co., in exchange for 630,000 acres, touching off rampant speculation among public land users in the region about whether the new guard might chop up the parcels and sell them for private development, supplanting trophy bucks and bulls with gated trophy homes.

The newly proposed Lost Trail Conservation Area would authorize the federal FWS to work with willing sellers like SPP, as well as smaller private owners, to acquire conservation easements on up to 100,000 acres within the defined 116,000-acre conservation area boundary… read more

After months of uncertainty, hospitality businesses feel relief with the park’s reopening in early June

BY MAGGIE DRESSER // JUN 18, 2020

Ever since Glacier National Park’s closure in March, businesses within and outside of its boundaries have sat on pins and needles, waiting for the governor and park superintendent to set a reopening date.

“We’ve been preparing for being able to open at any moment,” Holly DuMay, the director of sales and marketing at Izaak Walton Inn and Eddie’s Café and Mercantile. “We knew we weren’t going to have a lengthy notice.”

Once the park finally reopened on June 8, Eddie’s Café and Mercantile was ready to go, opening just a few weeks after its normal date of Memorial Day Weekend.

“It’s a huge relief that we’re opening as soon as we are,” DuMay said.

Eddie’s, which is operating with coronavirus precautions such as plastic screens and spaced-out tables, received a facelift this winter, with a completely remodeled restaurant, a full-service bar and to-go cocktails.

“You can take a cocktail to-go and just sit on the beach at Lake McDonald,” DuMay said. Read more…..

Day of Giving and Unity Fundraiser Nets Over $500,000 for Local Nonprofits

Whitefish Community Foundation and Flathead Community Foundation awarded $1,000 matching grants to 78 different charities

BY ANDY VIANO // MAY 11, 2020

More than 1,300 donors helped raise a total of $561,707 for 78 different Northwest Montana nonprofits during a 28-hour fundraiser on May 5-6.

Not too shabby for a first try.

The Day of Giving and Unity — an initiative launched in response to the coronavirus outbreak by the same group that organizes Giving Tuesday the week after Thanksgiving every year — was May 5, and in Northwest Montana two foundations partnered together, while adding a second day, to support local charities. The result was a resounding success, the organizers say, and the combination of the Whitefish Community Foundation (WCF) and Flathead Community Foundation helped bring far-flung nonprofits from throughout Northwest Montana together beneath one banner. Read more….