Public access threatened on North Shore of Flathead Lake

Dave Hadden keeps a pulse on the north shore of Flathead Lake from his house on Holt Drive.

He has picked up bags of garbage from the nearby public access to Flathead Lake, and he knows when teenagers are throwing parties on Dockstader Island.

But it’s the public access on a county road that concerns him most these days. Hadden, who lives next to Eagle Bend Golf Club on the north side of Holt Drive, is launching a petition drive to alert the public about preserving the county roadway.

The county roadway connects Holt Drive to Flathead Lake. The roadway has no road. It is merely a wandering trail in the grass that was once used to haul gravel to the north shore of the lake for stabilization. The county never abandoned the 30-foot-wide roadway, and it is a popular public access to the north shore beach.

Hadden, though, is concerned that the adjoining landowner may have the roadway abandoned by the county, and forever lock out the public from a longtime public access to Flathead Lake.

The access adjoins a portion of land that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks owns. On the other side of the county roadway is Roger Sortino’s land. Sortino, a developer from Woodinville, Wash., last year put up fake surveillance cameras at the public access to try to discourage access and parking on Holt Drive. Sortino is developing the land next to the access, and this winter built piers for a bridge out to Dockstader Island, which he owns.

  The Flathead County commissioners have jurisdiction over roadway abandonments. According to Hadden, Montana law dictates that a county may not abandon a public lake access unless another access that is “substantially the same” is provided. Hadden says Sortino may propose improving the access to the adjoining waterfowl refuge in exchange for a roadway abandonment.

Hadden said he wants to head that effort off at the pass.

Hadden has begun a petition drive to encourage the county, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to keep the county access open to the public. Under an abandonment scenario, “We would have an improvement of an existing access and would lose an access,” Hadden said, “which would not be a fair trade.”

 “As long as he’s making motions … I felt it was necessary to develop a petition,” Hadden said. “I want to demonstrate that the public wants to keep this site a public access. It’s an ounce of prevention.

“It’s not inconceivable that the fish and wildlife service and FWP and the county road department would endorse his move and recommend to the county commissioners that we abandon access.”

Currently, the access points are not equal. The access to the waterfowl refuge is closed March 1 through July 15, while the county access is open all year. If the county access were abandoned, the public would lose year-round access to the north shore of Flathead Lake near Bigfork.

The roadway easement includes 15 feet on Sortino’s land and 15 feet on the state conservation area. Adjoining the state conservation on the west side is a federal waterfowl area on the Flathead River.

THIS WEEK U.S. Representative Steve Daines said maintaining public access to public land is important.

He is calling on U.S. House leadership to support programs that encourage outdoor recreation and increase access to public lands in Montana.

Daines recently wrote to House Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Ken Calvert and Ranking Member James Moran, requesting language be included in 2015 Interior budgets that prioritizes increasing and improving recreational access to existing public lands.

“Many livelihoods in the West rely on responsible use of our federal lands, including sufficient access for recreational hunting, fishing and other outdoor activities,” Daines said. “Roughly four million acres in the Rocky Mountain West are inaccessible to the public. Almost two million acres of public land in my home state of Montana alone are inaccessible, making resource development, recreation, and other revenue-raising activities difficult.”

Daines noted that such language has been included in prior Interior Appropriations bills and reflects the principles found in H.R. 3962, the Making Public Lands Public Access Act, which Daines introduced earlier this year. Daines this week also urged strong support for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and the North American Wetlands Conservation Act, noting the important role these programs play in protecting Montana’s outdoors heritage and supporting Montana’s economy.

America’s outdoor recreation, conservation and preservation economies contribute $1.06 trillion to the nation’s economy each year and support 9.4 million American jobs, according to Daines. “Support for public lands among the American public remains consistently and overwhelmingly strong,” he said.

 http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/protect-holt-drive-access