Longstanding McGregor Lake Public Access Dispute Inches Toward Resolution

McGREGOR LAKE — A sign along a dirt road paralleling this lake’s northern shoreline informs drivers that a public recreation site lies beyond a quarter-mile stretch of private property ahead. A few yards behind it, a yellow “private property” sign is nailed to a tree.

Taken together, the two otherwise nondescript signs serve as subtle indicators of a public-access squabble that has been simmering for well over a decade, involving private landowners, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Flathead County and Flathead Wildlife, Inc., a sportsmen’s organization.

After years of letters, lawyers and courtroom wrangling, the disagreement could finally be nearing a conclusion, with a hearing on the matter scheduled on Jan. 9 before the Flathead County Commission.

The road in dispute is the only way to access a 65-acre plot of state land under the purview of FWP’s Montana State Parks. The site is one of four public-access points along the nearly 1,500-acre McGregor Lake, a popular fishing and watersports destination 30 miles west of Kalispell on U.S. Highway 2.

Chuck Hunt, vice president of Flathead Wildlife, says the dispute has broader implications for a thorny debate confronting land managers and outdoor recreationists: private landowners either prohibiting or encroaching upon public access.

“I think it’s important for people to realize the importance of these access points and to notice when they’re being encroached upon,” Hunt said.

The road in question runs parallel to Highway 2 and was in fact the original highway, deeded to the county in 1926 by Northern Pacific Railway, until the new highway route was established. For decades, it provided access to a chunk of timberland that, while private, was used for public recreation, according to Jim Vashro, president of Flathead Wildlife and former FWP Region 1 fisheries manager. When FWP took control of the acreage through a land exchange in 1993, the plot was formalized as a public-recreation site, with a long stretch of shoreline access to McGregor Lake.

After Plum Creek Timber Co. sold 15 acres flanking the roadway and the acreage was subdivided into five lots, it was discovered in 2001 that a landowner had obstructed the road with rocks and debris, and a private detour had been constructed. The steep detour road wasn’t adequate for, nor intended for, public use, according to a judge’s 2011 ruling.

“Basically, from 1926 to 2001, the public had used that property over that existing road and then it was blocked,” Vashro said.

In 2005, members of the public notified FWP that the public-access route had been completely blocked with boulders. The following year, a Flathead Wildlife member discovered a home built in the right-of-way with a lawn established on top of newly laid dirt directly over the road.

Landowners met with representatives from Flathead County and FWP in late 2006 to discuss the access disagreement, but potential solutions ultimately fizzled out. The landowners then filed a lawsuit in 2009 against the county and state agency requesting that the road be declared unmaintained and abandoned. Flathead Wildlife intervened on behalf of the defendants.

Flathead County District Court Judge Stewart Stadler ruled against the landowners in a 2011 decision, ordering the road to be restored for public use. The ruling led to Flathead County that year bulldozing a road through the edge of the landowner’s lawn along the original public-access route.

But Flathead Wildlife argued that the county’s new road was insufficient, per Stadler’s order, as it was one lane and still had private structures and features encroaching on the right-of-way. After the county took no further action, Flathead Wildlife filed suit last year against Flathead County requesting the removal of remaining obstructions and restoration of the road’s “full public use.”

That lawsuit prompted out-of-court discussions that have led to a tentative agreement, in which all of the affected landowners except one have drafted a petition agreeing to a 30-foot public right-of-way, which is a compromise down from the road’s original 60-foot right-of-way.

The Flathead County Commission is reviewing the petition at its Jan. 9 meeting. If commissioners approve the agreement, it will set in motion a process that Flathead Wildlife hopes will resolve the longstanding issue, although the group wants to see that all of its conditions are met, including permanent markers denoting the right-of-way boundaries and full reestablishment of a 15-foot-wide, two-way road.

On Dec. 15, Dave Landstrom, FWP’s regional manager for Montana State Parks, the entity that oversees the recreation area, led a right-of-way clearing effort, along with a FWP maintenance employee and six Flathead Wildlife volunteers, in which chainsaws and manpower combined with a skid-steer loader and wood chipper to remove brush and trees from the road’s edges.

Farther down the road, the parcel at the heart of the debate sat tucked in the woods along the lake shoreline, unused on this winter day but, in Vashro’s eyes, brimming with possibility.

“That’s a big chunk of land,” Vashro said. “It gives them real options for day use or overnight use, but you have to be able to get to it.”