‘You Know What I Know’: Flathead Forest Pledges Transparency in Holland Lake Lodge Permit Process

For a special-use authorization that seeks to maintain the status quo on the Flathead National Forest’s Swan Lake Ranger District, the latest news about the pending sale of the century-old Holland Lake Lodge to a pair of Utah investors has generated a lot of buzz.

Forest Supervisor Anthony Botello said he understands why.

“I understand where the details and the questions are coming from,” Botello told residents and stakeholders who gathered Thursday night at the Swan Valley School in Condon. “I understand the need for information and I understand maybe the hesitancy to believe us. But I promise that you know what I know.”

Botello shared that knowledge and offered assurances of civic participation during a community meeting that drew more than 50 people, while an additional 25 people tuned in online via Zoom. The supervisor fielded questions while flanked by other forest officials, including: Tami MacKenzie, the Flathead National Forest’s deputy supervisor; Anthony Butterfield, the forest’s permit administrator; and Chris Dowling, the district ranger for the Swan Lake Ranger District, where the special-use authorization is proposed.

Forest officials said they arranged the meeting in an effort to be as communicative as possible with locals who are still on edge after the last round of development plans for Holland Lake Lodge revealed shortcomings in the Flathead National Forest’s permit-approval process. The high-profile expansion proposal in 2022 touched a nerve for locals, who called for a higher degree of public involvement from the federal agency.

Submitted by Utah-based adventure-lifestyle company POWDR, the failed proposal included plans to triple the lodge’s nightly capacity by building a new 28-room lodge and 26 cabin structures.

Ultimately, discrepancies in POWDR’s permit application, as well as questions surrounding the shareholder structure, timeline of the sale and shortcomings of the review, led the Forest Service to reject the plan. In October 2023, Christian Wohlfeil, the longtime owner of Holland Lake Lodge who retained his majority share, listed the resort at a sales price of $3.5 million, eventually receiving an offer from Utah investors Eric Jacobsen and Thomas Knowles.

The Flathead National Forest now must grant Jacobsen and Knowles a special use permit to operate the lakeside business on public land, and the prospective new owners are awaiting authorization to purchase the rustic lakeside resort and move forward with their operating plan.

The key distinction between the current plan under review and the previous development proposal is that Jacobsen and Knowles have applied for a special-use authorization that mirrors the existing permit, Botello said.

First permitted in 1924, Holland Lake Lodge has been in continual operation under a special-use authorization “for over 100 years,” the supervisor said, adding that the application under review seeks “to conduct the business in the same scope, intensity, size, scale, and footprint of the existing permit.”

“There is no master development plan for expansion, there is no plan for less public use, there is no plan for more public use,” Botello said. “Truly, the owners are interested in receiving the permit and conducting the activity that the permit has always allowed.”

But that’s not to say that the new owners can’t pursue expansion plans in the future. If those proposed actions fall outside the guardrails of the existing permit, however, Botello said there will be another opportunity for public involvement.

Doing business as Holland Peak, LLC, the prospective new owners have a purchase agreement in place with the lodge’s current majority shareholder; however, the existing special-use permit automatically expires with a change in proprietorship, requiring reauthorization by the U.S. Forest Service.

“This buyer isn’t proposing an expansion. They are only submitting an application for a permit to operate the business as is,” Botello said. “If at some point the owners decide they want to build five new cabins to accommodate 25 additional people and operate jet-boat races on Holland Lake, that’s a different business plan. At that point, the public will get to weigh in.”

Under the new permit application, Holland Peak, LLC, has requested special use authorization to operate the lodge in its existing footprint on national forest land, providing guest accommodations, dining and beverage services (including the sale of liquor), hosting special events, and offering canoe and kayak rentals. Staffing would include a full-time lodge manager, a full-time maintenance manager, and a food and beverage manager. The resort would operate seven days a week from June through October.

Botello said the agency’s preliminary assessment, including technical, environmental and financial screenings of the permit application, “appears to be consistent with a categorical exclusion,” exempting the project from documentation in an environmental impact statement or an environmental assessment under NEPA. But that’s not to say that future development proposals won’t require a higher tier of analysis.

“I don’t know what’s coming next. I don’t know what these owners are going to propose as an expansion in the future. They don’t know those plans yet,” Botello said. “Because of the last round of proposed expansion, there is a lot of trepidation and a lot of hesitation that is totally understandable. But you know what we know now and as we get more information we will share that. Because people are interested. And that is how we conduct our public involvement — when people are interested and affected.”

Forest officials are accepting comment through May 7. To inform the public scoping process, forest officials have uploaded the existing permit and the proposed operating plan documents for 2025 to the online Holland Lake Lodge project file.

Yet it still remains unclear when and to what degree the lodge will reopen if the Flathead National Forest approves the special use permit. Last year marked the historic lodge’s centennial anniversary, but it did not provide public services due to deficiencies with the Forest Service’s outmoded wastewater treatment system, which serves the lodge, as well as the 42-site Holland Lake Campground and associated RV dump station.

“The wastewater treatment plant is our facility and it’s not fully operable,” Botello said.

In October 2023, a site inspection by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and Missoula County revealed a leak in the system, forcing it offline. On Thursday, Botello said a new system is still undergoing a preliminary environmental report, which is due at the end of April, following a geotechnical investigation last November.

The Forest Service will conduct an environmental analysis and decision making prior to moving forward on the replacement project, which will include an opportunity for public comment.

It is unlikely that the wastewater treatment system will be fully functional by this summer recreation season, Forest Service officials said.

If a special-use permit is issued to the potential buyers, this summer’s operations may include scaled-down activities than can be provided with limited or temporary wastewater facilities, such as weddings, boat rentals, and limited food and drink services.

All operations would be required to be consistent with the terms and conditions of the permit as issued by the Flathead National Forest, Botello said, and would be described in an agency-approved operating plan.

To submit a comment or for more information about the application, visit the Flathead National Forest’s projects page and select Holland Lake Lodge Special Use Permit Issuance Proposal.

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