Page 12 - Flathead Beacon // 3.12.14

12 | MARCH 12, 2014 NEWS FLATHEADBEACON.COM

Haskill Basin Project

Facts

Ranked as Top Priority in Budget
FIGURES

Numbers in the news
Top ranking with the

19.6%
Forest Legacy Program

sets up project to
Montana’s obesity rate,
receive $7 million
which makes it the
slimmest state in the
country, according to a By MOLLY PRIDDY of the Beacon

recent Gallup poll.
The proposed protection of land and
water in Whiteish’s Haskill Basin has
been ranked as the top priority for the
6.7%
U.S. Forest Service’s working forest con-
servation project.
The Forest Service ranks such proj-
The U.S. unemployment ects for funding through its Forest Legacy

rate in February, up 0.1 Program, which awards grants to states
percent from a month to purchase permanent conservation
easements and other property interests
earlier.
that protect forest land resources.
With its No. 1 spot, the Haskill Basin
Watershed Project is slated to receive $7
273.6
million in Legacy Project funding.

The project seeks to protect more
million
than 3,000 acres in Haskill Basin near F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Company property is seen in Haskill Basin. LIDO VIZZUTTI | FLATHEAD BEACON
Whiteish. The property, owned by the
F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Co. and lo- end of 2015.
million.
Number of visitors
cated beside Whiteish Mountain Resort “We feel really conident that this
Haskill Basin’s spot as the highest pri-
to America’s national on Big Mountain, is highly vulnerable to $7 million will be secured,” Love said. ority project is part of the Forest Service’s
parks in 2013, a drop of the pressures of development, proponents “We’re in as good of a spot as we can be.”
budget for Fiscal Year 2015, which was
of the easement say, and is the source of 75 In years past, Love said the Legacy sent to Congress last week. Love said she
3 percent from a year
prior, partially due to the percent of the municipal water supply in Project tended to receive funding from is conident the project would receive the
Whiteish.
the top down, until it ran out of money. To funds, but it will have to go through the
government shutdown.
It is also home to grizzly bears, Can- be eligible for the program, the parcel of congressional process before TPL knows
ada lynx, and westslope cutthroat trout, land must meet a host of requirements – for sure.
and is popular for hiking, mountain bik- the landowner must be willing to sell the Otherwise, TPL will focus on other
12
ing, hunting, horseback riding, and Nor- land, the parcel must be in an environ- fundraising eforts, she said, including
dic skiing.
mentally important forest that is threat- applying for other public funds, such as
Last year, Stoltze and the Trust for ened by development, the property must
Major slide paths along federal funding through the Habitat Con-
Public Land, a nonproit land conserva- be more than 5 acres and must have an ap- servation Plan, which provides funding
BNSF Railway’s tracks tion organization, reached a deal that proved forest management plan.
for endangered species habitat protection
through John F. Stevens would keep the land permanently pro- “This is the irst time I’ve ever been in- through the Endangered Species Act.
tected for water, wildlife and recreation volved in a project that received the num- Love said there will also be an efort to
Canyon near Essex, uses, while still allowing Stoltze’s sus- ber one ranking,” Love said.
explore local public funding options with
known to railroaders as tainable timber management to continue.
There were a total of 44 projects con- the City of Whiteish, as well as private
“Avalanche Alley.” Deb Love, the Northern Rockies di- sidered for the Legacy Project funding, fundraising eforts.

(STORY, PAGE 6)
rector for TPL, said the top ranking will and the Haskill Basin project outpaced The project has support from Mon-
give the project a signiicant boost toward the rest in terms of funding, with the tana’s congressional delegation, as well as
raising the $17 million needed to buy the Clagstone Meadows project in Idaho get- Whiteish’s mayor and city council.
development rights from Stoltze by the
ting the second-highest amount at $5.5
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