Page 14 - Flathead Beacon // 6.25.14

14 | JUNE 25, 2014 HASKILL
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velopment, holds a trove of hiking, bik- ing and skiing trails, is home to a suite of wildlife, and is the source of 75 percent of the municipal water supply in White- fish.
The conservation easement was an- nounced last June, but hinges on fund- ing, and project managers were on hand at a June 17 open house to discuss the price tag.
Given the property’s high develop- ment threshold, Stoltze values the land at $20.6 million, but the company has offered to sell it for $17 million, accord- ing to Alex Diekmann, project manager for the Trust for Public Lands, which is working to raise money from federal programs, private donors and public funding sources in order to bring the deal to fruition.
The Forest Service ranks such proj- ects for funding through its Forest Leg- acy Program, which awards grants to states to purchase permanent conser- vation easements, and gave the Haskill Basin Watershed Project its No. 1 spot, positioning it to receive $7 million in Legacy Project funding.
The top ranking gives the project a significant boost toward raising the $17 million needed to buy the development rights from Stoltze by the end of 2015, leaving a balance of between $8 million and $9 million.
Whitefish Mayor John Muhlfeld said
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F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Company property is seen in Haskill Basin. BEACON FILE PHOTO
Even though Stoltze is widely rec- ognized as an ideal steward of the land, its Haskill property is flanked by high- ticket development projects like the Iron Horse golf course, the Lookout Ridge subdivision, the Ptarmigan Village con- dominiums and Whitefish Mountain Resort.
It doesn’t take a stretch of the imagi- nation to envision Haskill Basin bris- tling with condos and trophy homes.
Stoltze has endured difficult times before, particularly in the wake of the collapsing housing market and plum- meting lumber prices. The company lost three mills in the span of a decade, shuttering facilities in Dillon, Darby and Utah, which it did only after losing ac- cess to federal and private harvest lands.
Multiple generations have supported Stoltze’s legacy of innovation and access, McKenzie said, and while he sees no sign of that changing under the current guard, he noted that there’s always the chance, and that Stoltze has sold 1,200 acres in past two decades.
“Everything so far has been done on a handshake deal,” he said of the com- pany allowing hiker and biker access. “It might have been OK to do that for the past 100 years but as a city and a com- pany we should legitimize this amazing place.”
“It is a lot of money that we have to raise to make this happen but it is a small price for something to protect as important as this into perpetuity,” Diek- mann added.
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the city is exploring several avenues of funding, including private and philan- thropic contributions, as well as public measures such as a general obligation bond that would go to voters for approv- al, and a water revenue bond.
Diekmann praised the timber com- pany’s reputation as a good neighbor, and said the partnership with Stoltze is ideal.
“They are widely regarded as one of the best operators in the industry,” he said of the family-owned company, which has been around for a century. “I have done a lot of work with timber com- panies and I can tell you these guys are some of the best operators that I have come across.”
For years, conservation groups and city officials have recognized the devel- opment pressure that could bear down on the Haskill block and, until recently, have operated under a good-faith agree- ment with the Stoltze family, who for more than a century has maintained its commitment to managing the parcel as a working forest, rather than leveraging it into a revenue-rich development deal.
Paul McKenzie, the lands and re- source manager for Stoltze, said there are no plans to sell the land, but that its development potential has only grown along with the skyrocketing property values, saying that Whitefish is grow- ing at a rate three times higher than the state average.
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