Tag Archives: Haskill Basin

Haskill Basin conservation easement completed

Good news for Whitefish: The Haskill Basin conservation easement is a done deal . . .

For years, conservation groups and city officials have recognized the development pressure that could bear down on Haskill Basin, a block of land east of Whitefish owned by F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Co.

And for years, those concerns were quelled by a good-faith agreement with the Stoltze family, who for more than a century has maintained its commitment to managing the Haskill parcel as a working forest, rather than leveraging it into a revenue-rich development deal.

On Wednesday, that handshake deal was inked into the history books as Whitefish city officials, along with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Stoltze, and the nonprofit Trust for Public Land, finalized an agreement to furnish permanent protections on 3,020 acres of land in the Haskill Creek watershed.

Read more . . .

Montana FWP recommends purchase of Haskill Basin and Trumble Creek easements

Some good news: Montana FWP recommended purchasing conservation easements on better than 10,000 acres in the north end of the Flathead Valley . . .

Public comments are in, and two proposed major conservation easement purchases in the Flathead Valley – including one that would protect the primary source of Whitefish’s water supply – are moving forward.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks on Monday recommended the FWP Commission immediately approve the purchase of a $16.7 million easement on more than 3,000 forested acres in Haskill Basin north of Whitefish.

The agency also recommended the commission approve the purchase of a $9.5 million easement on more than 7,000 acres northwest of Columbia Falls in the Trumble Creek area once the conservation easement and associated management plan are finalized, and other due diligence is completed.

Read more . . .

U.S. FWS awards $2M for easement on grizzly & lynx habitat on Stoltze land

This short write-up on the acquisition of a conservation easement on F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber land belies a great deal of behind the scenes work over the past few years . . .

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has awarded the state of Montana $2 million to aid in the acquisition of a conservation easement on Haskill Basin near Whitefish.

The 3,000-acre-plus property, located next to Whitefish Mountain Resort, is the source of 75 percent of Whitefish’s municipal water supply and vital habitat for grizzly bears and Canada lynx.

F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Co. owns the property.

Read more . . .