Dave Hadden keeps a pulse on the north shore of Flathead Lake from his house on Holt Drive.

He has picked up bags of garbage from the nearby public access to Flathead Lake, and he knows when teenagers are throwing parties on Dockstader Island.

But it’s the public access to the north shore from a county road that concerns him most these days.

Hadden, who lives next to Eagle Bend Golf Club on the north side of Holt Drive, recently launched a petition drive to alert the public about preserving the county right-of-way.

A 30-foot-wide county right-of-way connects Holt Drive to Flathead Lake. The right-of-way has no road. It is merely a wandering trail in the grass that was once used to haul gravel to the north shore of the lake for stabilization.

Dave Prunty, the county’s road supervisor, said the right-of-way dates back to the 1890s and it has never been abandoned. In more recent years, it has become a popular public access to the north shore beach.

Hadden, though, is concerned that the adjoining landowner may attempt to have the roadway abandoned by the county and forever lock out the public from a longtime public access to Flathead Lake.

The access adjoins a portion of land that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks owns. On the other side of the county right-of-way is Roger Sortino’s land. Sortino, a developer from Woodinville, Wash., last year put up fake surveillance cameras at the public access, apparently to try to discourage access and parking on Holt Drive.

The Flathead County commissioners have jurisdiction over roadway abandonments. According to Hadden, Montana law dictates that a county may not abandon a public lake access unless another access that is “substantially the same” is provided.

Hadden says Sortino may propose improving the access to the adjoining waterfowl refuge in exchange for a roadway abandonment.

While Prunty said he is not aware of any applications being submitted for the road to be abandoned, Hadden said he wants to head any such effort off at the pass.

Hadden has begun a petition drive to encourage the county, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to keep the county access open to the public. Under an abandonment scenario, “We would have an improvement of an existing access and would lose an access,” Hadden said, “which would not be a fair trade.”

 “As long as he’s making motions … I felt it was necessary to develop a petition,” Hadden said. “I want to demonstrate that the public wants to keep this site a public access. It’s an ounce of prevention.

“It’s not inconceivable that the Fish and Wildlife Service and FWP and the county road department would endorse his move and recommend to the county commissioners that we abandon access.”

Currently, the access points are not equal.

The access to the waterfowl refuge is closed March 1 through July 15 while the county access is open all year. If the county access were abandoned, the public would lose year-round access to the north shore of Flathead Lake near Bigfork.

Hadden said the efforts to discourage the public from using the access have not been well received, to say the least.

“The cameras, the bright trespassing signs, it’s just not Bigfork. It’s just not community,” he said. “If you talk to people who have grown up here, they are like, what is he doing? They are fighting mad.”