An $85,000 donation from longtime Whitefish supporters Jim and Lisa Stack has enabled Whitefish Legacy Partners to meet its fundraising goal of $2 million to secure a permanent conservation and recreation easement on 1,520 acres in the Beaver Lakes area.

The Beaver Lakes easement purchase was structured over a two-year period with the final payment due Dec. 31. A significant portion of the $7.7 million easement cost was funded by Whitefish philanthropist Michael Goguen, with Whitefish Legacy Partners responsible for raising the remaining $2 million from the community.

In recent years Goguen has contributed close to $10 million to the Whitefish Trail project, including the easement, a land exchange and trail development.

To raise the last $2 million, the organization received donations from a broad base of people, businesses and foundations.

A recent $100,000 major challenge grant by the Whitefish Community Foundation provided the impetus to complete the community fundraising. The community rallied in support of the easement to permanently protect the Beaver Lakes area, donating anywhere from 10 cents to $150 per acre in pledges to be paid over the next 12 to 24 months. During that time “mystery donors” pledged to complete the mission.

Those mystery donors are the Stacks, who said they cannot imagine a more worthwhile community-driven project than the Whitefish Trail.

The Beaver Lakes easement secures permanent public access, ensures no development, provides continued forest management by the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, offers more money than ever for schools and universities in Montana and provides the community the recreation amenity known as the Whitefish Trail, according to Heidi Van Everen, director of the nonprofit Whitefish Legacy Partners that is leading the Whitefish Trail project

The Beaver Lakes area includes seven lakes, wildlife habitat and existing and developed recreation. The easement will provide watershed and viewshed protection, new trails, an education pavilion and public access in perpetuity.

Since the Whitefish Area Trust Lands Neighborhood Plan was approved in 2004 for the roughly 13,000 acres of state trust land around Whitefish, more than $12.5 million has been generated in gross revenue from the school trust lands for Montana to use for its schools and universities.

The Whitefish City Council approved a resolution on Dec. 1 to extend the neighborhood plan through 2024.

Whitefish Mayor John Muhlfeld, members of the Neighborhood Plan Steering Committee and Whitefish Legacy Partners’ board of directors traveled to Helena on Monday to present a 10-year assessment and progress report to the Montana Board of State Land Commissioners.

Whitefish Legacy Partners now plans to focus on establishing more trails within the easement and pursuing other education and conservation goals, including protection of Haskill Basin and the city’s drinking water.

“We can now move forward in partnership with local landowners and the Whitefish community to assure continued public access, protect our water quality, maintain healthy forests, sustain quality wildlife habitat and provide recreational and educational opportunities into the future,” Van Everen said in a prepared statement.