A public hearing Monday on the proposed Haskill Basin and Trumbull Creek easements north of Whitefish brought praise from residents, along with some concerns that the agreement’s language could present unintended consequences down the road.

About 40 people attended Monday night’s public hearing in Whitefish, where officials from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks outlined the conservation plan.

It would prevent future development within the Haskill Basin watershed, which supplies 75 percent of Whitefish’s drinking water.

The conservation easement’s main purpose is securing that quality water supply into the future, but it has also been billed as a way to guarantee continued recreational access that landowner F.H. Stoltze Land & Lumber Co. has historically provided to the public.

While noting his organization’s appreciation for that long-standing policy, Flathead Fat Tires board member Noah Bodman said he worried the easement’s language was vague enough that Stoltze or another future landowner could restrict access to existing single-track trails on the land.

Flathead Fat Tires is a Whitefish-based nonprofit that advocates for mountain bikers in the valley.

As written in the draft, the easement allows for dispersed recreational activities, which Bodman said could be interpreted to preclude activities on established trails.

“I don’t think that it really lives up to the public’s expectation of what they signed on for when they voted for this,” Bodman said, referring to the $7.7 million obligation from the city of Whitefish’s resort tax revenue. Whitefish voters approved a 1 percent increase in the city’s resort tax earlier this year to help pay for the easement.

Bodman estimated there are about 50 miles of trails throughout the property, adding that it is probably the second-most-used trail system by mountain bikers in the immediate area after the popular Whitefish Trails network.

Stoltze General Manager Chuck Roady responded that the company has always allowed public access and would continue to do so into the future.

When Bodman requested that the easement at least recognize the existing trail system as part of the easement’s public recreation guarantees, Roady responded that “trying to put on a map every place someone’s ridden a bike” would be impossible.

“We intentionally didn’t want to pick out any single user group,” he added after the meeting. “The minute you put specific language in there, the next user group will say, ‘Why didn’t you do that for us?’”

Housed within the draft environmental assessment is a management plan for the easement. Bodman worried that the easement itself — which will be permanent and immutable if officially agreed upon — was too vague, failing to guarantee the same levels of public access currently enjoyed in the basin.

However, a four-member liaison team, with two representatives from Stoltze or a future landowner, and one representative each from the city of Whitefish and Fish, Wildlife and Parks, will meet annually to discuss any management issues and will have the power to amend the management plan.

While Bodman stressed that his organization is generally supportive of the proposal and Stoltze’s current access policies, he said he doesn’t think the liaison team can guarantee those policies continue.

“I think the city’s and the [state wildlife] department’s interests are not always going to align with the public’s interest,” he said.

As for an acceptable fix, he added later, “I think it would be as easy as deleting the word ‘dispersed’ from the easement.”

Most of the those who spoke during the meeting’s public comment period supported the plan, including Whitefish City Manager Chuck Stearns. Whitefish resident Molly Higgins-Bruce echoed some of Bodman’s concerns but also commended the agency and city on the draft easement.

However, Kalispell resident Dave Skinner said the proposal was in effect “using other people’s money to bail Stoltze out” and added that restricting residential development in the area will only add to Whitefish’s work-force housing woes.

City officials and business leaders have long acknowledged Whitefish’s housing supply problem and recently held a summit in September to find potential solutions to the crisis.

With funding coming from the city, federal grants and Stoltze’s donation of part of the easement’s appraised value, the deal for the $20.6 million Haskill Creek Basin easement could be inked as soon as February.

Funding for the $12.7 million, 7,150-acre Trumbull Creek easement has not yet been secured, but Wood said the federal money is included in President Obama’s recommended 2016 budget, and Stoltze has agreed to knock $3.2 million off the appraised value. If the money is included in the final federal budget, Wood expects the deal to close in December 2016.

The agency will accept public comments on the draft assessment through Nov. 22. Comments can be mailed to: South Whitefish Range Conservation Project, FWP, 490 N Meridian Road, Kalispell, MT 59901; or emailed to nivy@mt.gov.

For more information, contact Alan Wood at (406) 751-4595 or by email at awood@mt.gov.

Reporter Samuel Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.