The leader of the ambitious Foy’s to Blacktail Trails project says the trail system, more than a decade in the making, has taken an important step toward completion.

Foy’s to Blacktail Trails is a nonprofit organization created in 2005 to link public nonmotorized trail systems between Herron Park and Blacktail Mountain.

A “letter of understanding” signed Wednesday by the organization’s chairman, Cliff Kipp, along with Plum Creek and the Flathead County commissioners, formalized their intent to create a trail needed to complete the project.

Completion of the connector trail between Herron Park and Blacktail Mountain would require about five miles of easements across Plum Creek land north of Lakeside along with four smaller, privately owned parcels.

In the last decade, the group has expanded Herron Park from 120 acres to 440 acres and constructed a 14-mile trail network throughout the area. Getting Plum Creek on board with the idea has long been a goal for the organization.

“This is closer than we’ve ever been to having an agreement signed,” Kipp said Wednesday. “We still have a lot of work to do with the other private landowners. ... But so far, those conversations have been favorable.”

He acknowledged that the letter was not legally binding, likening the good-faith agreement to a “memorandum of understanding light.”

The letter, Kipp said, will allow trail crews to begin surveying a possible trail corridor, which would balance the needs of hikers, bikers and equestrians with landowners’ concerns.

As proposed, the county would own the easement and accept liability for the connector trail. Foy’s to Blacktail Trails would construct and maintain the trail itself.

Jerry Sorenson, Plum Creek Senior Director of Land Asset Management, said Thursday that his company has been working with Foy’s to Blacktail since its inception. Part of the company’s terms include locking down easements and permission from the other four smaller landowners in the corridor.

“This just demonstrates the intent of the three parties to work together to try to result in an easement that goes from Foy’s Lake to Blacktail,” Sorenson said.

However, Plum Creek’s opinion on the matter could soon become moot. The company — currently Northwest Montana’s largest private landowner — in November announced a likely merger with rival timber company Weyerhaueser.

So far, Weyerhaueser has declined to comment on whether it will maintain Plum Creek’s long-standing public access policies on the nearly 600,000 acres of Northwest Montana timber lands it will pick up once the merger is complete. Company officials have stated they expect the deal to close sometime in the next several months.

Sorensen said the soonest the three parties could ink a deal on the trail would be June.

“I can’t speak for Weyerhaeuser,” he said. “My hope would be that they would look at this after the merger. They’ve got a lot of things to look at, but hopefully they’ll look at this and it’s something that would make sense to them.”

Flathead County Commissioner Phil Mitchell said that he has long supported the project and will push Weyerhaeuser to uphold Plum Creek’s culture of encouraging recreational access to its public lands.

“I believe, from what I was told in the meeting yesterday, that this is about 98 percent complete,” Mitchell said Thursday. “I want to let Weyerhaeuser know this is how we work in this county.”

Kipp said he hasn’t yet tried to reach out to the prospective neighbors, but remains optimistic that Weyerhaeuser will maintain Plum Creek’s support of the project.

“This is such a strong vote of confidence from Plum Creek and the county that this is a viable project,” Kipp said. “Personally, I would say it would be hard for Weyerhaueser to shut it down.”

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