A plan to prevent development near Smith Lake and Swift Creek has hit a roadblock. 

Whitefish Legacy Partners, the nonprofit that manages the 47-mile Whitefish Trail system, has been working with the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation to purchase a 600-acre Public Recreation Use Easement encompassing Smith Lake and Swift Creek.  

A 2024 appraisal of the Smith Lake project area came out to $7.2 million, a lofty but manageable price tag for WLP. But earlier this year, before the deal with the DNRC could close, a technicality in the appraisal was found.  

The DNRC subsequently conducted a reappraisal, which came out to be $24.3 million.  

Dave Ring, manager for the Stillwater State Forest, described the project as an opportunity to generate crucial revenue for school trusts while maintaining a high standard of forest management.  

“The state will be compensated for the potential development rights, which is where the land value is at, and we can continue to do forest management,” Ring said.  

But for Legacy Partners, the new appraisal comes as a massive disappointment.  

“We’ve been working on it for so long, we thought we were close,” said Heidi Van Everen, director of WLP. “We had no idea our price was going to triple in five months. It really is shocking. And when the state says they’re committed to a project, I don’t know how to make sense of it. We can’t do a project we’re priced out of.” 

Under the pursued easement, the DNRC would still own the land, continue to manage the forest, and generate revenue for school trusts, while the city of Whitefish, through WLP’s support, would permanently secure the area’s development rights.  

The easement would enable Legacy Partners in preventing development and continue to maintain the existing trail and recreation amenities, in addition to adding a few miles of trail, all of which would contribute to WLP’s overarching goal to “close the loop” by connecting trail systems to fully encompass Whitefish Lake.  

Smith Lake and Swift Creek are on Stillwater State Forest trust land at the headwaters north of Whitefish Lake. The area has sweeping views of Whitefish Lake and access to the Whitefish Range. Flanked by old growth forests, wildlife habitat, pristine wetlands and rural residences, it is a critical interface between wilderness and a growing Whitefish.   

While its ecological value and beauty are inherent, the area has seen property values rise since the start of Whitefish Legacy Partners’ efforts to conserve the area eight years ago.   

Van Everen expressed frustration with discontinuity in the process. In 2014, WLP successfully obtained a $7.3 million recreation easement in the Beaver Lakes area through a similar process.  

Both approaches were guided by the Whitefish School Trust Lands Neighborhood Plan.  

First adopted in 2003 and renewed about a decade ago, the neighborhood plan is a land-use plan between the city of Whitefish, the DNRC and the state’s Land Board, that outlines “win-win” conversation strategies for the 13,000-plus acres of trust land around Whitefish.  

The goal of the plan is to benefit land users while ensuring the DNRC meets their revenue requirements for Montana’s public schools. 

IN THE DETAILS of the DNRC’s June 2024 Smith Lake near-50 page appraisal document is a paragraph giving a potential range of values. 

The 2024 appraisal was for $21,000 an acre. But the range of possible values provided was $15,000 to $50,000 an acre — the higher end totaling to about $32.7 million. 

The higher end is only feasible if the area is divided into parcels, the document points out. 

Thus, the DNRC, being obligated to generate the highest revenue possible for school trusts, decided to conduct a new appraisal in February 2025 and divide the area into four parcels. 

Each parcel is designated to generate revenue for a specific school. The four parcels at Smith Lake are designated to Montana State University, Montana State University – Morrill, the School of Mines, and the School for the Deaf and Blind.  

“I feel that by forcing the appraisal to divide the parcels, it creates bias,” said Van Everen. “At Beaver Lakes, they used the school’s boundaries as administrative boundaries, not valuation or legal boundaries. 

“My stance is, we turned in an application for one project that is for 605 acres. Why they turned it into an 800-acre project area divided into project areas, I don’t know,” she said.  

“I think they truly believe that Whitefish could pay for it,” she added.  

WLP’s Smith Lake Legacy capital campaign just finished a quiet phase of fundraising, relying on strong relationships with 30-plus major donors. The plan, prior to the reappraisal, was to finish off with a widespread public campaign to raise an additional $2 million.  

After the state reappraisal, WLP conducted its own appraisal that came out at $18 million. 

Even at $6 million less than the DNRC’s $23 million, the discrepancy is not grounds for using the prior proposal, both Van Everen and Ring confirmed.  

“It’s just unfortunate, because we thought we had a deal that was going to generate over $7 million [for trust land,] and instead they changed the price tag to $23 million. Now, the schools get nothing, or a couple hundred thousand,” Van Everen said. 

THE PRIORITY for Legacy Partners is to preserve the existing trail by putting forth a proposal to instead purchase a permanent recreation easement for a 16-foot corridor of land surrounding the existing trail.  

The existing trails at Smith Lake and Swift Creek are on a temporary land use license, dated 2017-2027 that has an option to be canceled.  

The trail-corridor proposal will come with a manageable price tag of about $200,000, Van Everen said.  

WLP is also considering proposing to purchase an additional corridor to build 3-5 miles of new trail on the northeast side of Smith Lake as well, an aspect which was included in the initial full-scale project proposal. That would look more like a $500,000 -$700,000.  

It will then be up to the DNRC to consider the alternative trail corridor proposal.  

While working on the alternative, the initial 600-acre proposal will also remain on the table for the next few weeks in case a donor comes forward with the $18 million needed, but that is extremely unlikely, Van Everen said.  

“People come to us on a fairly regular basis with proposals,” Ring said. “And we listen and decide if it’s in the best interest of the trust.” 

The price remains, and managing the forest will continue to be the priority for the area, Ring said. 

“Legacy Partners and the city are wanting to purchase the ability [to develop,] so that we won’t develop it,” Ring said. “But we aren’t actively seeking out development right now. We have enough to keep us busy on the forest management side.”  

For example, a logging project from Taylor Hellroaring to Swift Creek is undergoing an environmental analysis right now, he said.  

At the core of the Smith Lake project area is a conversation buyer easement with a maximum of six home sites, he said.  

In a hypothetical scenario in which WLP does not purchase the recreation easement, and those homes come to fruition, those six homeowners would have limitations to the development on the land around them, Ring said.  

The six homesites might not impact the transportation system too much, Ring said, but that would still have to be determined by analysis.  

Moving forward, WLP is regrouping efforts.  

“Many of our big donors have contributed to this project because they want to make sure what is on the landscape now is there forever,” Van Everen said. “But for the majority, they just want to go out and enjoy the trail. I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve had to go back to donors who committed to protecting, to acquiring and removing the development rights.”  

Van Everen said the nonprofit is fortunate in that many donors are supportive of the organization and trust the group’s leadership about next steps.  

“We know we’ll pivot,” she said. “We just don’t want to." 

Ring said the state Land Board has been supportive of management decisions like the Beaver Lake recreation easement.  

“We just have to make sure we show that the value is there, and the trust is being compensated,” he said.  

    The viewing platform at Smith Lake along with new stairs and paths as shown after their completion in Sept. 2023. (Julie Engler/Whitefish Pilot)

    Plants grow in the water at the end of Swift Creek at the base of Whitefish Lake, bordered by private land. (Kelsey Evans/Whitefish Pilot)