Donation paves way for C. F. riverfront trail

A property owner's donated land easement brought a riverfront trail one step closer to reality in Columbia Falls last week.

Dr. Loren Kreck owns a wooded stretch of west-bank property along the Flathead River just north of Talbott Road where it ends at the Red Bridge.

He has donated easement rights along the entire length of his property - 370 feet starting at the high-water mark and extending 10 feet back - to make way for an improved-surface trail for public use.

"I believe in public access," Kreck said in a press release. "I wanted to leave something for future generations to enjoy. I hope people will be able to come down to the river and fish, or swim, or just enjoy this beautiful place."

Olaf Ervin, a land surveyor who heads the riverfront trail subcommittee for the First Best Place Task Force, recorded the easement formalizing Kreck's donation Tuesday.

"It was a very generous gift," Ervin said. "It was the initial donation to a cause that has become important to me and a lot of other folks. We came up with something that is very conscious of the property owner's desire to maintain their style of life, but still allows the public access."

The donation comes out of a vision for a recreational trail system linking the entire city. It began years ago with the Talbott Road bike path, an asphalt trail running the length of Talbott and continuing north on Veterans Drive.

The city council negotiated the first link between the Talbott bike path and the riverfront trail last year when developer Bill Droskoski of Ski Dog Construction offered river access across his Ski Grace Ann condominium development just south of Kreck's land.

His path eventually will connect under the Red Bridge to the segment across Kreck's land. In turn, Ervin continues to negotiate with other landowners as the committee works on the rest of the riverfront trail.

On the north, the eventual goal is to connect to the Teakettle river access at the U.S. 2 bridge. A community trail system dedicated in the final plat of the Cedar Pointe development between Kreck's land and the Teakettle access could connect into the system, as well.

Adding a riverfront portion, on both the east and west sides of the Flathead River, to the city's overall trail system is one of the subcommittee's goals.

"We are close to the point where we would have a continuous loop circuit," Ervin said.

The subcommittee also hopes to reopen the Red Bridge in some capacity, whether to pedestrians only or to one-way traffic. And members hope to build a white-water park on the Flathead between the U.S. 2 bridge and the Red Bridge, similar to Brennan's Wave on the Clark Fork River outside Missoula.

Last week's land-easement donation is a big boon, Ervin said.

"It's something that has come together more quickly than I ever thought it would," he said. It's taken about three months of work to get to this point.

Ervin did not know the dollar value of Kreck's donation, but called it substantial.

The committee now is working to raise private donations to make trail improvements on the easement. Ervin said they should be able to build a trail that's highly accessible to the entire community and possibly even build it to handicap-accessible standards.

Kreck's donation was a tipping point to realize the committee's vision for a riverfront trail.

Kreck, an avid trail user who has logged thousands of miles on trails all over the region, has lived in Columbia Falls since 1951.

He is a longtime champion of area natural resources, was instrumental in getting 285,000 acres of the Great Bear Wilderness protected in the 1960s and worked tirelessly for the passage of the original Wilderness Act.

He called the world on the trail "unendingly beautiful."

"It's sort of a spiritual experience every time I get out into it," Kreck was quoted as saying. "The trees, the sky, the snow, the mountains. You could never get tired of it. We're just darn lucky to live here and I hope we can preserve that."

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com