Lake Five fishing access gets green light

After more than six years of legal and administrative delays, construction of a state fishing access site on Lake Five between Coram and West Glacier soon will proceed.

The Flathead County commissioners this week approved lakeshore development permits for the project, but that was possible only because Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks recently reached a settlement agreement with Lake Five property owners who had appealed the project after it had gone through two environmental review processes.

The settlement was negotiated between the appellants and the director’s office of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

“The appellants and the director were able to reach an agreement that satisfied both parties, and that’s why we’re back in the process of constructing a fishing access,” said Dave Landstrom, regional parks manager.

A contractor has been retained to install a boat ramp, dock, vault toilet, parking for eight vehicle-trailer combinations and four single vehicles, along with a site for a facility host who will be stationed at the site during the summer.

“It could be open by late summer. It certainly should be open for fall fishing,” Landstrom said of the site, which will be reached by an 800-foot gravel road off Belton Stage Road.

The state purchased the 10-acre parcel in 2004 with a donation from a former Flathead resident, Elizabeth Taylor, who wanted to have a fishing access dedicated to her late son, Paul.

When the Paul Taylor Fishing Access Site was proposed in 2005, it was met with stiff resistance from Lake Five property owners concerned about boating safety issues, litter, noise and other nuisances.

But state officials and public access advocates such as Flathead Wildlife Inc. asserted that the lake, which has been managed by the state and stocked with fish for years, sorely lacked access. Boaters had been able to reach the lake from the private Lake Five resort, but that was regarded as access that could be repealed at any time.

When their appeal of the state’s decision was denied, the property owners pursued the matter in court and got a favorable ruling from a judge who found that the environmental assessment for the project was inadequate.

A new environmental review was launched, but this time it involved a committee assigned to searching for alternative locations for a fishing access site in Northwest Montana.

The committee, which included two Lake Five property owners, ended up identifying eight potential sites but none other than Lake Five measured up entirely to criteria that were established before the process began.

There was, for instance, a 120-acre property with access to an unnamed, 10-acre lake in the Good Creek area, but the price tag was about $1 million. The lake was considered too small and the price tag was far greater than the $450,000 value of the Lake Five property that was estimated at that time.

In May 2009, the state published a new environmental assessment and issued a decision order for the project to proceed that again was appealed by Lake Five property owners.

“We worked pretty closely with those appellants to mitigate the potential for impacts,” Landstrom said. “We did that through site design and a change to some of our boating rules on Lake Five.”

For starters, a state regulation for a no-wake zone of 200 feet from shore fits many waters but it would not work on the 151-acre Lake Five because it would restrict boating to a narrow area in the middle of the lake. That rule will not apply to Lake Five.

But a new rule requiring boaters to travel in a counter-clockwise pattern on the lake was adopted, and personal watercraft will not be allowed on the lake.

The site host will be present to handle problems and manage gate closures at the day-use-only site.

“Those all were steps that were taken to proactively address concerns the appellants had,” Landstrom said. “It’s going to be a very simple and small development.”

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.