West Shore State Park funding issue resolution in works

The recent funding fiasco surrounding West Shore State Park’s 1966 acquisition on Flathead Lake just got a lot easier, according to state officials.

Fifty years ago, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks acquired a majority of the popular park as part of a land exchange: The agency traded a state-owned wildlife management area to a private landowner for land that would become an addition to the park.

Late last year, an internal review by the state agency revealed that because the land the agency had traded had originally been purchased with federal grant money, an encumbrance attached to those federal dollars requiring that the land be managed for fish and wildlife purposes transferred to the state park.

But the property’s use as a state park was inconsistent with the encumbrance, and state officials have since January been looking for a way to transfer the encumbrance to properties purchased with state money.

Paul Sihler, Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ Chief of Staff, has been leading a team to resolve the issue with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which administers the grant program.

Last month, he said the state and federal wildlife agencies realized that neither could find a record indicating that the deal was actually closed. Which, he said, is a good thing.

“We did the exchange. What we can’t tell is that we resolved the encumbrance issue,” Sihler said Friday. “To resolve those records, what they gave us the choice of doing was to go back to 1966 and close that transaction in a way we never closed it.”

Rather than carrying the encumbrance over to a patchwork of Montana State Parks-owned land that would equal the value of West Shore State Park — between $6.5 million and $7.5 million, according to a preliminary appraisal — Sihler said the Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to allow the state to pay off the value of the encumbrance and eliminate the federal agency’s involvement altogether.

“What it means is that we don’t have to go through any federal process,” he said.

In today’s dollars, the encumbrance — estimated at around $4,000 in 1966 — will likely cost between $25,000 and $30,000.

But since the federal government is no longer involved, he added that the state will be able use a cheaper appraisal process that he estimates will save $15,000 to $20,000.

West Shore State Park will still have some strings attached at the state level. Fish, Wildlife and Parks must now shift the park property under the state parks division, in exchange for an equal value of state-owned properties coming under the fish and wildlife division.

“We’re in effect going to trade the West Shore State Park, that was paid for with fish and wildlife money, with other properties that were paid for with non-fish and wildlife money,” Sihler said.

The absence of federal wildlife requirements gives the agency more latitude, however. The encumbrance would have precluded properties such as shooting ranges, but state license money can be used for hunting purposes as well as wildlife management.

Sihler said the team of agency officials working to put the issue to rest still needs to conduct an official appraisal on the park, as well as the parks-funded properties that would be swapped out with the federal funding.

If all goes well, Sihler thinks the problem could be resolved by next spring, and the end result will consolidate state-owned properties where they can be managed more effectively.

“You’ll have all of West Shore State Park fully owned by money that’s state parks money, and state parks is free to do any other development or work on that site they’d like to do,” he said. “Flathead Lake State Parks are one of four Class One parks in the state park system, so that’s a big deal.”

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