ADLC unveils its Open Lands Plan

Survey says: Anaconda-Deer Lodge County residents want more development of outdoor recreation on the A-Hill, C-Hill and Stucky Ridge, especially walking, hiking and biking trails. And the ADLC Planning Department has the plans that will guide development of those opportunities via funding from the state's Natural Resource Damage Program (NRDP). 

ADLC's Open Lands Plan was presented to the Commission at their meeting Tuesday night, with Planning Director Carl Hamming saying the plan had been developed in collaboration with SCJ Alliance via a survey that was conducted last spring as to how residents would like to develop county land. That includes land the county may acquire via the Consent Decree with the Atlantic Richfield Company after the completion of remediation efforts from historic smelting activities.

Hamming said the survey had received 498 responses. 

"We had a lot of great feedback," he said. "For the county, we got out of it what we wanted to see – what the public wants for these open spaces."

Hamming explained that about $4 million in NRDP funding will be coming in for the purpose of habitat and recreation development on ADLC-owned land, which he added that these dollars would be spent "as wisely as possible."

To that end, Commissioner Ed Beaudette said he had reviewed the plan and agreed that "it's a fine idea" and "we should protect as much open land as we can," but added that "I'm not seeing a lot on how these trails will be maintained." 

He particularly noted that "with the explosion of four-wheelers, knapweed is being spread faster than we can keep track of."

"I think it's going to be a tremendous investment, but I'm concerned how we'll protect it," he said. 

Hamming agreed that maintaining such sites "is always one of the biggest challenges," but said the plan recommends the formation of an open lands steering committee that would oversee these projects, see that they come to fruition and "chase the almighty dollar to sustain them." 

Hamming also said that, regarding the point about knapweed and four-wheelers, one thing that can be done is to design trails "that need as little maintenance as possible." 

As to the plan itself –which covers almost 5,600 acres of land including a 480-acre Department of Natural Resources and Conservation parcel and 2,119 acres of Atlantic Richfield land – it specifically deals with recreational and habitat development only, with these lands not for residential, commercial or industrial development. 

A review of the plan shows that the most-commonly used word by survey-takers is "trails," with more than 300 respondents identifying as hikers or walkers, the largest group out of seven options. The next-largest were cross-country skiers or snowshoers (186), followed by sportsmen using trails for hunting (185). Respondents were allowed to mark more than one form of recreational activity. The other options were mountain bikers (165), motorized riders (119), road cyclists (62) and horseback riders (32).

While trails were in the majority, opinion was split between hiking, running and walking trails and trails for winter recreation, specifically cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. Wildlife habitat ranked third in people's preferences, followed by mountain biking, day use and picknicking and motorized use. Regardless of how people want to use those trails, however, the majority – just over 50% – said they want trailheads with amenities, with preferences for wayfinding/signage and educational features about evenly split. 

As for where they want those trails, the plan includes three heat maps where people taking the survey were able to place markers at locations they would like to see hiking, walking and running trails, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing trails and mountain biking trails. A fourth heat map shows where people would like to have wildlife habitat areas, while a fifth shows where they would like to see trailheads, amenities and signage.

The heat maps for hiking, walking and running trails (see Page 1) and trailheads showed strong interest in the A- and C-Hills, especially where they are adjacent to town on the south site, as well as on Stucky Ridge rising up from the east side of Washoe Park. The site preferences for winter trails are a little more sporadic, but again much of the preference is on the northern side of the A- and C-Hills and the southern side of Stucky Ridge, while mountain biking trail preferences extended further north and south, higher into those uplands. And the preference for wildlife habitat was for those areas to be on the backsides of the uplands. 

The complete Open Lands Plan, which will be subject to Commission approval at their next meeting on Feb. 6, is available online at

https://www.adlc.us/DocumentCenter/Index/328.

For more information, contact the ADLC Planning Department at (406) 563-4010, and check back in with the Anaconda Leader on Wednesday as we'll further details on the plan.