At this time, we are going to work on building local, bottom up, grass root support for the project. We will:
- get market value cost of the land
- work with our local District Ranger
- continue building local support
- get Lolo National Forest reps to the table for a commitment on a way forward and their support
- continue to work with our NGO partners
- work on the application and funding process
- making sure the application is competitive and can make it through the ENTIRE PROCESS
- following up on any needs during and after the process
WE WILL NEED HELP DOWN THE ROAD! LEAVE US A COMMENT OR MESSAGE IF YOU WANNA HELP! plainspublicaccess@gmail.com
We are working to show that an incomplete application was submitted by the Trust for Public Land (TPL) and the Lolo National Forest for the original Penrose Portal project using Land and Water Conservation Fund money (LWCF). We’d like to show that this land indeed an ideal candidate for LWCF based on the criteria set forth in the guidelines of the LWFC application, which you can find here: https://lwcfcoalition.org/federal-programs.
We are in the beginning part of the process of filling out or own LWCF application and getting the information needed so we can present it to the Lolo National Forest and a partner to help facilitate the acquisition and financing of the land in question.
The land in question…
Land map of the area in question:
Land description from Compass South website:
https://compasssouthlandsales.com/property/sacajawea-peak-hunting-ranch/
Some talking points about the project…
- We have e-mails and original application documents from the original project and the application had only 8 reference letters and only 2 from within Sanders County. TPL created this project on their own and did not have a local organized group to help them during this process, which hurt their outreach.
– We have spoken to hundreds of locals and stakeholders who were either a) not contacted or did not have a reasonable amount of time to write and submit a letter of support. We are able to help with this part of the process and confident we can offer as many different letters of support that are needed for this project. - The original application was ranked fourth out of the 4 projects submitted that year, was reviewed by a team in Missoula:
– We believe folks in Missoula and other urban areas do not understand what is going on in rural Montana, Sanders County, specifically. There is a disconnect on how land and land use is changing in rural America. We would like to help them understand that the same problems exist in Plains as it does Missoula. - When the original Penrose Portal project was dropped, we were told on multiple occasions that we would have a chance to look at this again by the Lolo National Forest Lands Division over the past year. We have yet to be able to have that conversation.
– Why was this project dropped and never relooked at? There have been multiple inquiries (at least 25+ over the past year) from the Plains community, politicians and other NGO’s. - We are trying to get a meeting with the Lolo National Forest including the Forest Supervisor and the folks who work in the Lands Department. We believe they are missing the big picture and we feel coming up to talk to the community would offer some perspective of why this is important to our community and to their positions in working for the Lolo National Forest.
– We are working on getting a group of folks together to hopefully talk about the project and relook at the application, stakeholders and opportunities. - In the future, we will begin looking for community support.
– We will be looking for letters of support and maybe some folks to make some phone calls and emails
If you are interested in helping, please drop us a line and we will be getting back to everyone in the near future! Or send any pictures, stories, tales or information on what these lands mean to you! plainspublicaccess@gmail.com
Plains Public Access 