A grassroots group that is opposed to the expansion of a lakeside lodge in the Swan Valley is asking the Forest Service for more transparency as it reviews future expansion proposals. The Flathead National Forest says that such reviews are normally an “internal process.”
Organizers with the group Save Holland Lake asked the Forest Service to promptly notify and release to the public any new proposals for development at the Holland Lake Lodge in a letter dated Jan. 13. The request comes after the Forest Service returned Utah-based developer, POWDR’s, initial plan to triple the lodge’s guest capacity in December, citing “inaccuracies and inconsistencies” within the plan.
Save Holland Lake organizer Jacole Johnson of Missoula says that the group has sent near-weekly record requests to the Forest Service regarding its handling of the lodge.
“We’re asking public officials to give us public information about public land,” she says. “And it just doesn’t seem to me like that’s happening.”
Flathead National Forest Supervisor Kurt Steele told MTPR that the agency hasn’t yet received a new development plan from POWDR, and it won’t automatically notify the public if it does.
“If someone asks, we will let them know if we received one or not. To date, we haven’t received it. But again, we’re going to keep that as an internal process,” he said.
He added that a new public comment period would open only after the Forest Service accepts a new plan and POWDR proposes specific development at the site.
