{"id":11970,"date":"2016-05-10T14:15:39","date_gmt":"2016-05-10T20:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=11970"},"modified":"2016-05-12T07:52:18","modified_gmt":"2016-05-12T13:52:18","slug":"questions-raised-over-access-dispute-involving-gianforte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/05\/questions-raised-over-access-dispute-involving-gianforte\/","title":{"rendered":"Questions raised over access dispute involving Gianforte"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"GG\"<\/a>

Greg Gianforte<\/p><\/div>\n

A 2009 dispute over public access to fishing site involving gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte was settled in 2013 after a compromise was reached with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.<\/p>\n

Gianforte and his wife, Susan, filed a complaint against the state agency alleging that a one-acre easement that provided a route to the East Gallatin River near the Cherry River wasn\u2019t legal. In the lawsuit, filed in Gallatin County District Court in May 2009, the Gianfortes claimed that only one of several property owners involved in the agreement actually signed the easement, therefore making it invalid.<\/p>\n

FWP refused to terminate the easement, noting that this public fishing access site along Manley Road near Bozeman plays a significant role in allowing anglers to reach the East Gallatin River, located near Seventh Avenue north of I-90. In return for the easement agreement in 1993, FWP had allowed Manley Road property owners to run utilities across a portion of the 75-acre FWP parcel.<\/p>\n

However, upon further review FWP, realized that the user-created trail leading to the river did cross the Gianfortes’ land outside of the easement, and agreed to reroute the path to the west.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my mind, the trail does not access the easement, but accesses the river near the easement on FWP land,\u201d Todd Garrett, former FWP regional fishing access site manager, wrote in an email on March 21, 2010, to FWP attorney Becky Jakes Dockter.<\/p>\n

He recommended that FWP \u201cmake efforts to reclaim the user-created trail\u201d and create an alternative. Garrett also wrote that FWP should continue noxious weed control, post adequate signs informing the public of the proper trail, and post \u201cNo Trespassing\u201d signs along the public\/private border.<\/p>\n

In a letter from Jakes Dockter to Gianforte\u2019s attorney, Art Wittich, she wrote that relocating the foot path from the parking area to the river was an attractive alternative for all \u201cbecause the site could be chosen for better access for the public, which would divert their attention from the other lands owned by the Gianfortes to the real purpose for their access, the river.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>\u201cIn return, FWP requests that the Gianfortes fence the relocated easement area \u2026 (to) better assure the Department, the public and the Gianfortes that public use is in the appropriate Easement area,\u201d Jakes Dockter wrote.<\/p>\n

In November 2010, Jakes Dockter filed a settlement agreement with the District Court after getting no response from the Gianfortes or their lawyer. The case was dismissed without prejudice in February 2013, meaning that the plaintiffs can file a new lawsuit, based on the same grounds, at a later date.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason it was dismissed was they never served us\u2014they filed the lawsuit, sent a letter and then we just discussed things and tried to resolve it,\u201d Jakes Dockter said on Tuesday. \u201cWe never relinquished an easement and always allowed the public to use the site, but as with any access we wanted to ensure we weren\u2019t impacting the neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n

She did note that it\u2019s unusual for an easement dispute between FWP and neighbors to be elevated to the legal arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven that we try really hard to make sure we are good neighbors, I don\u2019t think this happens very often,\u201d Jakes Dockter said. \u201cNot many lawsuits like this get filed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Travis Horton, the FWP Region 3 fisheries manager, said he didn\u2019t know of any disputes over access in the area during the time the easement was being contested.<\/p>\n

The anonymous liberal Montana Cowgirl blog earlier this week attempted to frame the easement lawsuit as an issue in the gubernatorial race, writing that \u201cIt plays directly into the narrative that Gianforte\u2019s campaign doesn\u2019t want to unfold:\u00a0that Gianforte is a wealthy person from elsewhere, who moved to Montana to build a trophy home and fence off public land.\u00a0\u201c<\/p>\n

Gianforte called the allegation that he tried to deny stream access one of a number of \u201cfalse accusations\u201d and wrote in a press release that he and his wife \u201callow stream access, parking on our property, and archery hunting on our land.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe often sit by the river after a long day and wave to folks walking along the banks or canoeing downstream,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt is important to note that we continued welcoming anglers on our property before, during, and after these discussions with FWP.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eve Byron is a freelance journalist based in Helena, Mont. She can be reached at evebyron@hotmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A 2009 dispute over public access to fishing site involving gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte was settled in 2013 after a compromise was reached with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":11971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[2303,4320,935,2905,335,4321],"class_list":["post-11970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-art-wittich","tag-becky-jakes-dockter","tag-fish","tag-fish-wildlife-and-parks","tag-greg-gianforte","tag-todd-garrett","prominence-category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}