Mount Dean Stone Preserve Recreation and Special Resource Management Plan Drafted by: Clancy Jandreau, Conservation Lands Program Specialist; Morgan Valliant, Ecosystem Services Superintendent; and the Conservation Lands Advisory Committee Adopted by: Missoula Parks and Recreation Board on _________, 20___ INTRODUCTION In 2016, the City of Missoula acquired 175 acres of Open Space in Pattee Canyon. In April of 2017, the Missoula Parks and Recreation (MPR) Board adopted a recreation management plan and designated the property as a Park Preserve within the Conservation Lands Management Program (Valliant et al., 2010). At the time, the property was referred to as the South Hills Spur. The South Hills Spur parcels were acquired by the City through a series of property donations and land acquisitions facilitated by Five Valleys Land Trust (FVLT). Since the South Hills Spur property was acquired, FVLT and partners continued land conservation efforts on the flanks of Mount Dean Stone. Through these efforts, the City acquired an additional 360 acres (a.k.a “Mount Dean Stone North”) adjacent to the South Hills Spur property in 2020. Combined, Mt. Dean Stone North and the South Hills Spur total 535 contiguous acres of City- owned public Open Space, hereafter referred to as the Mount Dean Stone Preserve. Although the acquired acres are contiguous, the 360-acre “Mount Dean Stone North” property adds unique and significant natural and recreational values beyond what existed at the time the South Hills Spur Recreation Management Plan was adopted in 2017. In order to reflect these additional acres and the unique values they provide, Missoula Parks and Recreation Department updated the original South Hills Spur Management Plan in 2021. This document is the combined and updated plan describing the management of recreation and natural resource priorities on the 535-acre Mount Dean Stone Preserve. The Plan is broken into two parts. Part I, the Mount Dean Stone Preserve Recreation and Special Resource Management Plan, is particularly focused on the 360 acres acquired in 2020. Part II is the original Recreation Management Plan for the 175-acre South Hills Spur acquired in 2016. Much of the original South Hills Spur Plan remains in place, however, minor changes were made in Part I which supersede the original descriptions in Part II. Although multiple individual acquisitions created this public Open Space, the entire 535-acre Mount Dean Stone Preserve will be managed as a singular property. As approved by the Missoula Parks and Recreation Board, the Mount Dean Stone Preserve will be managed as a Park Preserve, as defined in the Conservation Lands Management Plan (Valliant et. al., 2010). 1 of 19 PART I: 2021 UPDATE TO THE MOUNT DEAN STONE PRESERVE RECREATION AND SPECIAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLAN SUMMARY This Management Plan describes the recreation management, infrastructure development, and natural resource management priorities for the Mount Dean Stone Preserve (Fig 1). This property provides important habitat, unique recreational opportunities, and valuable ecosystem services. The lands described in this plan are contiguous with the existing South Hills Spur Conservation Lands Property and are part of the broader “Mount Dean Stone Project” (Fig 2), a larger land conservation project lead by Five Valleys Land Trust (FVLT). Acquisition of the 535 acres described in this document was made possible by funds from the 2010 and 2018 City/County Open Space Bonds, a significant bequest from an anonymous donor to Missoula’s Open Space Program, land donations from the Barmeyer and Lyon families, and years of work by FVLT and City Staff. The management priorities outlined in this document were crafted to integrate seamlessly with the 2017 South Hills Spur Recreation Management Plan (Part II) and to be consistent with other planning efforts in the region. In addition to these plans, inventories conducted by the Parks and Recreation Department’s Conservation Lands Management (CLM) program (Jandreau et al. 2020) and resource values documented by Missoula’s Conservation Lands Advisory Committee (CLAC) identified multiple natural and cultural resources, which influence management of this parcel. The purpose of this plan is to describe levels of recreational development while also outlining management priorities which balance recreational pressure with protection of important natural and cultural resources on site. This plan describes the recommended place names (Section 1), public access points (Section 2), trail system and designated recreational uses (Section 3), and infrastructure locations (Section 4) for the Mount Dean Stone Preserve. While this Management Plan describes actions to protect site-specific resources on the property, management of all other natural and cultural resources is directed by the Conservation Lands Management Plan (Valliant et. al., 2010), Missoula Parks and Recreation (MPR) Department policies, and multiple City ordinances. The Mount Dean Stone Preserve adds significant natural resource values and unique recreational opportunities to Missoula’s Open Space system. Research and inventories in this area have documented critical winter range for elk and mule deer, unique habitat features such as scree fields, and mature stands of Douglas fir, ponderosa pine, and Western larch (Jandreau et al. 2020). The Property adds more than 5 miles of new non-motorized trail, offering vistas of the Missoula valley, Rattlesnake Wilderness, Miller Creek drainage, and the Bitterroot and Sapphire Mountains. The trail and property are uniquely situated to potentially provide connections between major recreational destinations like Pattee Canyon Recreation Area, Miller Creek, Deer Creek, and the Sapphire Divide Trail. These important resources and unique recreational connections influenced the creation of the management priorities outlined below. 2 of 19 MT. DEAN STONE RECREATION PLAN ORIENTATION MAP This map depicts landmarks, land ownership, existing trails, and planned trail connections on the Mount Dean Stone Preserve. For more details on the planned trails refer to the 'Mt. Dean Stone Trails Plan Map'. BARMEYER Private Drive !F E TTE CAN No Public Access PA YO N Pattee Creek RD SOUSA !F SOUTH HILLS SPUR Existing Barmeyer Loop Trail OPEN SPACE 174.73 ACRES !F ARNICA DRIVE ACCESS POINT (UNDEVELOPED) Stone Mtn. Access Rd. STATE "Woodsy Property" CAMP R CH D LAR USFS Existing "High, Wide and Handsome" Trail "Corridor Property" PRIVATE PRIVATE Dean Stone Cutoff Rd. No Public Access Larch Camp Rd. No Public Access MOUNT DEAN STONE OPEN SPACE 360.17 ACRES "Saddle Property" STATE PRIVATE TNC TNC STATE Private The Nature Conservancy Existing Non-motorized Planned Ped Only ServiceCity Layer of Missoula Credits: Source: Esri,US Forest Maxar, Service Existing Ped Only Administrative Access Rd. GeoEye, Earthstar Geographics, State of Montana Planned Non-motorized CNES/Airbus DS, USDA, USGS, AeroGRID, 0IGN, and0.15 the GIS0.3 User Community0.6 Miles Map by Clancy Jandreau, Missoula Parks and Recreation Property boundaries are for reference only. This map does not constitute a legal representation of land ownership. 0 0.15 0.3 0.6 Kilometers Projection: Lambert Conformal Conic, Coordinate System: NAD 1983 StatePlane Montana FIPS 2500 Feet / 3 of 19 Page 4 of 19 SECTION 1. NAMING: Assigning names to specific trailheads and trails is an important component of place-making and wayfinding on City Conservation Lands. The intent of the recommendations in this section are to adopt basic place names for the Property and to recognize the efforts made to make this project possible. Place Name: The U.S. Board on Geographical Names gave the name Mount Dean Stone to the 6,203-foot peak that overlooks the Missoula valley in 1947 (Omundson, 1961). The name honors Arthur L. Stone, Dean and founder of the School of Journalism at the University of Montana. Dean Stone died in 1945, two years before the mountain was named in his honor. Between 2015 and 2017, land acquisitions and donations added 175 acres to the City-owned Conservation Lands system (a.k.a. the “South Hills Spur”) at the base of Mount Dean Stone (See Part II). The name “South Hills Spur” is the working name that FVLT gave to the 175-acre parcel that the City acquired. In the original 2017 South Hills Spur Recreation Management Plan, MPR recommended that, “the Missoula Parks and Recreation Board explore options to rename the South Hills Spur property”. With the acquisition of an additional 360 acres in 2020, the City now owns and manages roughly 535 acres from the banks of Pattee Creek to the summit of Mount Dean Stone (Fig. 1). As these lands are managed as one contiguous Conservation Land versus multiple individual parcels, they should share a name. With the adoption of this management plan, this entire 535 acre City-owned parcel shall be named the “Mount Dean Stone Preserve”. In this document, the name Mount Dean Stone Preserve applies to all 535 acres and is meant to replace the name “South Hills Spur”. Trail and Access Point Names: The “High, Wide, and Handsome Trail” is the name given by FVLT to the 4.33 miles of trail that have been constructed on the Mount Dean Stone Preserve (Fig. 1). Reference to the “High, Wide, and Handsome” trail in this document is made for clarity purposes only. Official naming of this trail must proceed through the formal naming process adopted by the MPR Board. All other trail and trailhead names originally adopted in 2017 including the Barmeyer Trailhead, Barmeyer Loop Trail, and the Sousa Trailhead remain unchanged. SECTION 2. TRAILHEADS AND ACCESS POINTS: No new trailheads or access points will be constructed as part of this Management Plan. From the North, the existing City-owned Barmeyer and Sousa Trailheads will provide access to the trails on the Mount Dean Stone Preserve (Fig 1). The 2017 South Hills Spur Management Plan also called for the 5 of 19 construction of a Local Access point on City land adjacent to Arnica Drive (Fig 1) which would provide access to trails on Mount Dean Stone; however, construction of this access point depends on agreements with neighboring landowners and is not planned at this point.