Corporate recreation comes to Holland Lake

An out-of-state commercial recreation corporation, POWDR Inc., has proposed to expand the Holland Lake Lodge on public land and convert it into a destination resort. The current lodge is a locally run seasonal operation from May 15 to Oct. 15 that occupies 15 acres of public land under USFS permit on the shores of Holland Lake in the Swan Valley. POWDR Corporation calls itself an “adventure lifestyle company.” It is one of the largest ski resort owners in the US and owns 10 massive mountain resorts. It claims, “POWDR has an incredibly unique network to connect with the more than 58 million participants and enthusiasts of the fastest growing lifestyle segment, adventure sports.”

This corporate proposal is to expand Holland Lake Lodge from 63 overnight guests and staff to 173 overnight guests and staff with an expanded 3,000 square foot restaurant serving three times as many meals as the current restaurant. They also want to add a winter operating season to the current summer-only operation. The user footprint will expand from 11,340 user days per year at present to 46,980 user days per year.

Intensive recreation on public lands is a consumptive activity because it destroys wildlife habitat security. It is well documented in the peer-reviewed scientific literature that grizzly bears and elk and other wildlife will usually flee humans on trails and avoid areas where recreating humans are present. Intensive recreation will increase wildlife stress levels and energetic demands as they try to avoid human activity. The proposed expanded development at Holland Lake will have significant negative impacts to thousands of acres of wildlife habitat around Holland Lake that will impact many species including grizzly bears, elk, black bears, lynx, wolverines, furbearers, mule deer and white tail deer and more.

The POWDR Corporation proposal completely (intentionally?) ignores off-site impacts of this proposed development. Expanding development at Holland Lake Lodge will result in an additional 35,640 user days per year on public lands in the Holland Lake/Swan Valley area outside the 15-acre lodge site. These additional 35,000+ days will be on public land around Holland Lake, on the Swan Face and in the Swan Valley. Given what the POWDR Corporation has done at their other properties, they will likely promote and market recreation on our public lands such as mountain bike trails and mountain bike racing, hiking, trail running, skiing, XC skiing and perhaps heli-hiking and heli-skiing in the Swan and the Missions to entice people to come to their “new” Holland Lake Lodge.

The real reason the POWDR Corporation wants to invest in the Holland Lake Lodge is access for their clients to the surrounding public lands in the Swan Valley. This is commercialization of public lands for corporate profit at the expense of Montana’s wildlife and wildlife habitat.

The Forest Service should reject this proposal as grossly inappropriate for public land in grizzly bear and lynx habitat, for Holland Lake and for the Swan Valley. It is completely contrary to the values we cherish in the Swan.

Chris Servheen, President and Board Chair Montana Wildlife Federation