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McFARLAND v. UNITED STATES, et al.
Glacier National Park, Montana
This case is being handled by Mountain States Legal Foundation. It is shocking to all inholders because Glacier National Park documents and statutes since 1910 had acknowledged consistently that NPS could not deny inholders access to their property, putting it in writing as recently as 1985. Nevertheless, the federal district court said that Jack McFarland should have known that the actions of the NPS banning snow machines in the whole park combined with gating the road showed they were claiming something different then the access guarantees they wrote in their plans! That was the conclusion even though the NPS was providing keys to landowners to use the road in the winter through most of the relevant period!! The court ruled he missed his last chance to sue by the time the NPS blocked his attempt at access. OUTRAGEOUS!! Fortunately the Ninth Circuit has said no to this and sent it back to District Court but it is extremely troubling that the NPS or any could take the view that an agency's actions over time might ignore the law and their own documents.
Topo maps: General Area (1:500k) Detail Glacier National Park Website Park map Parcel
GENERAL EVENT CHRONOLOGY AND MEDIA LOG
| DATE | COMMENTS
 = listen to audio! |
| 1/4/07 | Judge to Park inholder: take a hike (or ski) By CHRIS PETERSON - Hungry Horse News - A federal judge has ruled that a North Fork inholder has no easement rights to access his property by vehicle in Glacier National Park in the winter months. In early November, U.S. Judge Donald Molloy ruled in favor of the Park Service, in short saying that John (Jack) McFarland's property rights have not been violated by a Park Service decision that requires him to ski, snowshoe or ride a horse to his land wholly inside Glacier in the winter. |
| 11/17/06 | Montana Federal District Court grants summary judgment to government and environmental groups against McFarland request for access rights. Case CV 00-20-M-DWM. Email ALRA if you want pdfs of the pleadings sent. |
| 4/21/06 | SUMMARY JUDGMENT ASKED IN MONTANA PARK ROAD ACCESS CASE - Mountain States Legal Foundation |
| Winter /06 |
MONTANA MAN MAY SUE TO ACCESS HOME - 9th Circuit Strengthens Quiet Title Act Rights - Mountain States Legal Foundation PDF |
| 10/11/05 | Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals MCFARLAND V NORTON ruling - Case is remanded back to the Montana district court for a trial to allow Jack McFarland to prove that he owns an easement in NPS land that allows him to access his home on a year-round basis. |
| 10/21/03 | KCHU public radio Valdez/Glennallen, Alaska -
Jack
McFarland interview segment [8:29 min] - Glacier National Park, Montana property owner
with excellent comments on access denial and the preservation of rights
when up against NPS arbitrary changing administrative interpretations of laws.
Do not let time pass by if something even appears
to threaten you! Complete
interview (similar Alaska problems) |
| 10/1/03 | William Perry Pendley - RULING OPENS LITIGATION FLOODGATES WHILE VOIDING RIGHTS - Finally, the court has opened the litigation floodgates. It has told property owners who access their property via federal lands that, any time the United States restricts the access rights of the general public to use those lands, it has acted in a manner adverse to the property owners and, to protect their rights under the Quiet Title Act, they must file suit. |
| 3/3/03 | National Center for Public Policy Research - Examples of five of the stories of regulatory abuse featured in Shattered Dreams include: -- Property owner Jack McFarland, his wife and three young daughters must travel by foot over three miles to get to their home near West Glacier, Montana, because the National Park Service closes Glacier Route 7 every year for about five months following the first snowfall. The McFarland family and others owning private property near Glacier National Park have been denied motorized access to their property on the theory that vehicles threaten wildlife and cross-country skiers. For 90 years, the NPS recognized that two federal laws prohibit it from blocking homeowner access. Contrary to its prior position, it now argues that its new regulation doesn't violate established federal law. These families with children, after all, are still permitted to walk in wolf country. |
| Autumn /03 |
MSLF - The Litigator - NATIONAL PARK ROAD CASE
"TOO LATE!" - A Montana federal district court has dismissed a
landowner's suit, filed in February 2000, against the National Park
Service (NPS) for violating two acts of Congress and the common law by
denying him access to his property in Glacier National Park. Jack
McFarland, who owns a home three miles from Polebridge Ranger Station on
Glacier Route 7, sued under two federal laws: first, he sued under the
Quiet Title Act (QTA) because the federal government disputes his right to
use Glacier Route 7; and, second, he sued under the Administrative
Procedure Act (APA) because the federal government arbitrarily denied him
a permit to use the road. The Montana court ruled that the NPS had put Mr.
McFarland on notice that it believed it could deny him access to his
property when, in 1976, it closed Glacier Route 7 to tourists for the
winter. As a result, the 12-year statute of limitations in which to file a
QTA lawsuit had expired. The court also ruled that that statute of
limitations applied to Mr. McFarland's APA claim.
However, in 1976, the NPS provided Mr. McFarland and other inholders keys to the gate to ensure their access to their property and, in 1985, the NPS formally acknowledged that it could not deny inholders access to their property. Thus, Mr. McFarland was not on notice in 1976 or even 1985. In fact, the first time Mr. McFarland learned that the NPS believed it could deny him access to his property was when the NPS sent him an e-mail to that effect in December 1999. Thus the statute of limitations had not run. Moreover, the statute of limitations does not apply to Mr. McFarland's APA claim, which arose when, in a spirit of compromise, he sought a special use permit from the NPS to access his property in the winter. Because that request was denied in an "arbitrary and capricious" manner, Mr. McFarland filed an APA claim. Mr. McFarland, believing the court's ruling was totally without merit, has appealed to the Ninth Circuit. |
| 11/1/02 | Promises, Promises, Promises! By: William Perry Pendley, Environment News |
| 2/28/00 | A test case on access - by Ron Selden - High Country News - |
| 2/06/00 | Billings Gazette - Judge
orders winter access to Glacier for family - KALISPELL - U.S. District
Judge Donald Molloy has ordered the National Park Service to allow a New
York City financial consultant and his family winter access to their
private property in Glacier National Park. Glacier officials said they would comply with the judge's order by providing a special lock on a road gate that the family can open and by allowing snowmobile access until the matter is settled in court. Park officials denied Jack McFarland, his wife, three young children and a family friend a special use permit to use snowmobiles to reach property that the family has owned for about 70 years, near the North Fork Road north of Polebridge. The family has been skiing to the property through most of the winter, but McFarland asked that either a permit be issued or the road be plowed for vehicle access. Acting Superintendent Rick Shireman said the permit was denied because those uses would be "outside" park policies. The federal judge, based in Missoula, said McFarland has a right to "reasonable" access to his property. A hearing to consider a request for a temporary injunction is scheduled Tuesday in U.S. District Court at Missoula. |
| 2/00 | Suit filed |
| 12/99 | NPS sends Jack McFarland an email informing him “that no one will drive park roads once they are closed to the public.” |
| 8/85 | In the 1970’s, when the NPS put barriers on Glacier Route 7 to prevent the general public from driving north of Polebridge Ranger Station in the winter, the NPS guaranteed access to landowners. The NPS did so because it recognized that is what the law requires. As the NPS explained, in August 1985 in its Land Protection Plan for Glacier National Park, “[t]he National Park Service recognizes private landowner rights [{to} ‘reasonable and adequate use and enjoyment of his property’ {are}] guaranteed in the enabling legislation for the park….” |
| 1976 | NPS restricts the general public’s ability to use Glacier Route 7 north of Polebridge Ranger Station. Federal District Court ruled in fall 2003 that this begins the Quiet Title Act’s twelve-year statute of limitations! SHOCKING!! |
| Since 1910, the NPS acknowledged consistently that it could not deny people like Jack McFarland access to their property, putting it in writing as recently as 1985. That written statement came less than ten years after, in the court’s view, Jack McFarland should have known that the NPS claimed just the opposite. |
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