BuzzH
Well-known member
doing some more good on the Front.
I remember a post not long ago about how theres no hope for the future of wildlife and hunting...I disagree.
Nature Conservancy secures two easements along Rocky Mountain Front
By SONJA LEE
Tribune Staff Writer
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TRIBUNE PHOTOS BY STUART S. WHITE
A parcel of land along the Rocky Mountain Front north of the Blackleaf Canyon is now under conservation easement. Clay Crawford has sold a conservation easement covering 2,000 acres to the Nature Conservancy.
Spring wildflowers along the Rocky Mountain Front poke out from under their winter blanket.
Two pieces of prime ranchland and grizzly bear habitat along the Rocky Mountain Front will be protected from development, after the Nature Conservancy of Montana secured conservation easements.
Clay Crawford, a rancher near Choteau, sold the Nature Conservancy an easement that covers about 2,000 acres bordering the Blackleaf Wildlife Management Area.
To the north, the 164-acre Rising Wolf Ranch also is now protected by an easement. The ranch, quality grizzly habitat, links Glacier National Park with the Badger-Two-Medicine area west of the Blackfeet Reservation.
With the Nature Conservancy's help, landowners now protect nearly 47,000 acres of the Rocky Mountain Front from development. Most of those acres are working ranch lands. They also include the Blackleaf Wildlife Management Area, owned by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks.
Conservation easements protect open space, agriculture and wildlife habitat from future subdivision or development. Landowners pursue the agreements for income-tax reductions and estate planning and to secure agricultural and natural land.
Statewide, the number of conservation easement acres is heading toward 1.4 million, placing Montana among the nation's leaders in using easements to protect open spaces from development.
Russ Shay, director of public policy with the Land Trust Alliance in Washington D.C., said a number of public and private groups in Montana are working to promote conservation easements.
"There's a growing interest in doing conservation easements, and there are more being done," he said.
Aside from private organizations like the Montana Land Reliance and Nature Conservancy, the FWP and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have similar programs.
Crawford said he wants to protect the Front. The bulk of his land now under easement is along the Teton River. The agreement with the Nature Conservancy puts protections in place for nearly 6 miles of stream and wetlands from the National Forest boundary, according to the Conservancy.
"I love the place, and it's a beautiful place," Crawford said Friday. "I want to ensure that it will never be developed."
The cattle ranch has been in his family since 1953, he said. The 2,000 acres now under easement are used for summer grazing. Crawford leases his ranch to neighbor Dusty Crary, who owns a ranch that also is protected by an easement.
His neighbor to the west is the National Forest, and to the south and east there already are easements, he said.
"I'm pretty much surrounded," he said. "So this was just a perfect area for me to protect as well."
Jim Stewart bought the Rising Wolf Ranch in 1990 and leases the property as a summer guest ranch. It is seven miles southwest of the town of East Glacier south of Highway 2 along the South Fork of the Two Medicine River.
Tana Kappel, communications director for the Nature Conservancy of Montana, said the organization has worked with landowners to put 232,325 aces of private land under easement. And there continues to be a growing interest.
"It continues to be a very effective tool for helping working farmers and ranchers protect their land and important wildlife habitat," said Jamie Williams, state director of the Nature Conservancy.
"I think it's because there is just an enormous love for the land," she continued. "There is a deep commitment to the land and maintaining the quality of life that we have here in Montana, which is being expressed through the placement of conservation easements."
The Nature Conservancy also is working on an ongoing project in the Blackfoot Valley.
The Conservancy bought 42,927 acres from Plum Creek and is selling those lands to public and private buyers who will maintain conservation values on the land, including grazing, timber management, public access and recreation, and wildlife habitat.
Eventually, the group hopes to buy more than 80,000 acres of Plum Creek's mid-elevation timber land between Clearwater Junction and Rogers Pass, north and south of Montana 200.
"It's one of the largest projects, and the most complicated, that we have ever undertaken," Kappel said.
Efforts along the Front and in the Blackfoot follow a growing trend in Montana where various landowners are linking up easements and creating "neighborhoods," said Rock Ringling, a managing director with the Montana Land Reliance.
"People are starting to get together, and the end result is you have some real neighborhoods coming together," he said.
The Montana Land Reliance is a private nonprofit land trust that has more than 530,000 acres protected in the state.
The Land Reliance has an estimated 18 percent of all easement acreage granted to local and regional land trusts in the United States.
With the help of the Land Reliance, nearly 30,000 acres of land on a working cattle ranch on the northeastern flanks of the Highwood Mountains is now under easements.
I remember a post not long ago about how theres no hope for the future of wildlife and hunting...I disagree.
Nature Conservancy secures two easements along Rocky Mountain Front
By SONJA LEE
Tribune Staff Writer
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ADVERTISEMENT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRIBUNE PHOTOS BY STUART S. WHITE
A parcel of land along the Rocky Mountain Front north of the Blackleaf Canyon is now under conservation easement. Clay Crawford has sold a conservation easement covering 2,000 acres to the Nature Conservancy.
Spring wildflowers along the Rocky Mountain Front poke out from under their winter blanket.
Two pieces of prime ranchland and grizzly bear habitat along the Rocky Mountain Front will be protected from development, after the Nature Conservancy of Montana secured conservation easements.
Clay Crawford, a rancher near Choteau, sold the Nature Conservancy an easement that covers about 2,000 acres bordering the Blackleaf Wildlife Management Area.
To the north, the 164-acre Rising Wolf Ranch also is now protected by an easement. The ranch, quality grizzly habitat, links Glacier National Park with the Badger-Two-Medicine area west of the Blackfeet Reservation.
With the Nature Conservancy's help, landowners now protect nearly 47,000 acres of the Rocky Mountain Front from development. Most of those acres are working ranch lands. They also include the Blackleaf Wildlife Management Area, owned by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks.
Conservation easements protect open space, agriculture and wildlife habitat from future subdivision or development. Landowners pursue the agreements for income-tax reductions and estate planning and to secure agricultural and natural land.
Statewide, the number of conservation easement acres is heading toward 1.4 million, placing Montana among the nation's leaders in using easements to protect open spaces from development.
Russ Shay, director of public policy with the Land Trust Alliance in Washington D.C., said a number of public and private groups in Montana are working to promote conservation easements.
"There's a growing interest in doing conservation easements, and there are more being done," he said.
Aside from private organizations like the Montana Land Reliance and Nature Conservancy, the FWP and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have similar programs.
Crawford said he wants to protect the Front. The bulk of his land now under easement is along the Teton River. The agreement with the Nature Conservancy puts protections in place for nearly 6 miles of stream and wetlands from the National Forest boundary, according to the Conservancy.
"I love the place, and it's a beautiful place," Crawford said Friday. "I want to ensure that it will never be developed."
The cattle ranch has been in his family since 1953, he said. The 2,000 acres now under easement are used for summer grazing. Crawford leases his ranch to neighbor Dusty Crary, who owns a ranch that also is protected by an easement.
His neighbor to the west is the National Forest, and to the south and east there already are easements, he said.
"I'm pretty much surrounded," he said. "So this was just a perfect area for me to protect as well."
Jim Stewart bought the Rising Wolf Ranch in 1990 and leases the property as a summer guest ranch. It is seven miles southwest of the town of East Glacier south of Highway 2 along the South Fork of the Two Medicine River.
Tana Kappel, communications director for the Nature Conservancy of Montana, said the organization has worked with landowners to put 232,325 aces of private land under easement. And there continues to be a growing interest.
"It continues to be a very effective tool for helping working farmers and ranchers protect their land and important wildlife habitat," said Jamie Williams, state director of the Nature Conservancy.
"I think it's because there is just an enormous love for the land," she continued. "There is a deep commitment to the land and maintaining the quality of life that we have here in Montana, which is being expressed through the placement of conservation easements."
The Nature Conservancy also is working on an ongoing project in the Blackfoot Valley.
The Conservancy bought 42,927 acres from Plum Creek and is selling those lands to public and private buyers who will maintain conservation values on the land, including grazing, timber management, public access and recreation, and wildlife habitat.
Eventually, the group hopes to buy more than 80,000 acres of Plum Creek's mid-elevation timber land between Clearwater Junction and Rogers Pass, north and south of Montana 200.
"It's one of the largest projects, and the most complicated, that we have ever undertaken," Kappel said.
Efforts along the Front and in the Blackfoot follow a growing trend in Montana where various landowners are linking up easements and creating "neighborhoods," said Rock Ringling, a managing director with the Montana Land Reliance.
"People are starting to get together, and the end result is you have some real neighborhoods coming together," he said.
The Montana Land Reliance is a private nonprofit land trust that has more than 530,000 acres protected in the state.
The Land Reliance has an estimated 18 percent of all easement acreage granted to local and regional land trusts in the United States.
With the help of the Land Reliance, nearly 30,000 acres of land on a working cattle ranch on the northeastern flanks of the Highwood Mountains is now under easements.
