Done deal: More trails, more access, more fun in Missoula. Great job city council, Five Valleys Land Trust, and project partners and supporters. Read a really good article with some outstanding quotes here in the Missoula Current. 

Three new conservation easements will protect 1,381 acres of important agricultural land and vital open space in a place where open land protection is essential…Gallatin County. Great work by the Gallatin County Commission and open land program, NRCS, The Montana Land Reliance and Gallatin Valley Land Trust. Special thanks to the Bos, Hill and Flikkema families who make projects like this possible.

     The Private Land / Public Wildlife Council focused on wildlife migration during a Dec. 2 meeting, and the conversation touched on the many challenges – wildlife, policy, agricultural, recreational, land management and safety – that accompany solutions to wildlife movement and connectivity. The PL/PW discussion included comments from ranchers like Bart Morris (landowner partner with Five Valleys Land Trust on a conservation easement), Paul McKenzie of FH Stoltz Land & Lumber (timber company that works with TPL on conservation projects) and from Cole Mannix, whose family in the Blackfoot has worked with state and federal agencies on land management solutions.

     “Personally, the big story and the big take home is that the working lands (and) the folks who own and manage lands the grizzly bears are going to be on, bear a higher proportion of burden on this question,” Mannix said. “So it’s very much related to what we’re asking PL/PW to look at…how can we better support working lands that are so critical to the wildlife in this state?

    The Montana Sage Grouse Habitat Conservation Program awarded $4.6 million to fund seven proposed sage grouse projects on Nov. 30, with three of the seven projects receiving fully requested funding amounts, and four others receiving partial funding. The Montana Sage Grouse Oversight Team voted unanimously to fully fund projects submitted by The Nature Conservancy in Montana in southwestern and central Montana, and to partially fund four projects (two from TNC and two from The Montana Land Reliance) in central, south central, and southwestern Montana.

     An article in the Billings Gazette by outdoor writer Brett French does a good job explaining the value of the overall program and the value of the seven projects submitted for consideration. Together, the seven proposed projects would conserve close to 25,000 acres of important sagebrush habitat in perpetuity, through voluntary, incentive-based conservation easements. 

    Jim Berkey and Brian Martin from TNC, and Brad Hansen from MLR, together with landowners connected to the seven projects, made presentations to MSGOT. Five of the projects partner with the NRCS ALE Program to leverage MSGOT funding. There was not sufficient funding in the MSGOT program to fully fund all seven, and some lingering questions remain about exactly what the MSGOT funding motions were and exactly what portion of project stewardship funds were awarded for the projects. MALT members are working with the sage grouse program to obtain exact funding figures and a path forward for all seven projects. 

       Mark Lambrecht, former director of government affairs for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, has been named the new assistant director for the Bureau of Land Management’s National Conservation Lands and Community Partnerships program. The official announcement was made Dec. 3, and in early 2021 Lambrecht and wife Amy will be moving from Helena to the BLM’s new headquarters in Grand Junction, CO. 

     Lambrecht had “played an important role in securing support” for the Great American Outdoors Act, which among other things permanently funds the LWCF.

     “I’m honored to have this tremendous opportunity to help secure the future of BLM’s conservation lands to benefit the recreational, cultural and economic interests of all Americans and the diversity of fish and wildlife supported by them,” Lambrecht said in a statement.

     The Trust for Public Land’s Story Mill Community Park is now a temporary home for an award-winning art piece named the Town Enclosure Pavilion, which comes to Bozeman from Jackson Hole.

     From the Bozeman Chronicle article: The piece consists of large cross-laminated timber wall panels that form a circle when looking at it from above. When it was set up in Jackson Hole, the project hosted plays, welcomed youth and professional dancers, and hosted poets and spoken word performances. People there also did yoga, drew and watched the stars within the walls of the installation.

     The concept was to create a space where people could gather around a piece of art, according to CLB Architects’ website. The installation has won awards from Americans for the Arts and CODAWORX, and has received national attention.

     OSM construction dug up the installation at the Jackson Hole park and worked to install the piece here on Thursday. The construction company worked with CLB Architects, Gallatin Art Crossing, Jackson Hole Public Art, JH center for the Arts and Story Mill to bring the project to Bozeman.

by Glenn Marx, MALT Executive Director

     Congratulations to the 2020 Montana Outdoor Hall of Fame inductees, some of whom have strong land trust ties, and all of whom have made significant contributions to Montana conservation.

     The Montana Outdoor Hall of Fame website has more information about the Hall itself, about the Dec. 5, 2020 Awards Ceremony and about the impressive list of past inductees. The virtual ceremony starts at 6:30 PM, and while it is free, donations are encouraged, with a donation of $25 or more receiving a printed event program featuring the inductees.

     Here is the Class of 2020:

Stewart Monroe Brandborg

Bruce Farling

John & Carol Gibson

George Bird Grinnell

Hal Harper

Dale Harris

Gayle Joslin

Bob Kiesling

Paul Roos

Gene Sentz

Richard Vincent

Vince Yannone

     “It is a remarkable list of individuals whose accomplishments span a lifetime of keeping watch over Montana’s natural wonders,” said Thomas Baumeister, executive director of the Montana OHF. “The inductees cover a range of personalities who worked in the public and private sectors, and more times than not on their own, to advance what could be termed Montana’s conservation consciousness.”

      Mary Hollow and Prickly Pear Land Trust sent a recent email update to supporters that provided current information on a broad range of PPLT projects and organizational efforts under three headlines of Our People, Our Home and Our Work. 

      The information updated supporters, partners and donors about PPLT personnel changes and accomplishments, PPLT’s purchase of the building it is located in, and a list of trail and conservation project accomplishments. 

     One of PPLT’s ongoing conservation efforts is at Sevenmile Creek on the west end of Helena. Here’s the PPLT report: At Our Sevenmile restoration project, we are reaching nearly $1 million in investment and have seen incredible returns already. Our restoration site survived the Birdseye fire in early September, 330 of the 350 acres we own. We are encouraged to see the incredible benefits of riparian restoration and the wetlands which acted as a natural fire break- we didn’t intend for the resiliency test that it saw this fall, but…it worked. This fire response will only serve to increase the value of this project site as an educational resource and outdoor classroom. Experts anticipate the grassland and vegetation will come back more robust and vibrant, including a higher diversity of wildflowers and natives. We are investing significantly in reseeding to keep ahead of the weeds in the spring. This was an unforeseen cost, but one we feel is critical to maintaining the incredible progress on this land.

     Meghann McKenna, a Gallatin Valley Land Trust board member, has been named to the Terrafirma Members Committee as a representative from the Mountains and Plains Region. Terrafirma was created in 2011 (with significant help from Montanans like Andy Dana and Paul Sihler) to help land trusts defend their conserved lands from legal challenge. Terrafirma is owned by its members to insure the costs of upholding conservation easements and fee lands held for conservation purposes when they have been violated or are under legal attack, and to provide information on risk management to those land trusts.

     Meghann has experience in insurance, estate planning and financial services, and she works in partnership with her father John and other associate agents at McKenna Financial.

     Congratulations, and thank you, Meghann.

Montana Outdoor Hall of Fame inductee Chris Marchion, from Anaconda, recently walked through the land – and walked a Montana Standard reporter through the story – of the most recent expansion of the Garrity Mountain Wildlife Management Area. The article details the history and conservation values of the property back to Teddy Roosevelt days, and ends with a final key piece still needed within the land management puzzle.

The article also contains this key paragraph: Mike Mueller of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation was central to the latest deal, and Marchion was among the conservationists who gained community support and funding to work out the deal with FWP and the landowners this go around. The Montana Land Board unanimously approved the deal this past summer, and the $1.5 million bulk of funding for the $1,711,500 purchase was provided by the NRDP. FWP Habitat Montana and the RMEF each put in $100,000, and $75,000 came from the Montana Fish & Wildlife Conservation Trust.