Bill Northey, USDA Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation, is in Montana this week and on Sunday evening, July 12, Montana State Conservationist Tom Watson arranged an opportunity for MALT and Bitter Root Land Trust to visit with the under secretary. Gavin Ricklefs, executive director of Bitter Root Land Trust and MALT board president, and MALT executive director Glenn Marx joined Watson, Northey and USDA staffer Josh Storey for dinner in Missoula.

     The under secretary asked about the history behind Montana’s land trust community and the state’s  conservation easement statute, and about the focus and mission of individual Montana land trusts as well the collective focus of the state land trust association. Northey and Watson were headed to the Blackfoot Valley on July 13, where they will have a chance to learn more about Montana land conservation.

    The dinner conversation touched on a multitude of topics: The flexibility and landowner incentives within the 2018 Farm Bill, the work of Gallatin Valley Land Trust and now Bitter Root Land Trust within the NRCS Regional Conservation Partnership Program, the value of the Montana ALE Program Coordinator position, the importance of funding by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for not only the ALE Coordinator position but for Northern Great Plains grassland conservation efforts, the success of the Montana ALE Program, and the strength of the partnership between the Montana NRCS and the Montana land trust community. The group also discussed food security and food distribution, and the challenges associated with farm and ranch succession planning and invigorating US agriculture with a new generation of producers.

     MALT thanks Northey and Watson for taking time from busy schedules to meet with land trusts.

Photo: (left to right) Glenn Marx, MALT; USDA Under Secretary Bill Northey; Gavin Ricklefs, Bitter Root Land Trust; Tom Watson, Montana NRCS State Conservationist. Photo by Josh Storey

The US Fish and Wildlife Service, Southern Pine Plantations and The Trust for Public Land are involved in a 100,000-acre forest management and conservation project in NW Montana. The Kalispell Daily Inter Lake news article indicates the USFWS has started a scoping process to obtain public comment on the project. The proposed project is in both Flathead and Lincoln counties.

The article reports that “The Service is seeking public comment on a proposal to create the Lost Trail Conservation Area. If created, it would authorize the Service to work with willing sellers to acquire conservation easements on up to 100,000 acres within the 116,000 acre Conservation Area boundary” adjacent to the Lost Trail National Wildlife Refuge. Comments on the proposal should be submitted by August 6.

If approved, the conservation easements would secure public access, prevent residential development and allow for sustainable commercial timber harvests.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund is a vital funding source for the project.

Chris Boyer photo

The Ravalli County Commission voted 3-0 on July 7 to conditionally approve $250,000 of Ravalli County Open Land Program funding to help create a new permanent fishing access site on the West Fork of the Bitterroot River. The proposed project requires Montana Board of Land Commissioners approval for Montana FWP to acquire the property, and a final vote by the Ravalli County Commission is expected shortly after July 20.

Bitter Root Land Trust is a project leader and has worked with the landowner, Marty Stomberg, since 2007 on the project as a way to honor Bitterroot native and Stomberg’s son, C. Ben White. The proposed project greatly expands the FAS to nearly 100 acres (from 1.5 acres),  ensures the permanency of the fishing access site, allows camping and hunting, improves river health, protects wildlife habitat, creates access to USFS lands and generally greatly enhances local outdoor recreation opportunities.

Please join Five Valleys Land Trust and others on Wednesday, July 8 for a free virtual panel discussion, Voices from the Community: Why Access, Equity, and Inclusion Matter.

When: Wednesday, July 8th; 4:00 PM – 5:15 PM

Where: Online via Zoom (registration link below)

This panel will bring together diverse voices around a common theme: access to the outdoors. During this panel discussion, we will hear from community members who have experienced some of these barriers in their personal and professional lives. Panelists will share their stories and their ideas for ways to make the outdoors more accessible, welcoming, and inclusive to more people. A short Q & A session will follow the program.

Donna Gaukler, Director of Missoula Parks and Recreation, will moderate the panel. Panelists include:

• Chris Clasby, Peer Advocacy Coordinator, Summit Independent Living

• Ashely Ostheimer Hilliard, Vice Chair of the Board of Directors, Missoula Food Bank and Community Center

• Alex Kim, Racial Justice Engagement Specialist, EmpowerMT and YWCA Missoula

• Tom McDonald, Division Manager for Fish, Wildlife, Recreation and Conservation programs, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes

The panel will be hosted on Zoom and is free and open to the public.

Click here to register.

     Montana Senator Jon Tester and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) have coauthored a guest column in US Today headlined “Threat of Meat Shortages is Growing. Senate Needs to Act Now.”

     The June 29 op-ed highlights the Senators’ concerns about meat supply during a pandemic that appears to worsening…in Montana, in the US, and throughout the world. The Senators voice concerns about meat packing consolidation and monopoly.

     “…it requires only a brief look under the hood of the beef supply chain to diagnose the grave crisis currently facing American farmers and ranchers, and the growing threat of shortages for every American family who buys meat at the grocery store,” the Senators write. “…in recent decades, the packing industry has become dangerously consolidated. Currently, only four large corporations control 80 percent of America’s meat processing capacity, running massive processing plants and industrial feed lots.”

     Then came COVID. “…the pandemic, which has exposed the dangers of this consolidated industry by infecting thousands of plant employees, shutting down a quarter of our nation’s meat processing capacity, making it more difficult for families to find meat at the grocery store, and jeopardizing our nation’s food supply chain,” they write.

     The two Senators have introduced legislation to stem manipulation of cattle prices by meat packers to help livestock producers obtain more opportunity to get a fair price for their products. The two Senators point out it is not just ranchers impacted by packer monopolies but consumers as well.   

On July 1 the Lewis and County Commission voted 3-0 to create a 30-day comment period on a proposed 3,122-acre conservation easement east of Helena in the Spokane Hills. In June, the proposed project had also received unanimous approval from the Lewis and Clark County Open Lands Citizen Advisory Council. After the 30-day comment period the Potter Ranch conservation easement will come back to the county commissioners for a final decision.

“I am bursting with joy,” says Mary Hollow, the Executive Director of the Prickly Pear Land Trust. “These projects take years and they are highly emotional for families to discuss things about their estate and about their land, especially when they are generational ranches like this.”

by Glenn Marx, MALT Executive Director

     With the Senate Finance Committee investigation ongoing, with June 30 IRS vocal support of Senator Daines’ anti-syndication legislation, with a string of IRS court victories against syndicators, and with an IRS one-time “take it or leave it” settlement offer on the table, coordinated efforts to stop abusive syndicated conservation transactions seem to be gaining traction.

     At a June 30 Senate Finance Committee hearing, Montana Senator Steve Daines, lead sponsor of the Charitable Conservation Easement Program Integrity Act, asked IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig if the IRS would support legislation stopping the syndication of conservation easement tax benefits. The Commissioner’s response was: “The IRS would welcome legislation with respect to syndicated conservation easements — the abusive transactions. Under this commissioner, the IRS will aggressively go after everybody involved in one of those transactions.”

     The Charitable Conservation Easement Program Integrity Act (S.170) is the Land Trust Alliance’s top federal policy priority, and is legislation strongly supported by the Montana Association of Land Trusts membership. The Alliance’s blog featured the June 30 exchange between Senator Daines and Commissioner Rettig. In an example of the abusive nature of a syndicated transaction, Daines cited a property that had been valued at $30 million, then with a conservation easement placed on it the property had an alleged value of $155 million. Such transactions cost taxpayers billions of dollars each year…in 2016 alone, 248 syndicated deals claimed $6 billion in charitable deductions.

     In related action, Bloomberg reported on June 25 that the IRS was offering syndicators a chance to settle, with a warning “that it is the best deal participants will get.” The settlement offer would “specify that the deduction for the contributed easement will be completely disallowed and the partnership will have to pay the full amount of tax, penalties, and interest owed. But investor partners would be allowed to deduct their cost of acquiring their partnership interests and pay a penalty reduced by between 10% to 20%.”

     Bloomberg reports the IRS has prevailed in a series of court decisions which provides the IRS a position of strength in any settlement discussions.

     “This is no sweetheart deal—and it should not be one,” said Andrew Bowman, president and CEO of the Land Trust Alliance, a national conservation organization that has consistently opposed the deals. “This is an emphatic reminder to all investors that they should steer clear of abusive conservation easement tax shelters.”

     “Recent decisions by the U.S. Tax Court demonstrate what we have long known: that abusive syndicated conservation easement deals are costing taxpayers billions and tarnishing the reputation of this very valuable conservation tool,” Daines said in his comments to IRS Commissioner Rettig.  

     The syndicators themselves, led by a group named Partners for Conservation, voiced opposition to the proposed settlement terms.

    Flathead Land Trust’s annual event, A Land Affair, has been postponed to the summer of 2021 in light of concerns about the COVID pandemic. But like many other Montana land trusts, FLT is adjusting and rallying, and is going virtual. From the recent FLT newsletter:

     Let’s party for the land, virtual style…& Raise the Sky for Conservation! 

     Join us on August 13th to celebrate impactful conservation that’s being accomplished in 2020. We’ll be hosting an online event and program with a “raise the sky for conservation” live drive and virtual cocktail hour. We’ll also be offering virtual tours of our conservation properties leading up to the event. No ticket purchase needed. We just want to celebrate with you this year, even if we can’t do it in person.

     RSVP for your spot by emailing Paul Travis. Save the Date and stay tuned for more details coming soon!

    Five Valleys Land Trust is among the land trusts featured in an article titled “Interpreting the Land” in the summer 2020 edition of Saving Land Magazine.

     The article starts on page 18 and for Five Valleys focuses on the Five Valleys Confluence Property at Rock Creek. Specifically, the article highlights Five Valleys’ engagement with – and outreach to – the Confederate Salish and Kootenai Tribes and historic Native American activity on the landscape. Five Valleys also discusses efforts enabling  Confluence Property trails to serve the entire community, which includes people of all abilities.

Congratulations to Gallatin Valley Land Trust and Bozeman trail supporters. GVLT’s Summer Trails Challenge logged 58,035 miles between June 6-26, well over the 50,000 goal, which earned $50,000 for Bozeman’s trails. Running 58,035 miles is like running from New York City to Los Angeles 20.77 times.