The 2018 voter-approved Gallatin County open land mill levy will soon help fund outdoor recreation projects in the county.

      The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported last week that county commissioners – with Montana Land Reliance and Gallatin Valley Land Trust support – will split the roughly $1.5 million levy funding with about $1.1 million available to fund conservation easements and conservation projects. The county open land program provides a major source of matching funds for the NRCS ALE Program in Gallatin County.

     About $264,000 will be allocated to trail construction and maintenance, the purchase of new trail easements and other outdoor recreation projects. An additional $141,000 will be earmarked for county parks.

     From the article: EJ Porth, associate director of the Gallatin Valley Land Trust, said…with the division of funding, projects like those in the Triangle Trails Plan, a roadmap for creating trails in the area west of Bozeman, could come to fruition.“We know we have a lot of work to do on conservation, but we also know there is plenty of work to do on the recreation and public access side,” she said.

     The Montana Land Reliance, which often applies for funding from the open lands board to purchase land and complete conservation easements in Gallatin County, said it supports the new funding system.

     “We’re growing so fast that all the conservation that we can do is going to help protect what we all love so much in the county for the future,” said the group’s Greater Yellowstone manager Kathryn Kelly.

The Vital Ground Foundation announced last week a virtual 30th Anniversary Celebration set to take place on Sept. 18.

The celebration will offer a video chat with Vital Ground founders Doug and Lynne Seus (and Bart the Bear II), plus other special guests. A special auction to protect habitat is planned, with more information coming soon.

The Senate Finance Committee has released a long-awaited report that condemns the abusive transactions by a handful of conservation easement syndicators and investors who primarily operate in the southeast portion of the US. The 187-report, released August 25, clearly calls on Congress to take action against the outrageous syndication of conservation easement tax benefits, and the Land Trust Alliance, the Montana Association of Land Trusts and its individual land trust members, and land trusts across the country applaud the report’s findings and also encourage Congress to take swift and certain action against the syndicators and their investors.

For over 40 years Montana land trusts and landowners have partnered to create conservation easements that produce farm and ranch conservation, wildlife habitat protection, open land protection, local economic stability and more, in part through the proper application of the charitable donation aspects within state law, federal law, and traditional  land conservation projects. No syndicated easements have been completed in Montana.

Syndicators generate easements for profit, abuse the charitable deduction provision, and example after example within the report document the abuse of the tax code to enrich syndicators and their investors.

MALT and the Alliance have worked with Montana Senator Steve Daines on S. 170, legislation pending in the Senate that would end the abusive syndicated transactions.

From the report: …in light of the continued use of these abusive transactions despite the issuance of IRS Notice 2017- 10, the Chairman and Ranking Member believe Congress, the IRS, and Department of the Treasury should take further action to preserve the integrity of the conservation-easement tax deduction.

The report concludes with this: If syndicated conservation-easement transactions continue to exist in the form they have over the past decade, they risk not only depriving the government of billions of dollars of revenue but also degrading the general understanding that our Nation’s tax laws apply equally to us all.

Gallatin Valley Land Trust, together with Gallatin County,  are working together on a Triangle Area Trails Plans (Four Corners – Bozeman – Belgrade) and have created a website that provides information about the partnership and potential trails system.  An announcement from GVLT is also attached here.

From the announcement: The Gallatin Valley Land Trust and Gallatin County are proud to announce a collaborative effort to create a Triangle Area Trail Plan. During the Planning Coordinating Committee’s process to develop and adopt the Triangle Community Plan, it was clear that there were opportunities to expand the connected trail system into the ‘Triangle’ area of Gallatin County to support the plan’s vision. The Triangle is a rapidly developing area that will link the three communities, but has no active guide or requirement for trail development. Without a guide, trails develop in fragments that are challenging, costly or virtually impossible to connect in the future.  Now is the time to prevent a fragmented system and create a vision for a trail system in the Triangle Area.

Triangle Trail Plan Press Release

The folks in Ravalli County are in for treat, thanks to the Bitter Root Land Trust’s Homegrown Virtual Events. The Homegrown Series is intended to make “make you feel right at home in the Bitterroot Valley” and includes an array of outdoor opportunities to virtually experience the Bitterroot through hikes, picnics and more.

Whitney Tilt, former board of directors chair at Gallatin Valley Land Trust and currently a principal at Conservation Benchmarks in Bozeman, writes in Outside Bozeman that the importance of private working lands to Montana conservation cannot be overstated. Tilt’s article is focused on the Greater Yellowstone area, but his comments ring true for all of Montana.

“As we extol our public lands—of which we can be justly proud—let us not overlook the importance of private working lands. For these are the most valuable lands in Montana, in terms of healthy soil and water, and in providing essential food and habitat for our state’s treasured wildlife,” he writes.

He adds, “Countless studies have documented the biological richness of the GYE. It is routinely described as ‘one of the largest nearly intact temperate zone ecosystems on Earth.’ It is a region renowned for its geological wonders, abundant wildlife, and scenic vistas. But often overlooked, amidst all the superlatives, is the tremendous importance of the region’s private lands and the owners who maintain them as working lands. These ranchers and farmers are the stewards of many of the things we enjoy most about living in this region—from abundant wildlife to healthy landscapes.”

The Montana land trust community is honored to work with landowners across Montana on conservation projects that benefit agricultural production, local economies, farm and ranch conservation, wildlife habitat, and more.

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The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is partnering with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks on a proposal that would create a 5,677-acre new wildlife management area near Judith Gap, in central Montana. The proposed Big Snowy Mountains Wildlife Management Area received tentative Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission approval on August 13, which allows FWP to further pursue and evaluate the project, and to offer opportunity to gather public comment.

Under the proposal, the Big Snowy Mountain Wildlife Management Area would be owned and managed by MT FWP for conservation and hunting access. From the FWP August 13 meeting agenda documents: The Big Snowy Mountains WMA would be one contiguous block adjacent to the BLM’s Twin Coulee Wilderness Area (6,936 acres), which abuts the USFS’s Big Snowies Wilderness Study Area (88,696 acres). This native foothill habitat provides for a diverse assemblage of species, including critical winter range (as well as year-round habitat) for elk, mule deer, and pronghorn, as well has habitat for black bear, white-tailed deer, and other native species.

The Montana Land Reliance’s Confluence 2020 – held with the Montana Chamber Music Society as an auction and musical performance – is going virtual in 2020. The online auction, with several outdoor, artistic, and travel items available to bid on, runs through 10:00 PM on August 28.

Confluence is described as “a  musical celebration and fundraising event to support conservation of Montana’s majestic open landscapes and to expand chamber music concerts in Montana.”

The digital video concert by the Montana Chamber Music Society will be shared August 23. For more info contact MLR at secretary@mtlandreliance.org.

Abby Rokosch, a Ducks Unlimited biologist working within a partnership position with the NRCS in the NRCS State Office in Bozeman, recently was named the recipient of the inaugural Ducks Unlimited Excellence in Conservation Award.

A social media post in late in July announced the award, and Bob Sanders, Manager of Montana DU Conservation Programs (below with Abby), and colleagues wrote “Abby, you’re an absolute rockstar in waterfowl conservation, and we are beyond proud of your efforts. A true conservationist!”

MALT extends its congratulations to Abby for the award, which will be presented annually. Abby has been an incredibly helpful presence to the Montana land trust community within the NRCS ALE Program, and every Montana land trust working in the ALE Program has benefited from Abby’s skills, insights, determination, perseverance, dedication, energy, and enthusiasm. CONGRATULATIONS, ABBY! 

The Gallatin Valley Land Trust NextGen Board, together with the Gallatin Valley Farm to School and Open & Local Coalition invite you to celebrate local food and picnics August 15 – 23.

From GVLT:  We encourage responsible social distancing while  promoting our local food systems. Now more than ever, we feel we have the opportunity and responsibility to highlight the important connection between open land and local food production in the Gallatin Valley. Thus, Picnic with your People was born! Together with our partners, we look forward to making Picnic with your People as fun, accessible, and inclusive as possible. 

For the week of August 15th through 23rd, we invite the community to seek out our trail systems and locally-grown food by hosting small picnics with their socially distanced housemates, friends, or “pods.” Participants are encouraged to post photos with the hashtag #picnicpeople and tag any local restaurant/produce partners. So grab a blanket, your closest pals, and raid your garden, farmers market, or local restaurant and enjoy a picnic at any of our local parks or trails.