This Monte Dolack painting made its debut on May 6 on a ridge above O’Dell Creek, the site of one of Montana’s most impressive conservation and restoration stories. A Bozeman Daily Chronicle article provides information about the painting, commissioned by NorthWestern Energy in celebration of a collaborative restoration project that has received numerous conservation awards. The Montana Land Reliance, The Trust for Public Land and Granger Ranches were leaders in the O’Dell Creek restoration projects.

Here’s a good article in Montana Lee Newspapers about the NRCS and Five Valleys Land Trust teaming up with landowners for agricultural conservation in the Flint Creek Valley.

From the article:

Maybe some change is for the better.

But those large tracts of historic ranchland going fallow and sprouting a sea of residences isn’t anyone in this story’s idea of acceptable change.

For those who’ve ranched for generations, or those who buy into the life, a conservation easement is proving one way to keep a traditional way of life alive in a changing valley.

In place of its traditional spring banquet Five Valleys Land Trust is holding Raise the Roof To Get Outside on May 15. Five Valleys staff and supporters will be stationed at trailheads with raffle tickets, swag, treats, and more. The event is capped off with a live online auction.

This is impressive…A video titled “Pine Street Woods: A Community Treasure” took first place in the Idaho Press Club awards in the Best Online-Only video category. Watch the video here.

     Flathead Land Trust held series of “sneak preview” tours showcasing the conservation values of one of its premier ongoing projects – located at Bad Rock Canyon near Columbia Falls – on May 2, and the general reaction from the tour participants was: Wow! 

     FLT executive director Paul Travis (center), with project partners (left) Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (Kris Temple, habitat conservation biologist) and (right) the Flathead Lakers (Constanza von der Pahlen, critical lands director), provided a two-hour, four-mile tour of the property that showcased the wildlife habitat, connectivity, water quality, public recreation and open land benefits of the project. The Flathead River to Lake Initiative is another key project partner. 

     The project is close to the final stages of a $7 million fundraising campaign, and project partners hope to announce some exciting news about project progress later this year. Incredibly, the roughly 700-acre project, located along the Flathead River just outside of Columbia Falls, provides habitat protection for 43 species of special concern including grizzly bears. A Nov. 6, 2020 article has more info about the project.

Five Valleys Land Trust was one of two Montana entities to be awarded USDA Farm Bill Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) funding. Five Valleys will receive $3.7 million to work with Flint Creek Valley landowners on agricultural conservation projects.

“RCPP is a tremendous investment in the Flint Creek Valley at a critical time of unprecedented development pressure as well as landowner interest for agricultural land conservation,” says Whitney Schwab, Five Valleys Land Trust Executive Director. “This dedicated fund will allow us to work with our NRCS partners and landowners to support once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that will ensure that agricultural livelihoods and working lands can be adaptive and resilient in perpetuity.”

“RCPP leverages the power of public-private partnerships to focus resources and make a difference for the folks that manage Montana’s working lands,” said Tom Watson, NRCS State Conservationist for Montana. “Taking this chance to build on the successful partnership with Five Valleys Land Trust will bolster the economic and natural resource resiliency of agricultural operations in the Flint Creek Valley.”

More information is available from Five Valleys and from the NRCS. The other Montana project receiving RCPP funding is a Pheasants Forever project in the Northern Great Plains area of Montana.

Five Valleys Land Trust photo

     Gallatin Valley Land Trust and Bozeman Health are teaming up on a short but “super beneficial” trail in Bozeman.

    The new half-mile trail, named the Wellness Trail, will connect people who use the Gallatin Mental Health Center to the Bozeman trail system. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports that once complete the new segment will link a 4.5 mile network of trails around the Highland Glen Nature Preserve with Haggerty Lane. The trail corridor skirts the mental health center and residential and commercial neighborhoods, including some affordable housing units.

     “Trails are where community happens,” said EJ Porth, associate director for the Gallatin Valley Land Trust. “This is about removing barriers to access. This is about equity.”

     Photo: Gallatin Valley Land Trust and Bozeman Health have partnered to create a new half-mile trail to connect the Highland Glen Nature Preserve to the Gallatin Mental Health Center and the surrounding residential area. Rachel Leathe/Chronicle 

     Bitter Root Land Trust held a friendly virtual discussion with local supporters on April 14, and the response to BRLT’s news and plans was uniformly positive.

     During the “Conservation Conversations” discussion BRLT executive director Gavin Ricklefs and conservation project manager Melissa Odell offered the audience a sneak peak of upcoming possible projects within the next couple years, and the active project list is impressive.

     BRLT, which currently holds a total of slightly under 9,000 acres of easements to date, has about a dozen ongoing projects in the next two-year window that total 4,800 acres of conservation projects. 

     “The amount of momentum here in the Bitterroot is just incredible,” said Ricklefs.

     Odell and Ricklefs featured four projects in the pipeline, once of which would be the largest BRLT conservation easement to date. 

     While most of the focus is on agricultural conservation, projects also include wildlife habitat conservation and fisheries projects, as well as a couple projects that include recreational access.

     The evening’s public discussion allowed BRLT to demonstrate organizational growth and accomplishment, and show how the land trust is responding to local agricultural and recreational needs.  

Prickly Pear Land Trust has received a “Landowner of the Year” Award from the American Fisheries Society for PPLT’s restoration work on Sevenmile Creek in the Helena Valley. It’s great to see PPLT receive recognition for its remarkable commitment to the Sevenmile Restoration effort.

      A guest column in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle does a nice job describing what we all feel: Open land and nature have been essential during the COVID crisis.

     Liz Domenech, a member of Gallatin Valley Land Trust’s NextGen Advisory board, writes that, “During the pandemic, public land, open space, and trails became refuge. What seemed like perks of living in Montana before the pandemic suddenly felt non-negotiable.”