Land Trust News

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation celebrated its volunteers during National Volunteer Week, and thanked the many volunteers that help RMEF generate conservation, access and habitat.

“Our mission success is a product of the time, effort and talents put forth by our volunteers,” said Kyle Weaver, RMEF president and CEO. “They raise critical funding and perform hands on work that allows us to carry out our mission of ensuring the future of elk, other wildlife, their habitat and our hunting heritage. Beyond raising funds and delivering mission, our volunteers are true champions in representing everything RMEF stands for in towns all across America.”

RMEF volunteers in more than 500 chapters nationwide host banquets, membership drives and other events. They also take part in on-the-ground habitat enhancement work such as fence pulls, noxious weed treatments, building wildlife water sources, planting seedlings and other projects that enhance elk country.

Additionally, they freely give of their time for archery and firearm shooting teams, outdoor youth camps and seminars, and other activities that educate boys, girls, men and women about the importance of conservation and the role hunting plays in it.

There is a lot to read – and to appreciate – in the 2019 Cinnabar Foundation Annual Report.

The report, released last week, discusses an emerging entity named the Montana Conservation Funders Roundtable and its commitment to enduring conservation, highlights Rock Ringling’s receipt of the Jim Posewitz Professional Conservationist Award, announces its 2019 partner grantees, and under the headline of A Sharp Conservation Focus features an article on MALT from MALT board president Gavin Ricklefs. 

Everyone affiliated with MALT and Montana private land conservation are deeply appreciative of the Cinnabar Foundation’s longstanding commitment to MALT, its membership, and Montana private land conservation.

Flathead Land Trust has worked with landowner Dean Robbins to conserve a key parcel of land along Wileys Slough in the lower Flathead Valley.

FLT reports the 26-acre donated conservation easement “contains 982 feet of shoreline along Wileys Slough and is adjacent to and contiguous with 1,235 acres of private land already conserved at Wileys Slough. It is also adjacent to the Lakeside Water and Sewer District agricultural properties. Conserving this property ensures that its agricultural open space, 100-year floodplain and important riparian vegetation along Wileys Slough will be protected in perpetuity.”

Robbins’ ties to the property date back to 1883 when his great-grandfather, Christian Hvila Wiley, purchased the property. 

Missoula County is accepting nominations until May 1 for the Missoula County Land Stewardship Award. The award recognizes the conservation contributions of county residents and individuals connected to private land conservation have been recipients of the award in the past, including Bart and Wendy Morris, local ranchers who received the award in 2019.

From the Missoula County website: Landowners and residents throughout Missoula County take stewardship of land and water seriously. Many embark on projects and practices that make a difference… Do you know a friend or neighbor who’s doing great work restoring, protecting, or enhancing land, water, and other natural resources? Nominate them for the 2020 Land Stewardship Award!

The Prickly Pear Land Trust first-ever Don’t Fence Me in Virtual Trail Run and Trail Challenge is officially underway, with an April 15 start. The event runs through June 30.

The PPLT website explains all the details but basically, outside of elite or very serious runners, it could be viewed as a six-week fun run. PPLT says the virtual event promises “More races, more prizes, more participation, and more community spirit.”

Register and run any of the four race courses before June 30, turn in your times, and you’ll be eligible for prizes. Registration is open, and ends June 1. PPLT has pledged to throw a “massive (CDC compliant) public celebration” when the coast is clear for such gatherings.

Five Valleys Land Trust Beers and Cheers: Live From the Field featured some compelling acting, impressive news reporting, and outstanding storytelling on Friday, April 17. Beers and Cheers was part of the Five Valleys “Un-Banquet” and featured “live remote “ stories from Anchorwoman Alice Jones and onsite reporters Vickie Edwards, Sarah Richey and Ryan Stutzman. (See the photo attached to MALT email). The Beers and Cheers YouTube broadcast announced the winner of the Battle of the Mounts, with Mount Dean Stone edging Mount Jumbo in what many observers considered an upset. The event also wrapped up the “Un-Banquet” online auction.

Bitter Root Land Trust’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) proposal has been approved nationally by the NRCS, which opens the door to up to nearly $5 million in NRCS funding over five years, matched by over $8.6 million in other leveraged funds for Bitterroot Valley landowner-driven conservation in Ravalli County.

In an April 16 announcement, the NRCS reported the Farm Bill’s RCPP 2020 allocations funded 48 projects in 29 states with $206 million in NRCS funding leveraging nearly $300 million in other funds.

“I’m excited to announce the first RCPP awards under the 2018 Farm Bill,” said Tom Watson, NRCS State Conservationist for Montana. “Through collaboration and aligning our resources toward a common goal, we’re making an impact for natural resource conservation that could never have been realized on our own.”

The RCPP offers applicants and program participants incentives to build partnerships around innovative resource and conservation solutions for farms, ranches, wildlife habitat and more. The Montana NRCS website also features a RCPP announcement. The Ravalli Republic Sunday edition also featured the RCPP announcement.

Within the NRCS April 16 announcement is a multimedia presentation that shows the location of all 48 approved applications with a short summary of each proposal. Here’s the summary for the Bitterroot Conservation Connectivity RCPP: Bitter Root Land Trust proposes to use conservation easements to protect small but critical properties that possess significant conservation values in the Bitterroot Valley. Preservation of these properties will help protect prime agricultural land, improve soil health and enhance habitat connectivity for the abundant wildlife in the Bitterroot. The partnership intends to target beginning farmers and ranchers using a buy-protect-sell approach, allowed under RCPP’s flexible easement approach. 

 MALT extends enthusiastic congratulations to Gavin Ricklefs, Kyle Barber and the entire staff and board of BRLT for its determination and hard work throughout a lengthy process to finalize and submit its RCPP project application. This RCPP award is a perfect match for the Ravalli County Open Land Program and the two programs in tandem have the potential to produce amazing results for the people, agriculture and wildlife of Ravalli County. MALT also extends a thank you to NRCS State Conservationist Tom Watson and NRCS Assistant State Conservationist Jerry Shows for their guidance and assistance during this process.

A second Montana RCPP submission was also approved. Pheasants Forever and their Northern Great Plains Conservation proposal was funded at $762,129. This partnership includes bird-focused organizations including American Bird Conservancy, Montana Audubon and the Northern Great Plains Joint Venture.

Richard and Grace Blanchet, who operated a 320-acre Flathead Valley farm for 50 years, did something extraordinary before they passed away: They gifted the farm to The Montana Land Reliance.

“Words can’t describe how critical this gift is and how important and how unusual it is for landowners to give up a significant portion of their estate to protect farmland,” MLR western manager Mark Schiltz said in a Kalispell Daily Inter Lake article. “It just shows how important it was to Richard and Grace.”

The Blanchets and MLR placed a conservation easement on the farm in 2006. Grace passed in 2012 and Richard died in 2017. As planned, the farm was recently sold (with easement in place), and three-quarters of the proceeds will fund land protection in the Flathead Valley and one-quarter was allocated to MLR’s stewardship fund.

Three members of the Five Valleys Land Trust board of directions wrote in a recent Missoulian guest column that Five Valleys staff and board is continuing to serve the community during our current period of medical and economic crisis. Five Valleys cancelled its regular fundraising banquet and instead held an “Un-Banquet” last week, and is holding a virtual happy hour featuring brief organizational reports at 5:00 PM on April 17.

In their guest column, the Five Valleys board writes that, While scrambling to tend to our mission and retool operations to proceed into that uncertain future, we have been reminded again and again of the strength, resilience and generosity of our western Montana community. We have had an opportunity to ponder our community-wide tradition of activism in protecting and stewarding the wild and natural land and water that graces us here. And in so doing, we have been truly humbled.

Dick Dolan, Northern Rockies Director of The Trust for Public Land and based in Bozeman, writes in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle that access to quality community parks is vital, and vitally important during the restrictions and medical responses needed in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

Dolan writes: “…just as I’ve never been more grateful for my local parks and trails than I am right now, I’ve also never been more aware of the costs to the many communities that don’t have safe and welcoming access to the outdoors. Across the country 100 million people in America—including 28 million children—don’t have a park within a 10-minute walk of home. That means they lack a place to connect with neighbors, exercise or just get some fresh air.”

His article ends with this: “In Bozeman, nearly 20 percent of us still don’t have a park within walking distance of home. With projects like Story Mill Community Park, which my organization, The Trust for Public Land, opened last summer, we’re making progress, but we still have work to do to reach the goal of equal access to the outdoors for all.