Land Trust News

Kelly Kountz Photo / Courtesy of Gallatin Valley Land Trust

Losing Ground Trailer Tells Compelling Story

by Glenn Marx, MALT Executive Director – Every minute, reports the American Angus Association, the US loses three acres of land that is currently growing food. That translates to 175 acres of ag lands lost every hour, 1.5 million acres of farm and ranch land per year. That’s alarming. And if you want to watch a video that sounds that alarm, and eventually watch a documentary that will debut on May 27, 2019 on RFD-TV, take a look at the 1:58 minute video produced by the American Angus Association. This is not your basic (and valuable) land trust video about open spaces. This is a video documenting the brutal truth about food supply and food security. It is not meant to charm you. It is meant to warn you, perhaps even scare you. And everyone should see it. We in the land trust community should help make sure everyone sees it. Two comments from the video promo: “Hungry people are not strong people.“ “It doesn’t make for a safe place to live when people start fighting over food.“ The video is a compelling two minutes. The documentary should be equally compelling, and it is going to be interesting to see how the American Angus Association tells this story. It is possible that the documentary will be must-see TV for people who oppose the incredibly valuable work of land trusts, ag groups, landowners, agencies, and conservation programs in conserving farm and ranch lands.

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Conservation Success Story at Coal Banks Landing

The Montana Land Reliance and the NRCS have partnered with the Anderson family on a conservation easement that impressively does all this: Conserves ranch lands, preserves Montana historical sites and recreation opportunities, helps protect the Missouri River National Wild and Scenic corridor, conserves cottonwood galleries, shortgrass prairies, and maintains habitat for over 40 bird species. Outstanding!

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Ties to the Land Workshop Coming to Butte on April 13

The Ties to the Land Workshop comes to Butte on April 13 to help families prepare for succession planning of property. The Ties to the Land Workshop, subtitled “The human side of estate planning,“ is presented by the Forest Stewardship Foundation with help from the Montana Association of Land Trusts. Additional information about the Ties workshop is available at the Montana Forest Stewardship Foundation website, which includes a registration form. The workshop runs 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM at the Butte Business Development Center, Room 209, at 305 W. Mercury in Uptown Butte. Workshop leaders will again be Madeline and Kirk David, who have been bringing the popular and respected Ties workshops to Montana for several years. Attendance for the workshop is currently open, and will close on March 31. Attendance is limited to 25 to accommodate the personal interactive aspects of the workshops. Landowners who have participated in the Ties workshops report the workshops have been informative, helpful, and instructive on succession planning of land. The concept of conservation easements within succession planning is a topic within the workshops.

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Blackfoot Challenge Conservation Strategies Committee Meets March 19

The Blackfoot Challenge will host its annual Conservation Strategies Committee Meeting on Tuesday, March 19, from 10:00 AM to Noon at the Lubrecht Conference Center. Sara Schmidt of the Challenge is working on an agenda for the meeting, and can be reached at sara@blackfootchallenge.org. Several MALT members participate in the Conservation Strategies Committee, which is composed of watershed landowners, agencies, land trusts, local government, and nonprofits that meets on an annual basis to share information and updates on conservation efforts in the watershed.

Ask and Expert Will Focus on Advocacy

Robert Schwartz, Land Trust Alliance ambassador program manager, will lead an Alliance Western Program Ask an Expert segment on “Advocacy 101 for Land Trusts“ on March 12 at noon (Mountain Time). The registration deadline is March 8. Participants will discuss differences between lobbying and advocating, creating and cultivating relationships with legislators, developing an advocacy plan, resources from the Land Trust Alliance to help your advocacy work. Participants are encouraged to contact Brad Paymar at the Alliance Western Program at bpaymar@lta.org with questions for the speaker. Land trust advocacy has long been a MALT priority and Montana land trusts may want to learn about ways to improve advocacy.

MLR, Raths Family Team Up on Sage Grouse Conservation

The Montana Land Reliance, the Raths family, and lead project partners the NRCS ALE Program and the Montana Sage Grouse Conservation Program, teamed up recently to conserve over 11,000 acres of ranch land and sage grouse habitat. MLR announced the closing of the project via social media, with a post that ended with, “We are so grateful to the Raths for their partnership, and proud to count them among our landowners!“ MLR has worked – and is working – extensively with the state’s sage grouse program on several sage grouse conservation efforts.

RecCon Montana Coming to Missoula

The Montana Outdoors Foundation is sponsoring a three-day outdoor recreation convention – dubbed RecCon Montana – in Missoula on July 19-21 at Fort Missoula. The Missoulian article announcing RecCon reports the event “hopes to bring both the business and policy sides of outdoor recreation together this summer for a three-day exposition in Missoula.“ Any and all aspects of outdoor recreation are included within the event, and more info is available at the RecCon website. Jeff Wright, a UM graduate, a member of the Montana Ambassadors, an expert in computer technology and design and President of the Montana Outdoors Foundation, is leading the RecCon event and working with nonprofits like Five Valleys Land Trust in the process. From the Missoulian article: At Five Valleys Land Trust, philanthropy director Whitney Schwab said she looked forward to an opportunity to show how land trust work contributes to the outdoor economy. Projects like Five Valley’s Dean Stone easements and trails, or the new trail networks in Whitefish and Three Forks, give people more places to follow their hobbies and passions. “I think the timing is good to have that kind of cross-section of outdoor professionals and outdoor industry people to come together,” Schwab said. “We’re excited to have the exposure of our role in supporting the outdoor industry with the spaces we helped create and steward.”

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The Nature Conservancy Grasslands Conservation Vision Involves Landowners

Brian Martin, grasslands conservation director for The Nature Conservancy in Montana, wrote a recent guest opinion for the Billings Gazette in which he articulated the success of TNC’s grassland banking programs in places like north central Montana. The TNC Matador Ranch (featured in MALT’s 2016 film “On the Shoulders of Giants) “touches more than 350,000 acres and 25 ranch families,“ Brian writes in his op-ed. The articles ends with: We trust that local owners who have expertise, passion, and commitment to the land are the best way forward for conservation and this is also the best way for their communities to thrive. In a world where both trust and vision can often seem in short supply, these partnerships are proving that they still exist, sometimes with the most unlikely of allies.

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