Ten years ago, George and Patti Widener finally found what they were looking for: a

stunning piece of land on the Rocky Mountain Front. They visited the 1,760-acre property and immediately purchased it.

Since then, they’ve been rewarded with sightings of so much wildlife, they’ve

resolved to protect it.

George and Patti, who often ride their horses on the property, have seen antelope; elk; white-tail and mule deer; blue, sharp-tailed and ruffed grouse; coyotes; fox; bobcat; long-tailed weasel; golden and bald eagles; rabbits; mallards; teal; western grebe and almost every indigenous species of waterfowl.

But the species that really stirs the imagination, and the heartbeat, is the great grizzly.

“One morning at daybreak we watched a sow with her three cubs by a pond. We watched her run 50 yards, then stop and look at us, then she’d run another 50 yards, then wheel around and stand up as her cubs glommed on to her,” says George.

The Wideners’ property is in the midst of the grizzlies’ last remaining prairie habitat in the lower 48. One day, the Wideners saw seven grizzlies in 12 hours on their property.

The Wideners, long-time Montanans who split their time between Columbia Falls and Choteau, donated a conservation easement on about 700 acres of their property on the Front to The Nature Conservancy, a decision they say was easy to make.

“We’ve seen what has been happening in the Flathead, and we’d not like to see this area developed like that. Our motivation is to protect this property,” says Patti.

In doing so, they’ve not only put this part of their property off limits to future subdivision, but they’ve helped the Conservancy achieve a milestone that will significantly expand its conservation work on the Front. Their donation helped the Conservancy meet the $1 million challenge from The William and Mary Greve Foundation.

“We’re very grateful to the Wideners whose gift has crowned our protection efforts adjacent to the Blackleaf Wildlife Management Area,” says Dave Carr, the Conservancy’s Rocky Mountain Front project director.

Their scenic property, part of the Muddy Creek drainage, is bounded on one side by the Blackleaf and on the other sides by Bureau of Land Management lands and the Dellwo ranch which is covered by a Conservancy conservation easement.

This area surrounding the 10,430-acre Blackleaf is one of two of the most heavily used prairie portions of grizzly habitat on the Rocky Mountain Front.