The future looks bright on the Front
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Grizzly cubs
Photo © Yellowstone Image File
New easements on the Front
The Conservancy's most recent conservation easement -- putting it over 50,000 acres in private land protected from future development -- is on the 4,354-acre Hager Ranch west of Dupuyer, MT. The property straddles Dupuyer Creek where grizzly bears find food and shelter. The property is near public lands and other easement-protected properties on the prairie east of the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
On the Front's southern edge....
Ranchers Ron and Linda Ingersoll signed a conservation easement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that covers their 4,177-acre wildlife-rich ranch. This is the first easement completed as part of the FWS new conservation program for the Front. The Conservancy facilitated the easement and provided partial funding.
The property has lush riverfront along the Middle Fork of the Dearborn River that provides a travel route as well as forage and security for grizzly bears and migratory birds.
Also on the Front's southern edge....
the Conservancy and the Fish and Wildlife Service completed a conservation easement that protects a 5,300-acre property on both sides of the Sun River. This property, near Augusta, Montana, provides large carnivores and other wildlife safe passage from the mountains to the prairie.
Other recent conservation easements....
Choteau area rancher Clay Crawford sold a conservation easement to the Conservancy that covers 1,978 acres that border the 10,398-acre Blackleaf Wildlife Management Area owned by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
The agreement completes the protection of nearly six miles of streams and wetlands from the national forest boundary out onto the prairie.
Farther north...
the Conservancy accepted a donated easement on the 164-acre Rising Wolf Ranch, property that links Glacier National Park with the Badger Two Medicine area. The ranch, built in 1926 as a dude ranch, spans the South Fork of the Two Medicine River.
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A pond on the Rocky Mountain Front
Photo © Doug Bostrom
Conservancy and landowners reach milestone...
...50,000 acres on the Rocky Mountain Front protected from future development
2007 marks a milestone for Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front, a 150-mile swath of north-central Montana where the prairie meets the mountains. Working with landowners, the Conservancy, the Fish and Wildlife Service and other conservation partners have protected close to 100,000 acres here -- the last prairie grizzly bear stronghold in the lower 48 states.
More than 50,000 of those acres – ranked by wildlife experts as the finest grizzly habitat on the Front – are in Conservancy conservation easements or ownership. This effort combined with rising landowner interest in conservation easements and a permanent ban on oil and gas drilling on the Front means long-term protection of this low-elevation wildlife haven is within reach.
Last year the Front became a national conservation priority, where the Fish and Wildlife Service, with Conservancy assistance, would purchase voluntary easements on up to 170,000 acres of private lands.
The program was inspired by many local ranchers who for years have lobbied for increased funding for purchasing easements on working ranches. That support convinced former U.S. Senator Conrad Burns, R-MT, to propose, and push through Congress, a $1 million appropriation for 2006.
Conservation easements provide financial incentives to ranchers to keep their land in ranching, rather than sell out to be subdivided for housing. Government officials like this voluntary approach because it keeps land in private ownership and on the tax rolls.
Currently, landowner demand for paid conservation easements is outstripping the available funding. However, the recently passed Pension Protection Act provides extensive tax breaks for landowners who donate conservation easements. For full-time ranchers and farmers, the deduction is 100 percent and can be used over 16 years. Landowners need to act fast though: The benefit ends at the end of 2007.
