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Blackfoot Community Project Land Purchases Complete  

 

The Blackfoot Community Conservation Area

A key element of the Blackfoot Community Project is the Blackfoot Challenge’s purchase of 5,600 acres to be the core of the Blackfoot Community Conservation Area. This property is on and surrounding Ovando Mountain in the heart of the Blackfoot Valley.

 

Surrounding the core area is the greater BCCA, a complex of public and private lands at the southern end of the Bob Marshall and Scapegoat Wilderness Areas. Ideally, this surrounding land -- roughly 34,000 acres -- will be managed to complement that of the core area.

 

The Challenge plans to manage this area to preserve access for hunting, wildlife viewing, sustainable forestry, grazing and recreation as desired by the local community.

 

Wildlife: This area has large aspen groves as well as lodgepole and Ponderosa pine, native grasslands and spruce bog wetlands. Three creeks in the area serve as corridors for grizzly bear and other wildlife.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blackfoot wetlands

Blackfoot wetlands
Photo © Jim Steinberg

The Conservancy has completed its purchase

of 89,000 acres of Plum Creek Timber Company lands in the Blackfoot. 

 

Tracking Project Success
2004 - 2005: the Conservancy purchased 54,102 acres.
Of this:

  • The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation buys 3,834 acres around the Blackfoot Clearwater Game Range for re-sale to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks
     
  • The Bureau of Land Management purchases 5,480 acres

2006 - 2007: the Conservancy puurchases 35,092 acres from Plum Creek, and sells:

  • 2,481 acres of the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation
     
  • 15,142 acres to the Forest Service
  • 5,206 acres to the Forest Service
  • 180 acres to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks
  • 640 acres to BLM

About half of the lands went into public ownership because of the Blackfoot communities' desires to preserve the public access they had during Plum Creek and Conservancy ownership.

Much of the remaining lands will be re-sold to private buyers, mostly those landowners who have adjacent lands, with conservation easements attached. The easements will restrict development and lower the land value, helping to make the land more affordable for adjacent landowners.

Blackfoot project goal: To protect the rural character and traditional values of the valley. These values include recreational access, grazing, wildlife habitat, economic stability and forestry in the Blackfoot Valley.