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Easement covers wildlife-rich ranch

sandhil crane
Sandhill cranes nest on the Ingersoll ranch
© J. Schmidt

Ranchers Ron and Linda Ingersoll have signed a conservation easement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that covers their 4,177-acre ranch, home to grizzly bears and many bird species.

The ranch is at the southern end of the Rocky Mountain Front and stretches west up to the Continental Divide near Lewis and Clark Pass.

"It was a big decision – a lifetime decision," said Linda. "But we knew we had to do it because we believe in conservation and we don’t ever want our land split."

The property includes nearly three miles of 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.

"We occasionally see a grizzly bear and in the wetlands there are a lot of geese, ducks and curlews. We’ve had sandhill cranes nesting here for the past eight years. It’s nice to have them here," said Linda.

The upper portion of the property includes forested habitat used by wolverine, raptors and game species including elk and mule deer. The land abuts national forest land and is a few miles from where Meriwether Lewis and a band of his men traversed the Continental Divide some 200 years ago.

This is the first easement completed under the Service’s newly expanded conservation easement program for the Rocky Mountain Front, intended to protect up to 170,000 acres. The Nature Conservancy helped round out easement funding and facilitate the easement.

In evaluating properties for this easement program, the Service did a biological analysis of the land within the project boundary. "This tract ranked in the top 20 percent because it contributes to the connectivity of protected habitats on the Front and because of its value to grizzly bears and grassland birds," said Gary Sullivan, state coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service’s land acquisition program.

"The Ingersolls have been great ambassadors for this program, so it’s fortunate that we could work together to get this easement done," said Dave Carr, the Conservancy’s Rocky Mountain Front program director.

Linda said the easement is one of the "least limiting easements out there," unlike some of the early conservation easements that limited hunting and grazing. "This easement doesn’t change our operation at all."

"We want to encourage our neighboring ranchers to consider placing a conservation easement on their land," says Linda. "We would really like to see this area remain in ranching which is also good for the wildlife."

New conservation tax incentives signed into law in August make conservation easements more attractive financially for landowners. Qualifying ranchers may deduct 100 percent of the value of their conservation easement donation from their federal income taxes and they have up to 16 years to do so.

"Once the word gets out about these incentives, I hope we’ll start to see more landowners take advantage of them," says Linda.