Funding for the Rocky Mountain Front conservation easement program announced
HELENA, Montana — 9-June, '06-Montana Senator Conrad Burns’ office announced today that the Senate Interior Appropriations ’06 budget will include $1.5 million for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to launch its Rocky Mountain Front conservation easement program.
The program will pay for conservation easements on private ranch lands along the Front that are deemed important fish and wildlife habitat.
“This is great news for the Front,” said area rancher Dusty Crary, whose ranch is covered by a Nature Conservancy conservation easement.
Crary and other area ranchers have pushed for this program for the last five years because it offers options for landowners who want to keep their ranches intact. “I’ve got to tip my hat to Senator Burns for stepping up and going to bat for the Front,” said Crary.
“This program will be invaluable in protecting the ranching lifestyle on the Front, and we’re very grateful to Conrad Burns,” said Linda Ingersoll, who along with her husband Ron operate a cattle ranch on the Front.
Ingersoll said they would like to sell a conservation easement on their ranch to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The Fish and Wildlife Service has sought extensive public comments on this program. It held open houses in three local communities and prepared an Environmental Assessment. Given widespread support from area landowners, Senator Burns responded with this appropriation for fiscal year ’06. The funding amount will not be final until the Interior Appropriations Bill goes through Conference Committee and is signed by the President, which usually occurs in the fall.
The Rocky Mountain Front has long been recognized as one of the nation’s most significant wildlife areas, and expansion of the Service’s conservation easement program there would provide an important means of conserving the Front’s outstanding resources and its well-managed working ranches. Nearly every wildlife species described by Lewis and Clark still exist on the Front in relatively stable or increasing numbers.
Conservation easements are voluntary agreements between a landowner and a land trust or government agency that permanently restricts subdivision or development that is incompatible with conservation of the land.
Conservation easements offer ranchers a way to keep their land intact for future generations because they can provide funding or tax benefits that can help the ranching operation. The landowners continue to own and manage the property as they always have.
Wayne and Judy Gollehon lease a cattle ranch that has been covered by a Nature Conservancy conservation easement for 25 years, probably the oldest easement on the Front. The Gollehons helped write the easement, which restricts subdivision of the property, but allows the continued ranch operation.
“We’re very happy with the easement and it hasn’t changed our management,” said Judy. “We – and many of our neighbors – hope this (FWS) conservation easement program goes through because we’ve got to protect the Front from development.”
Easements are tailored to meet the specific needs of an individual landowner and to conserve the unique natural values of a property. The value of an easement is determined by an independent appraisal of the land and the value of rights given up by the landowner.
The public benefits from conservation easements because they keep land in farming and ranching, while conserving wildlife habitat, open space and the character of rural communities. Land covered by conservation easement requires fewer public services than subdivisions, and because the land stays in private ownership it still generates local tax revenues.
Currently Fish and Wildlife Service easements cover nearly 16,000 acres of ranch lands along the Front, while The Nature Conservancy has conservation easements on more than 30,000 acres on the Front.
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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people.
The Nature Conservancy is an international, nonprofit organization that preserves plants, animals and natural communities by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. Since 1979, the Conservancy’s Montana program has worked with landowners to conserve over 500,000 acres of land in Montana through conservation easements, land purchases and other collaborative means. Visit us on the web at nature.org/Montana.
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