Conservation Easement Covers 7,500 acres of Blackfoot Valley Ranchland

Important Fish Spawning Tributaries to the Blackfoot Protected

MISSOULA, MT — April 28, 2008 — Decades ago several western Montana families reached out to one another to create a successful ranching partnership--this week they extended their reach to many new partners in an effort to protect 7,500 acres of native fish and wildlife habitat and traditional ranchlands in the Blackfoot Valley.

The Sunny Slope Grazing Association, with support from The Nature Conservancy, the Five Valleys Land Trust, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Big Blackfoot Chapter of Trout Unlimited, and the Blackfoot Challenge completed a conservation agreement that will limit development on important wildlife habitat, three and a half miles of Blackfoot River frontage, and more than fourteen miles of important spawning tributaries for native cutthroat and bull trout.

The Sunny Slope Grazing Association agreed to sell a conservation easement on some of their grazing lands to fund their purchase of adjacent and intermingled Conservancy-owned tracts previously owned by Plum Creek Timber Company. These tracts were also covered by a conservation easement as part of the same transaction. The conservation easements will be held and stewarded by FVLT.

The grazing association has leased the Plum Creek land for grazing for 45 years. “That ground was an important part of our operation,” according to Stew Schwartz of the grazing association. “If the Plum Creek land was subdivided, it would have put a lot more people and houses in the middle of our cows and that doesn’t make running cows any easier. We’ve all had to give a little to make it work, but I think it’s going to be great,” added Schwartz.

“This project was made possible only through the hard work of all the partners, who were willing to come to the table and gain the type of trust that leads to common ground and solutions. We could not have picked finer landowners to work with than the Sunny Slope Grazing Association folks. ” said Jim Berkey, the project manager for the Conservancy.

This effort grew out of the Blackfoot Community Project, an effort to purchase and re-sell 89,000 acres of Plum Creek land in the Blackfoot to public agencies and to private buyers who agree to conservation easements. One goal of the Blackfoot project is to sell these lands to adjacent conservation-minded private landowners in accordance with a community developed plan led by the local landowner group, the Blackfoot Challenge.

“It’s so critical,” said Blackfoot Challenge Lands Director Hank Goetz, “This fulfills what we promised community members when the Plum Creek lands were purchased. It helps maintain open space by keeping ranchers on the ground. If we keep them on the ground, it will take care of a lot of other problems. Our thanks go to the landowners, the partners and the public who have supported this effort from the start,”

“Five Valleys is proud to support these ranchers and their commitment to the land, we are honored to be a part of this terrific collaboration that assures that the Blackfoot Valley will continue to be the precious place that it is today. This is an especially exciting project for Five Valleys as it represents the largest conservation easement in our organization’s history,” said Grant Kier, executive director of the Five Valleys Land Trust.

Funding for the project came from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through its Habitat Conservation Program, intended to protect habitat for threatened and endangered species. The grazing association will protect fish habitat throughout the easement property for the benefit of westslope cutthroat and bull trout. No Montana sportsmen funding will be used for this project.

This easement is a milestone in resource protection. It is the first Montana easement aimed directly at protecting fisheries habitat. Ron Pierce, FWP fisheries biologist for the Blackfoot, has been involved throughout the process.

“Protecting these tributaries is very important. That’s where all the spawning and reproduction takes place for imperiled native fish. The health of the Blackfoot River is a function of the health of the tributaries,” Pierce said.

In addition, the easement protects habitat for grizzly bears, lynx and other wildlife and sits in a wildlife corridor that connects wilderness areas to the north with other public land to the south.

“For more than a century the forested lands of western Montana have been fragmented in a checkerboard pattern of ownership. Thanks to the hard work of many, this project puts over 7500 acres of that land back together for the benefit of people and wildlife,” Five Valleys project manager Pelah Hoyt said.
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The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.