Montana

Conservation easements bring permanent protection for Flathead lands

Published

1 year ago

December 26, 2023

Conservation easements bring permanent protection for Flathead lands

Just east of Kalispell sits a 731-acre farm property owned by Myron and Vicky Mast. With hay bales stacked to the sky, a litter of red heeler puppies running around and a farmhouse built in 1978, the Masts call the farm home.

Their home, as of this year, is officially conserved in perpetuity through a conservation easement, something that has happened multiple times in 2023 across the valley.

“Open spaces are going away,” Myron said. “Somebody has to preserve them. May as well be me and my neighbors.”

Conservation easements are voluntary legal agreements between a land owner and a land trust that permanently limit development on a parcel of land to protect its conservation values. Landowners place their property under an easement — by donating the land or receiving payment for the land or sometimes in a combination of both — agreeing to restrictions typically that the land will not be developed.

The land remains private and landowners can still operate on their land following the terms of the agreement.

Simply, the easement protects the land from future development thus preserving its value for agriculture, timber, open space, recreation and wildlife habitat.

“The Flathead is changing fast and we need to do something before we lose it,” said Mark Schiltz, the Western Manager for the Montana Land Reliance, a nonprofit land trust. “We need to do something to help landowners who want to step up and protect their land.”

The Masts put their Creston land under a conservation easement in November with the help of the Montana Land Reliance, one of the organizations working to preserve productive lands in the valley. The easement actively helps conserve 731 acres of productive farmland, sub-irrigated riparian pasture and forestland.

Myron Mast’s parents in 1930 purchased the first parcel of land at 320 acres. Over time, they acquired more property in the area. Myron, the youngest of six, stewards the land today, farming and cultivating it like his father.

“[My parents] worked very hard to put the land together, I didn’t want to be the one to tear it apart,” Myron said.

The Mast easement received funding through the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Agricultural Land Easement Program and the Montana Land Reliance’s Richard and Grace Blanchet Fund — named after local farmers who protected their property and left their estate to the Montana Land Reliance to be farmed.

“It’s a feeling of confidence that it’ll stay that way,” Myron said about his land. “To know it’ll stay that way after I’m gone is a comforting thought.”

The Montana Land Reliance focuses on preserving properties in the Creston Bench area, specifically with the intent of protecting farmlands. The group completed the one conservation easement in 2023, but has multiple in the works for 2024 including more land in Creston.

“In a world that is changing so fast, cultural changes, social changes, technology changes, certainly changes in our values and with people… we live in change all the time,” said Schiltz. “But a conservation easement is the only tool to stop change, literally stop it. That land will never change.”

NOT ONLY do easements keep landscapes intact, but they also protect the conservation values on that landscape — including habitat and natural areas, according to Paul Travis, executive director of the Flathead Land Trust.

The Flathead Land Trust is another conservation trailblazer in the area. The trust saw multiple completed easements this year and anticipates in 2024 finishing its biggest current project, the Owen Sowerwine Natural Area.

The natural area — a 442-acre tract of land just half a mile east of Kalispell — is School Trust Land administered by the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, meaning that it is used to generate revenue for schools in Montana.

Currently, those revenues come from license fees, paid by Audubon organizations, to designate the land as a natural area.

Besides its trails, a footbridge, and a couple of birdhouses, the land is mainly a place for wildlife alone. The addition of an easement, Travis said, ensures a long-term, financially sound option to ensure the habitat and wetlands remain intact.

The easement will go directly to the school trust fund to further bypass the use of licenses on the property, protecting the land while not disrupting funding provided to the fund.

The Montana State Land Board unanimously approved the easement last week. According to the Flathead Land Trust, the easement is on track to be finalized in early 2024. The easement will be purchased for its appraised value of $970,000.

With the added conservation easement, virtually nothing is changing, Travis said. The main change is a matter of funding; in fact, the point is to secure — not change — the conditions that currently exist on the ground to preserve the area for the future.

In addition to finalizing the easement for Owen Sowerwine, Flathead Land Trust has helped private landowners conserve their land in perpetuity.

In the final days of December 2022, the Flathead Land Trust finalized an easement on 655 acres of farmland and wildlife habitat along the Stillwater River, owned by the Kohrs family.

“The easements are protecting our quality of life in Northwest Montana,” said Laura Katzman, a land protection specialist for the Flathead Land Trust, back in January. The easement set the stage for a successful 2023.

The land trust completed its first 2023 easement in January with the conservation of a 24-acre open-space property owned by Pat Nissen.

The property is adjacent to another 27-acre stretch of conservation property and, according to the land trust, the Nissen property serves as a wildlife movement corridor for bears and other animals between the Whitefish Range and Stillwater River.

“I could see where things were going around here and I wanted to do what I could to save at least a little bit [of land],” Nissen said in an interview in February.

In May, the Flathead Land Trust helped Ed Goldberg, who owns 40 acres of land along the Swan River just east of Bigfork, place his land under an easement, helping to protect primarily undisturbed forest and riparian habitat.

Goldberg moved to Bozeman from Boston in the early 2000s. After buying land in the Flathead in 2020, Goldberg quickly fell in love with the land and couldn’t stand to see it developed, he said in June.

When a friend of Goldberg’s, who works with conservation efforts in California, recommended he reach out to a local conservation group to protect the property, it was an easy decision, he said.

“It was a pretty simple process,” said Goldberg. “Let this hopefully be a catalyst.”

Though the conservation easements came in 2017 and 2018, the Grosswiler family this year was honored for their efforts in preserving land. The owners of 396 acres of farmland, open space and critical habitat west of Kalispell, the family placed their land under an easement with the help of the Flathead Land Trust.

This year, the Grosswilers were one of five individuals and families to receive the 2023 Montana Watershed and Wetland Stewardship Award, an award based on leadership and dedication to protecting land and water statewide.

The family also worked with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks to grant public access on a portion of their land, creating the West Valley Bird and Wildlife Viewing Area, which overlooks the property, has parking, a few benches, a tower viewer and is popular for birders.

“We can’t give enough credit and thanks to our willing landowners for wanting to conserve their lands and enter into a conservation easement, and especially on top of that, allow some public access,” Travis said in May regarding the Grosswilers.

Two additional easements were closed in 2023 by the Vital Ground Foundation, a land trust specifically working toward conserving habitat for and encouraging connectivity between grizzly bears.

“We are really fortunate to be working with some conservation-minded landowners … where we can protect working lands and some of the best scenic space Montana has to offer,” said Mitch Doherty, the group’s conservation director.

The first easement — completed by Vital Ground with collaboration from Montana Freshwater Partners — was placed on 30 acres in the Swan Valley in January. The property is essential for connectivity between the Bob Marshall Wilderness and the Mission Mountain Tribal Wilderness, according to Vital Ground.

This second easement, completed at the end of February, was on 28 acres of land near Eureka, owned by Greg and Lisa Levine.

Vital Ground previously designated the Grave Creek area of Lincoln County — where the Levine’s land is — as an important habitat for grizzly bear connectivity in 2018, according to Doherty. The Levine family’s donated conservation easement will help protect the entire Grave Creek area.

“Knowing that wildlife is consistently moving east to west in there, we knew we could take a deeper dive in conserving the area,” Doherty said in a March interview.

Regardless of location and landscape, easements are a great way to ensure that parts of the valley will remain open and natural, the land trusts emphasize. With the landowners having the decision-making power, each easement is personalized to what makes the most sense for the specific family and specific property.

All three organizations have projects in the works and expect to be completed in 2024, anticipating another successful year of conservation in the valley.

“While each of us have sort of our own niche and our own roles, I think it’s important that we are all working together at the same,” Doherty said in November. “All the land trusts, including Vital Ground, have sort of a long-term commitment to our easements. That is that stewardship piece.”

Reporter Kate Heston can be reached at kheston@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4459.

Carolyn Kohrs, center, stands for a portrait with her children, Clara, left, Clara’s son, Quinn, and Hannah, right, on the Kohrs family land on Jan 5, 2023. (Kate Heston/Daily Inter Lake)

Pat Nissen, left, and his son Jake pose for a portrait on their property on Feb. 1, 2023. (Kate Heston/Daily Inter Lake)

Tanner Marvin, Gracie Marvin and Catherine Baier gather on their family’s property in West Valley. They are part of the Grosswiler and Marvin families which were honored with the 2023 Montana Watershed and Wetland Stewardship Award for placing their property under a conservation easement. (Kate Heston/Daily Inter Lake)

Ed Goldberg stands on his property along the Swan River east of Bigfork on June 22, 2023. Goldberg just placed his 40 acres under a conservation easement. (Kate Heston/Daily Inter Lake)

From left to right stand Laura Katzman, a land protection specialist with the Flathead Land Trust; Denny Olson, the Flathead Audubon Conservation Director; and Pam Willison, the Owen Sowerwine Committee Char, for a portrait near the Stillwater River in Owen Sowerwine on March 1, 2023. (Kate Heston/Daily Inter Lake)

The Stillwater River is seen on the Owen Sowerwine parcel on March 1, 2023. (Kate Heston/Daily Inter Lake)

Laura Katzman, with the Flathead Land Trust, and Denny Olson, with Flathead Audubon, look at the Owen Sowerwine map on March 1, 2023. (Kate Heston/Daily Inter Lake)

A northern flicker at the Owen Sowerwine Natural Area. (JP Edge photo)

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Montana

Sex-segregated bathroom bill clears key House vote

Published

6 hours ago

January 15, 2025

Press Room

Sex-segregated bathroom bill clears key House vote

House lawmakers in the Montana Legislature on Wednesday preliminarily approved a bill that requires bathroom and sleeping-area use based on a person’s chromosomes and reproductive biology.

In a party-line vote, 58 legislators in the Republican-majority chamber affirmed House Bill 121 over 42 opponents. The bill requires one more vote to advance to the Senate.

Critics have cast the measure as an unenforceable restriction on transgender people and those whose appearance doesn’t clearly match stereotypical gender presentations.

Supporters, including sponsor Rep. Kerri Seekins-Crowe, R-Billings, have mostly sidestepped the mention of trans people when talking about the bill’s impact, arguing that it will generally help protect women from men who enter restrooms and dormitories with a predatory intent.

“This bill is not about discrimination. It’s about protecting those things that have been eroding these last few years for women,” Seekins-Crowe said. “All this bill is asking for is reasonable accommodations.”

HB 121 would require public facilities, such as schools and prisons, and some private facilities, including domestic violence shelters, to provide multi-user restrooms and dormitories for the “exclusive use” of males and females. The bill’s definitions of sex are based on a person’s XX or XY chromosomes and their production of eggs or sperm.

Another provision in the bill would also allow any individual who “encounters another individual of the opposite sex in the restroom or changing room” to sue the offending facility or organization within two years of the event. The bill would go into effect immediately upon being signed into law.

Opponents raised a slew of concerns about enforceability during the bill’s first committee hearing in early January, including how a facility with multi-user restrooms, changing rooms or dorms can confirm a person’s chromosomal or reproductive makeup. Critics also flagged the potential costs for local municipalities and how the right to legal action could encourage vigilante enforcement of sex-segregated public bathroom use.

The bill passed the House Judiciary Committee in a party-line vote on Monday, with Democrats raising similar concerns voiced by the legislation’s opponents.

Members of the minority party again sought to convince Republican lawmakers of the measure’s impact during the Wednesday floor debate.

“‘This is not an issue,’ is what was said again and again by the people impacted on the ground,” said Rep. Zooey Zephyr, D-Missoula, who sits on the House committee. Rather than making cisgender women feel more safe, Zephyr posed that the proposal would only interfere with the daily routines of trans people. “To me, trans people walk through the state of Montana afraid enough already. And we want to be able to live our lives in peace,” she said.

Some Republicans who occasionally vote with Democrats on other issues, including Rep. David Bedey, R-Hamilton, and Rep. Brad Barker, R-Roberts, said they shared concerns about the bill’s enforceability and cost for cities and towns. But both lawmakers voted to move the measure forward, suggesting that some of those issues could be resolved through amendments in the Montana Senate.

Other supporters described the bill as a necessary step to secure public places against bad actors who pose as trans to gain access to vulnerable places.

“Because of the destruction of societal customs, any predator or person with malicious intent can more easily invade private female spaces without calling attention to themselves,” said Rep. Fiona Nave, R-Columbus.

Opponents said such circumstances are based more on fear than reality, and that similar bills in other states have often opened the door to harassment toward people who appear to be transgender, regardless of their actions.

Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday also said the bill oversteps the Legislature’s role by policing people’s presence rather than their actions. Any criminal conduct in the affected spaces, including harassment and assault, is already illegal, said Rep. SJ Howell, R-Missoula.

“It is appropriate for us as a body to legislate harmful behavior. It is not appropriate to legislate people existing,” Howell said. “Montana values are simple. Love thy neighbor. Mind thy business. This bill does neither.”

At least 11 other states have passed similar bills in recent years, a legislative trend encouraged by national conservative groups. One of those groups is the Alliance Defending Freedom, which has testified in support of HB 121.

Lobbyists and lawmakers watching HB 121’s progress predict another robust committee hearing in the Senate. The bill’s first hearing stretched more than three hours, drawing testimony from almost 20 proponents and nearly 30 opponents before committee members launched into questions.

One of the lines of inquiry included the bill’s fiscal impact. A document produced by legislative staff and executive branch committees lists the known costs as zero dollars but acknowledges “potential costs associated with staffing increases, renovations of state facilities, and increased legal exposure.”

While the fiscal note says that specific costs to state agencies are “unknown” or “not currently estimable,” it forecasts that fiscal impact to local school districts could be “significant.”

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Montana

Montana's Sheehy Talks About His First Days as a U.S. Senator

Published

14 hours ago

January 15, 2025

Press Room

Montana's Sheehy Talks About His First Days as a U.S. Senator

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) – I just got off the phone with Montana’s newest Senator Tim Sheehy.

The Senator had just completed his committee questioning of Department of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth and explained his pointed military questions to the nominee.

Sheehy Peppered Pete Hegseth With Pointed Questions about Firearms

“The DoD (Department of Defense) is the largest bureaucracy in the world,” began Sheehy. “We haven’t had a lot of success out of the DoD, and it hasn’t passed an audit in almost a decade. We’ve lost our last two wars. Recruiting is down. Ship readiness is down. Our aircraft are far below optimal readiness levels, and we can’t continue to send the same bureaucrats there to try to save the problems that they created. So we need a disruptor. We need a smart disruptor that’s willing to come in and shake up the status quo.”

Regarding the devastating wildfires in southern California, Sheehy drew on his years of experience at his former company, Bridger Aerospace.

Sheehy Had Much to Say About the Firefighting Efforts in Southern California

“The public reaction understanding about how bad our wildfire issue is that it is unprecedented,” he said. “People are finally realizing that we are not structurally prepared to fight fire effectively in America. As you probably are aware, in the last year and a half, we’ve seen Lahaina and Maui (in Hawaii) burned to the ground, with 100 people dead. We’ve seen New Jersey have massive fires like they’ve never seen before. Last year, the worst fire in Canadian history; the biggest forest fire in Texas history last year, and now, of course, we’re seeing our largest city burned to the ground in front of us. So it’s an all 50 state issue.”

Sheehy said the California wildfires differ completely from a single home fire.

“If you’re in a city and you dial 9-1-1, the NFPA code requires that a big red fire engine shows up in your house within five minutes to fight that fire,” he said. “There is no such standard in wildland fire. And when we don’t have fires in a few weeks, we shut down the fire stations, we lay off the firefighters, and we sell off the trucks and planes for the winter time. And then when these fires happen in January, like we’re seeing now, we’re not prepared.”

Sheehy Said Policies Must Change to Prevent More Catastrophic Wildfires

Sheehy had more to say about why the devastating California fires are unprecedented, and how existing policies failed in southern California.

“These policies have consequences,” he said. “We’re not pointing fingers, we’re not getting political. We’re just stating a fact, which is, if you don’t allow fire departments to use water additives that increase the effectiveness of water by five times, they’re not going to be effective in fighting that fire. If you don’t have reservoirs full to fill fire hydrants, you’re not going to be able to fight the fire with the water you need. If you don’t let firefighters draw water from reservoirs needed near the fire that’s going to impact your ability to fight fires, as well.”

Sheehy will serve on the Armed Services, Veterans Affairs, Commerce, and Science and Transportation Committees in the U.S. Senate.

He has committed to appearing on KGVO on a regular basis to answer questions from listeners.

LOOK: Best counties to raise a family in Montana

Stacker compiled a list of the best counties to raise a family in Montana.

Gallery Credit: Stacker

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Montana

Montana Lottery Mega Millions, Lucky For Life results for Jan. 14, 2025

Published

23 hours ago

January 15, 2025

Press Room

The Montana Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big. Here’s a look at Jan. 14, 2025, results for each game:

Winning Mega Millions numbers from Jan. 14 drawing

04-14-35-49-62, Mega Ball: 06, Megaplier: 3

Check Mega Millions payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Lucky For Life numbers from Jan. 14 drawing

03-06-17-26-39, Lucky Ball: 04

Check Lucky For Life payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Big Sky Bonus numbers from Jan. 14 drawing

05-20-24-31, Bonus: 14

Check Big Sky Bonus payouts and previous drawings here.

Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results

When are the Montana Lottery drawings held?

Powerball: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
Mega Millions: 9:00 p.m. MT on Tuesday and Friday.
Lucky For Life: 8:38 p.m. MT daily.
Lotto America: 9:00 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
Big Sky Bonus: 7:30 p.m. MT daily.
Powerball Double Play: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
Montana Cash: 8:00 p.m. MT on Wednesday and Saturday.

Missed a draw? Peek at the past week’s winning numbers.

Winning lottery numbers are sponsored by Jackpocket, the official digital lottery courier of the USA TODAY Network.

Where can you buy lottery tickets?

Tickets can be purchased in person at gas stations, convenience stores and grocery stores. Some airport terminals may also sell lottery tickets.

You can also order tickets online through Jackpocket, the official digital lottery courier of the USA TODAY Network, in these U.S. states and territories: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Texas, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia. The Jackpocket app allows you to pick your lottery game and numbers, place your order, see your ticket and collect your winnings all using your phone or home computer.

Jackpocket is the official digital lottery courier of the USA TODAY Network. Gannett may earn revenue for audience referrals to Jackpocket services. GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER, Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY). 18+ (19+ in NE, 21+ in AZ). Physically present where Jackpocket operates. Jackpocket is not affiliated with any State Lottery. Eligibility Restrictions apply. Void where prohibited. Terms: jackpocket.com/tos.

This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Great Falls Tribune editor. You can send feedback using this form.

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