| Date: |
12/24/2009 |
| Title: |
Family Donates Homestead Land to Nature Conservancy |
| Summary: |
Mary Jane Lindner made 2009 a particularly merry Christmas for the Nature Conservancy when she donated the title to the prized property, located in the Ear Mountain area east of the Pine Butte Guest Ranch northwest of Choteau. |
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| Date: |
12/24/2009 |
| Title: |
Ravalli County Expands Open Lands With Deal |
| Summary: |
Ravalli County commissioners on Wednesday signed the largest open lands agreement to date. |
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| Date: |
12/10/2009 |
| Title: |
Trail System Being Developed for County |
| Summary: |
Want to walk from Lake Como to Trapper Creek? Bike through the Corvallis town center? Jog along the Bitterroot River? Hike from downtown Victor into the heart of the mountains? Such activities could become reality under a county-wide trails plan, which is being developed for the Ravalli County Park Board by the Bitter Root Land Trust. |
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| Date: |
12/10/2009 |
| Title: |
Frenchtown-area Rancher Donates $2 Million in Value Toward Conservation Easement |
| Summary: |
Joe Boyer never felt he had the right to sell his ranch west of Frenchtown. Generations before him had toiled there, and his father, buried on the land, had encouraged him to be a steward. |
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| Date: |
12/1/2009 |
| Title: |
Outdoor Life Magazine Salutes Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation |
| Summary: |
Back in 1984, Bob Munson was a struggling realtor in the tiny northwest Montana town of Troy. Charlie Decker ran a hardscrabble logging outfit. The two men didn’t have much in common except an unquenchable passion for elk and a love of the wild mountains where they lived. |
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| Date: |
11/29/2009 |
| Title: |
BLM Deal Will Preserve Acreage |
| Summary: |
It has been a long time in the making, but the Bureau of Land Management is more than halfway toward its goal of acquiring a 560-acre parcel of land along the eastern front of the Beartooth Mountains, south of Red Lodge. |
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| Date: |
11/28/2009 |
| Title: |
3-way Easement Makes Upper Miller Creek Ranch An Elk Haven |
| Summary: |
The elk of the moment probably won’t notice all the paperwork fluttering around the Spooner Creek Ranch, but the point is, they won’t have to. |
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| Date: |
11/20/2009 |
| Title: |
The New “Great Chief” |
| Summary: |
Long before Ken Siderius came out of retirement to pitch in as principal of Edgerton Elementary, he had made his mark on Kalispell and its schools - and the broader Flathead Valley - in countless ways. |
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| Date: |
11/16/2009 |
| Title: |
Funding for Land Conservation Makes Good Economic Sense |
| Summary: |
Congress should approve a full appropriation for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. |
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| Date: |
11/11/2009 |
| Title: |
Market Drop Creates Opportunity for Flathead Land Trust |
| Summary: |
The abrupt drop-off in land development throughout the Flathead Valley over the last year has caused its fair share of negative consequences, but it has resulted in some benefits as well – particularly for those focused on conservation. With little or no pressure from developers to buy up the agricultural lands along the Flathead River corridor, the Flathead Land Trust has found its mission to preserve those private parcels, mainly through voluntary conservation easements, made much easier of late. |
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| Date: |
11/10/2009 |
| Title: |
Baucus introduces bill to boost open space funding |
| Summary: |
A fund designed to conserve and expand open space across the country could get a huge boost by a bill introduced by Sen. Max Baucus. |
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| Date: |
11/5/2009 |
| Title: |
Open space tax incentives should become permanent |
| Summary: |
Every year, Montana landowners donate millions of dollars’ worth of their family land to their fellow Montanans in the form of conservation easements - a tremendous gift that should never go unappreciated. |
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| Date: |
11/1/2009 |
| Title: |
Don’t let easement program expire |
| Summary: |
There’s an important piece of legislation set to expire at the end of this year that must not get left on the U.S. Congress back burner. Montana’s and other states’ delegations should elevate it to the top of their priority lists soon. |
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| Date: |
10/28/2009 |
| Title: |
Land trust groups urge tax incentive renewal |
| Summary: |
Once Congress wraps up the health care reform debate, representatives of two land trust groups said Wednesday they want the Senate and House to turn to extending federal conservation tax incentives by Dec. 31. |
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| Date: |
10/27/2009 |
| Title: |
Missoula City Council, county commissioners OK Upper Miller Creek open space easement |
| Summary: |
During the last few weeks of his mom’s life, Dennis Anderson promised her he”d preserve the family land. On Monday, he and his family made good on that pledge. |
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| Date: |
10/26/2009 |
| Title: |
Why Landowners Support Conservation Easements |
| Summary: |
Response to an article from Fred Kelly Grant, published in the October 9, 2009 edition of Western Ag Reporter, by Glenn Marx, Montana Association of Land Trusts |
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| Date: |
10/14/2009 |
| Title: |
Jamie Williams Receives Alliance Award |
| Summary: |
Jamie Williams, a former Montana director for The Nature Conservancy, a national leader in community conservation, a key voice in the creation of the Montana Association of Land Trusts and an architect of the Montana Legacy Project, received the Land Trust Alliance’s top award. |
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| Date: |
9/20/2009 |
| Title: |
Environmental Groups Log Former Plum Creek Lands for Sake of Preservation, Access |
| Summary: |
The bugle of elk and the howl of chain saws mingle along Fish Creek Road, where one of the nation's biggest private-public land deals is under way. |
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| Date: |
9/11/2009 |
| Title: |
The Character of Conservation |
| Summary: |
Conservation doesn’t happen overnight. While the idea or impetus for it might be put in to motion with the flick of a pen - the scrawling of a signature on a legal document - the actual hands in the dirt, mud on the boots work of conservation takes years, decades even, to mold into something physical and real. |
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| Date: |
9/8/2009 |
| Title: |
Land Trust Continues Willow Creek Restoration |
| Summary: |
Seven years ago, with the help of the Bitter Root Land Trust, Jean James placed a conservation easement on her 111-acre spread east of Corvallis. On Wednesday, land trust volunteers will return, as they do every year or so, to that chunk of land with the goal of continuing James’ legacy of preserving agricultural sustainability and wildlife. |
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| Date: |
8/26/2009 |
| Title: |
Lakers Hone in on North Shore Conservation |
| Summary: |
The fate of the north shore and a warming lake were two issues attendees were greeted with at the Flathead Lakers annual meeting at Flathead Lake Lodge last week. |
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| Date: |
8/25/2009 |
| Title: |
Steward Extraordinaire: Jim Cusker’s Long Commitment to Missoula Farmland |
| Summary: |
Conservationist, farmer, teacher, public servant, historian: Five Valleys Land Trust President Jim Cusker wears a lot of hats. Future generations will thank him for it. |
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| Date: |
6/23/2009 |
| Title: |
Out to Pasture |
| Summary: |
Gallatin County Commissioners tacked on more than 1,000 acres of prime agricultural land Tuesday, ensuring two local farms continue growing food into perpetuity. |
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| Date: |
6/16/2009 |
| Title: |
Land Trusts and Forest Owners |
| Summary: |
If you are uncertain about what a land trust is and what a land trust does, trust me, you are not alone. Many people either misunderstand or have only vague notions about land trusts, conservation easements and private land conservation. The purpose of this article will be to clear up some of those misunderstandings and provide some basic information about land trusts in general along with an emphasis on conservation easements and forest management. |
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| Date: |
6/16/2009 |
| Title: |
Scientists Tracking Long-billed Curlews in Effort to Preserve Them |
| Summary: |
Long-billed curlews are being tracked from summer nesting grounds on the Montana prairie to winter homes on the coast, with researchers hoping the effort will produce insights in conserving the migrating grassland birds.
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| Date: |
5/21/2009 |
| Title: |
Ravalli County’s Open Lands Program Progressing |
| Summary: |
Five months after approving the first conservation easement under the county’s Open Lands bond program, the county commission and the Open Lands Board have approved another major project…Another eight major projects are being considered and dozens more landowners have inquired about participating in the Open Lands Bond Program.
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| Date: |
5/4/2009 |
| Title: |
Goodness Gracious Green Group |
| Summary: |
It was two years ago that Maddy Schmidt, then a freshman, sat in study hall at Helena High School with teacher Jill VanAlstyne discussing ways they could encourage their community to care about the earth. Today HHS’s Green Group is doing much more than recycling a few soda pop cans.
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| Date: |
4/28/2009 |
| Title: |
Elk Populations Soaring: Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Celebrates Success on its 25th Anniversary |
| Summary: |
Wild elk populations in 23 states are higher now than 25 years ago when the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF) was launched to help conserve habitat for elk and other wildlife.
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| Date: |
4/25/2009 |
| Title: |
Land Trusts Provide Open Space for Everyone |
| Summary: |
A new collaborative effort by local land trust organizations is encouraging tourists to support the very assets they travel from afar to enjoy: Montana’s open space. Travelers for Open Lands is a partnership between land trust groups, Travel Montana, and the hospitality industry to raise funds for the protection of open space, wildlife habitat, and recreation access. In these difficult economic times, this creative initiative could prove to be crucial for the preservation of these valuable natural resources that not only benefit tourists but residents as well.
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| Date: |
4/15/2009 |
| Title: |
Travelers for Open Land Launches First State-Wide Collaborative Funding Program to Conserve Open Land |
| Summary: |
Travelers for Open Land is a unique partnership between the Montana Innkeepers Association and other lodging properties, the Montana Association of Land Trusts, the Montana Community Foundation, Travel Montana, and the traveling public.
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Download the complete press release (340KB PDF) |
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| Date: |
4/6/2009 |
| Title: |
State Ownership Can Sustain Rural Lands |
| Summary: |
House Bill 674 – a new version of what started out as HB14 – would help keep part of Montana working for Montanans by placing the land under Department of Natural Resources and Conservation ownership and management.
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| Date: |
3/30/2009 |
| Title: |
Bipartisan Duo Teams Up on Land-deal Bills |
| Summary: |
Completing part of a huge, conservation land deal in western Montana and helping Montana’s timber industry are part of an emerging agreement at the Legislature, with bipartisan support to achieve both goals.
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| Date: |
3/9/2009 |
| Title: |
Conservation groups saw ‘one shot’ for deal with Plum Creek |
| Summary: |
Last summer, when conservationists pitched a plan to buy 310,000 acres of Montana timberland for $500 million, the public offered some advice - “Don’t get snookered.” It was, after all, taxpayer money that would fund at least half of the deal.
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| Date: |
3/5/2009 |
| Title: |
Elk Foundation: Hunt Wolves |
| Summary: |
The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation says gray wolf populations in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming should be managed through state-regulated hunting.
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| Date: |
2/26/2009 |
| Title: |
Study: Wind Farms Could Harm Wildlife |
| Summary: |
A new study by a leading conservation organization warns that construction of wind farms could pose a high risk to wildlife habitat on 8 million acres of land in Montana.
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| Date: |
1/12/2009 |
| Title: |
Voluntary Actions Can Help Control Fire Suppression Costs |
| Summary: |
Wildfire is a natural part of Montana’s landscape, but there’s a growing concern about the risks and costs of wildfires in Montana’s wildland-urban interface. Expanded growth and increased development in the forest fringe means additional burdens to firefighters, as their budgets and personnel are stretched dangerously thin.
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