Tag Archives: conservation easements

Chrisman family completes 310 acre conservation easement on North Fork

Environmental Issues, News,

Posted to Facebook on February 1, 2024 . . .

Montana Land Reliance (MLR) announces a forested property near Glacier National Park will forever be protected from development. MLR has completed a conservation easement on a 310-acre property north of Polebridge owned by the Chrisman family. Funded by the MLR Jeff Shryer Fund and the Heart of the Rockies Initiative, the easement property is located less than a half mile from Glacier National Park and bordered by Flathead National Forest. The Chrisman property includes a small tributary of the North Fork River and contains a diverse ecosystem with varied upland timber and riparian wetland habitats.

Deer, elk, moose, black and grizzly bear, lynx, gray wolves, wolverine, and bald eagle will forever thrive on the property – including the grizzly pictured here, taken on the family’s game camera. Many thanks to the Chrisman’s and Heart of the Rockies Initiative for partnering with us!

New conservation easement protects North Fork land

Environmental Issues, News,
Grizzly bear on Coolidge property in the North Fork Flathead - Del and Linda Coolidge
Grizzly bear on Coolidge property in the North Fork Flathead – Del and Linda Coolidge

Congratulations to North Forkers Del and Linda Coolidge on establishing a conservation easement protecting their land in the North Fork . . .

The North Fork of the Flathead River valley retains the sort of comparatively intact habitat in which wildlife thrives.

This same habitat seems to inspire in many of the people who share it with four-legged animals, migratory birds, rare plants and wild fish a sense of obligation to serve as stewards.

On Friday, the Flathead Land Trust announced that Del and Linda Coolidge, landowners in the Polebridge area, had donated a conservation easement to the nonprofit that will “conserve in perpetuity” 30 acres of scenic open space important for wildlife.

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Trumbull Creek conservation easement finalized

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Congratulations to everyone, including the Stoltze company, who worked to make this happen . . .

A $9.5 million, 7,068-acre conservation easement has been finalized for the Trumbull Creek area north of Columbia Falls, the Trust for Public Land and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Park announced Friday.

The land-use agreement for the property, owned by Stoltze Land & Lumber Co., permanently bars commercial and residential development, while allowing timber management and public recreational use to continue. Stoltze contributed to the cost of the easement by donating a portion of the land value. The majority of the $9.5 million came from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, Forest Legacy Program and Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund.

“It really has high resource values,” Trust for Public Land Northern Rockies Director Dick Dolan said in an interview. He added that the land includes grizzly bear and Canadian lynx habitat, and serves as the headwaters for bull trout spawning areas.

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Another land easement proposed near Whitefish

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Whitefish makes a preliminary move to protect even more of their watershed from development . . .

Even as local leaders and state resource managers celebrated the recent completion of the Haskill Basin conservation easement east of Whitefish Lake, a plan to protect more than 15,000 acres of private land northwest of the lake is already in the works.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Conservation Manager Alan Wood said the Whitefish Lake Watershed Project, a 15,334-acre easement proposal northwest of the lake, is still in its preliminary stages.

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Haskill Basin conservation easement completed

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Good news for Whitefish: The Haskill Basin conservation easement is a done deal . . .

For years, conservation groups and city officials have recognized the development pressure that could bear down on Haskill Basin, a block of land east of Whitefish owned by F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Co.

And for years, those concerns were quelled by a good-faith agreement with the Stoltze family, who for more than a century has maintained its commitment to managing the Haskill parcel as a working forest, rather than leveraging it into a revenue-rich development deal.

On Wednesday, that handshake deal was inked into the history books as Whitefish city officials, along with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Stoltze, and the nonprofit Trust for Public Land, finalized an agreement to furnish permanent protections on 3,020 acres of land in the Haskill Creek watershed.

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LWCF passes; Trumbull Creek conservation deal looks good

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Looks like the Trumbull Creek land deal is a go . . .

A large land conservation deal northwest of Columbia Falls will benefit from passage of the Land, Water and Conservation Fund.

The fund uses off shore oil and gas lease revenue for conservation projects across the U.S. Congress extended the measure for three years when it passed a massive budget bill just before the holidays. Nationwide, Congress appropriated about $450 million to the fund.

Montana’s largest LWCF project this year is the Trumbull Creek conservation easement with F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Co. The Trumbull Creek easement is a $9.5 million deal, with $6.5 million from the Forest Legacy program, $2 million from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Habitat Conservation Plan program and $1 million from private donations.

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Montana FWP recommends purchase of Haskill Basin and Trumble Creek easements

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Some good news: Montana FWP recommended purchasing conservation easements on better than 10,000 acres in the north end of the Flathead Valley . . .

Public comments are in, and two proposed major conservation easement purchases in the Flathead Valley – including one that would protect the primary source of Whitefish’s water supply – are moving forward.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks on Monday recommended the FWP Commission immediately approve the purchase of a $16.7 million easement on more than 3,000 forested acres in Haskill Basin north of Whitefish.

The agency also recommended the commission approve the purchase of a $9.5 million easement on more than 7,000 acres northwest of Columbia Falls in the Trumble Creek area once the conservation easement and associated management plan are finalized, and other due diligence is completed.

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Stoltze conservation plan to be presented April 28

Environmental Issues, News,

If you’ve an interest in the proposed conservation  easements on Stoltze Lumber land in the Haskill Creek and Trumbull Creek drainages, there’s a open house next week to discuss them . . .

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks will hold an open house in Columbia Falls to take preliminary public input on two proposed conservation easement projects on lands owned by the F.H. Stoltze Land & Lumber Co.

The open house will take place at the Columbia Falls Fire Hall, 624 First Avenue West, on Tuesday, April 28, from 7 to 9 p.m.

Personnel from FWP, Stoltze and The Trust for Public Land will be on hand to discuss the proposed projects, answer questions and gather issues, concerns or ideas raised by the public, adjoining landowners, and any other interested people.

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U.S. FWS awards $2M for easement on grizzly & lynx habitat on Stoltze land

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This short write-up on the acquisition of a conservation easement on F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber land belies a great deal of behind the scenes work over the past few years . . .

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has awarded the state of Montana $2 million to aid in the acquisition of a conservation easement on Haskill Basin near Whitefish.

The 3,000-acre-plus property, located next to Whitefish Mountain Resort, is the source of 75 percent of Whitefish’s municipal water supply and vital habitat for grizzly bears and Canada lynx.

F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Co. owns the property.

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