The Vital Ground Foundation has secured a 160-acre conservation easement in the North Fork Valley, just a little ways north of Columbia Falls.
Here’s the lead-in from the official press release . . .
The Vital Ground Foundation announced today that it has secured a 160-acre conservation easement in the North Fork Flathead Valley of northwestern Montana, roughly five air miles southwest of Glacier National Park. The property is located between the Whitefish Range to the west and the Livingston Range to the east. A conservation easement is a perpetual agreement between a landowner and a land trust that limits future development of the land in order to protect its conservation values.
Focused on protecting habitat specific to the needs of the threatened grizzly bear, the Cedar Creek Conservation Easement is Vital Ground’s first project in this corner of the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE). As development pressures from the growing community of Columbia Falls push into more remote and wild areas like the protected property, the easement will ensure the permanent protection of the property’s wildlife, riparian and open space values.