Proposed Expansion of 

Conservation Easement Program

Rocky Mountain Front Conservation Area

© The Nature Conservancy

Rocky Mountain Front

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is 

proposing to expand protection of the 

natural values along Montana’s Rocky 

Mountain Front.

The Service started a conservation 

easement program in the Front in 2005. 

The program authorized the Service to 

purchase easements from willing sellers 

on up to 170,000 acres of private land 

in Lewis and Clark, Teton, and Pondera 

counties. To date the Service has 

acquired easements on nearly 50,000 

acres. 

The proposed project area within which 

easements could be purchased from 

willing sellers would be expanded from 

527,000 acres to 918,000 acres. The 

expanded easement program would 

add 125,000 acres, for a total of 295,000 

acres of easements. No land would be 

purchased in fee title.

The purpose of the proposed expansion 

is to maintain biological diversity and 

related wildlife values and to conserve 

the relatively naturally functioning 

systems and processes of the Rocky 

Mountain Front. Conservation 

easements would protect and maintain 

the integrity of the Front’s unique 

complex of wetland, grassland, and 

riparian habitats and their diverse 

complement of fish, wildlife, and plants. 

These easements would also provide a 

vital link or habitat corridor between 

existing protected lands. 

How would the conservation 

easement program work? 

The proposed expansion encompasses 

918,000. An expanded project area 

boundary would provide opportunities 

for easement acquisition. 

Conservation easements are voluntary 

legal agreements between landowners 

and government agencies or qualified 

conservation organizations. These 

easements limit the type and amount 

of development that may take place 

on a property in the future. Service 

easements are perpetual and typically 

prohibit subdivision and commercial 

development activities but allow 

for continued agricultural uses such 

as livestock grazing and haying. 

Conservation easements not only 

protect important wildlife habitat 

but also help maintain the working 

ranches and agricultural lifestyle of 

the area.

Large, working ranches along the 

Rocky Mountain Front support and 

protect the area’s biological values. 

Long-established ranching families 

have passed the land down over 

generations, thus preventing subdivision 

and playing a vital role in conserving 

important fish and wildlife habitat. 

Conservation easements have proven 

to be an effective, non-regulatory 

approach to conserving habitat and 

maintaining the historic ranching 

heritage in Montana.

Under conservation easements, the 

land ownership and property rights 

including control of public access 

would remain with the participating 

landowner. In addition, participating 

properties remain on local tax rolls. 

Easement values are determined by 

appraisal and typically are about onethird of the property’s full-market value. 

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
What resources would benefit 

from the conservation easement 

program?

The Rocky Mountain Front has one of 

the largest remaining expanses of native 

prairie left in the northern Great Plains. 

This “sea of grass” provides essential 

habitat for numerous grassland birds—

many of which are experiencing 

population declines—including chestnutcollared longspur, Le Conte’s sparrow, 

bobolink, burrowing owl, and longbilled curlew.

The diverse habitats of the Rocky 

Mountain Front play an important role 

in sustaining the northern Continental 

Divide’s free-ranging wildlife populations. 

This is the last remaining area in the 

continental United States with an 

intact assemblage of large mammalian 

carnivores—it is the only place in the 

world where grizzly bears still roam 

from the mountains onto the prairies 

as they did nearly 200 years ago. 

The proposed conservation area 

provides habitat for a diversity of 

wetland-dependent species. Peak 

flights of waterfowl along the Front 

during spring and fall migration often 

exceed several million birds. At least 

17 species of waterfowl breed in the 

area including the harlequin duck, which 

inhabits several mountain streams. 

Cliffs and riparian areas provide 

important habitat for nesting raptors. 

At least 21 species of 

raptors breed along the 

Front, including 9 species 

of owls. 

Rocky Mountain Front Conservation Area, Montana

Snowberry
Does the Service have other 

land conservation efforts in the 

area?

The Service has successfully used its 

conservation easement program to work 

cooperatively with private landowners 

to conserve more than 100,000 acres 

along the Rocky Mountain Front and in 

the Blackfoot and Centennial valleys 

of western Montana. This approach 

enjoys broad support from the 

conservation community, landowners, 

and Montana’s congressional delegation.

The Service is looking for opportunities 

to strategically link areas for 

preservation of wildlife corridors and 

significant fish and wildlife habitat. In 

addition to the Rocky Mountain Front, 

the Service has identified other areas for 

landscape conservation planning within 

this region of Montana including the 

Blackfoot Valley and the Swan Valley. 

These areas share exceptional diversity 

of habitat types including riparian areas, 

glacial prairie, potholes, lakes, bogs, 

fens, swamps, and boreal peat lands. 

Transitional zones between valley floors 

and mountains are extremely important 

to fish and wildlife. Large expanses 

of fescue grasslands phase into alpine 

meadows or sagebrush steppe, which 

transitions into forests of white pine, 

Douglas-fir, and ponderosa pine. 

The proposed projects would be carried 

out mainly through conservation 

easements to preserve essential wildlife 

habitat.

What is the next step in the 

process?

We want to hear from you, and to do 

that we will hold a meeting about the 

Rocky Mountain Front proposal on 

May 17 (see meeting schedule below). 

At the meeting, you will be able to 

meet with Service personnel, learn 

about the proposal, and provide input. 

We also encourage you to comment 

through letters, emails, and phone 

calls to the local or regional contact 

listed below. 

This meeting is one of three public 

meetings during May 2010 that will be 

forums for sharing ideas and issues 

about proposed land conservation 

efforts. Each meeting will focus on one 

of the conservation proposals. 

We will use your input when developing 

a draft environmental assessment and 

land protection plan for the proposed 

expansion of the conservation easement 

program in the Rocky Mountain Front. 

These documents will highlight the 

resource values; present alternatives 

that address issues that the Service, 

our conservation partners, and the public 

identified; and evaluate the effects that 

may occur if the proposal is determined 

to be a viable tool for conserving habitat. 

The draft environmental assessment 

and land protection plan will be 

distributed to those who would like to 

review and comment on the documents. 

The Service will consider all comments, 

and then prepare the final land 

protection plan. 

Lee Karney/USFWS

Long-billed Curlew

Gary Kramer/USFWS

Western Meadowlark 
Meeting Schedule

 Proposed Expansion of the Conservation 

 Easement Program in the Rocky 

 Mountain Front 

 May 17, 2010; 4–7 p.m.

 Choteau, Montana

 Stage Stop Inn, 1005 N. Main Avenue 

 Proposed Conservation Easement 

 Program in the Swan Valley 

 May 18, 2010; 4–6 p.m.

 Condon, Montana

 Swan Valley Community Center, 

 6799 Highway 83

 Proposed Expansion of the Conservation 

 Easement Program in the Blackfoot 

 Valley 

 May 19, 2010; 7–9 p.m.

 Ovando, Montana

 Ovando School, 108 Birch Street

How do I get involved? 

The Service welcomes your questions 

and comments! Whether you are an 

individual or a group representative, 

please do not hesitate to call, write, or 

request information concerning the 

proposed expansion of the conservation 

easement program in the Rocky 

Mountain Front or any of the other 

land conservation proposals. 

For more information, contact:

Jim Lange, Wetland Management 

District Manager, jim_lange@fws.gov 

or

Kathy Burchett, Project Leader, 

bentonlake@fws.gov 

at

Benton Lake National Wildlife Refuge 

922 Bootlegger Trail

Great Falls, Montana 59404

406 / 727 7400

Toni Griffin, Planning Team Leader

Division of Refuge Planning

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

P.O. Box 25486, DFC

Denver, Colorado 80225

toni_griffin@fws.gov

303 / 236 4378

May 2010