Beohmler Family earns stewardship award for LaVelle Creek ranch
Laura Lundquist
(Missoula Current) What started as a family horse property became a spark of conservation in Missoula’s North Hills.
The sun still sparkled through the pine needles and aspen leaves Monday evening as people made their way to a small cabin in the forest at the end LaValle Creek Road to honor the Boehmler family, the newest initiates of the Missoula County Land Stewardship Award.
There, three generations of the family greeted the visitors, including the three senior siblings, Vish, Sandy and Carla, children of Richard “Dick” Boehmler. Boehmler bought the 160-acre property in the late 1960s as a place where the family could permanently keep their horses. It provided their recreation but Dick Boehmler also imbued his family with a conservation ethic.
“My dad influenced me probably, seeing him do some stuff. It was like, ‘Oh, that’s just what we do,” said Carla Boehmler, a self-described “crazy weed lady.”
Dick Boehmler, a University of Montana professor, built the little cabin out of a garage kit and thinned the woods on the slopes above the cabin, opening up more habitat for the North Hills elk herd that regularly travels through. The forest is now mainly large ponderosa pines, aspen and a healthy underbrush of snowberry, grasses and arrowleaf balsamroot. Along the southern edge of the property, the trees give way to the rolling grassy hills that slope down toward the Wye.
Dick Boehmler also worked to eliminate weeds, a duty that Carla has taken up with a vengeance. As each wave of weeds has come through - knapweed, silver cinquefoil, leafy spurge and now ventenada - she has annually scoured the property and flagged the intruders, pulling some by hand and spraying other patches with the help of Missoula County Extension Office.
“I saw how mitigating the spread of weeds has helped the natives to grow back. So I keep getting motivated to improve the grassland, not just for my horses but also for the wildlife that lives here. It just feels like the right thing to do,” Carla said. “You’ve helped us keep the habitat for native plants thriving here.”
The Boehmler family have now stewarded their land for a few generations, allowing plants and wildlife to thrive and preserving the clear water of upper LaValle Creek. But because the Boehmler property is surrounded by other private land, Sandy Boehmler credits her neighbors with helping to conserve the little valley. One neighbor, Brian Dogherty, has preserved the sagebrush habitat on his land to the southeast, while others work with the Boehmlers to keep some gates open to allow wildlife to pass through when livestock aren’t present.
Then 10 years ago, the family took it one step further by putting their land in a conservation easement managed by the Five Valleys Land Trust. That step then served as an example for others to follow.
“It took us 10 year to come to an agreement that we wanted a conservation easement. We just had one little detail we needed to reach consensus on,” Sandy Boehmler said. “Then a year ago, Rory and Mary (Indreland), who have land north and west of us, put a conservation easement on 1,600 acres of their land. So now there’s a conservation easement from here all the way north to the Forest Service land and into the Rattlesnake Wilderness. So it’s an incredible wildlife corridor and they’ve made it wonderfully protected. And we get to see all the wildlife that comes from their land down to ours.”
The Boehmler family was among a handful of people who the Missoula County Open Lands Citizen Advisory Committee considered for the Land Stewardship Award. Now in its 15th year, the award recognizes Missoula County landowners and residents who prioritize stewardship of the land and take on projects and practices that make a difference for land, water, forests, wildlife and communities.
The Boehmlers join other noted local conservationists who’ve been recognized, including Land Lindberg of Greenough, Bud Moore of the Swan Valley, Chuck and Mary Erickson of Piltsville and the Iverson Family of Potomac.
Sandy Boehmler said the award plaques will hang in the cabin and stay with the property.
“We know Missoula was a crossroads (for indigenous people). I personally don’t think of this as my land. I think that we’re the stewards right now, but I just appreciate there is a long history, way before any of us were around,” Sandy said.
Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at lundquist@missoulacurrent.com.