Land board approves 53,000-acre Montana conservation easement
Micah Drew
(Daily Montanan) The Montana Land Board voted 4-1 to approve a conservation easement across a more than 50,000-acre swath of land spanning three counties in northwest Montana, permanently providing public access and protecting wildlife habitat.
Phase Two of the Montana Great Outdoors Conservation Easement Project will more than double the protected land in the Cabinet Mountains between Kalispell and Libby, following the acquisition of a similar easement the Land Board approved in the fall of 2024.
“The decision before you today reaches far beyond one property boundary,” Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks director Christy Clark told the board at its meeting on Monday. “This conservation easement represents a chance to protect something at the very heart of who we are: the Montana way of life. It’s about keeping our forests, our open spaces and our working lands healthy. It’s productive, and it gives us access for generations to come. Montana, forests and range lands are where livelihoods and wildlife meet, where families make a living, and where deer, elk and countless other species find habitat they need to survive”
In August, the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission — the board in charge of FWP’s policy actions — approved the easement, which will partially be paid from FWP’s Habitat Montana funds.
Approval by the state land board, comprising the top five elected officials in the state, was the last hurdle in a long process. Phase One, a 32,000-acre easement, was approved in 2024.
Both phases of the Montana Great Outdoors Conservation project drew vast support throughout the public process from timber companies, conservation groups, politicians and recreationists, many of whom drove to Helena on Monday to speak in favor of the easement.
State Sen. Mike Cuffe, who represents the northwest corner of the state, told the land board that on his drive into town, he stopped behind a school bus and “felt a bit of pride” at the long, flashing signal arm that extended from the bus — he had sponsored the legislation that mandated them.
“Few others will remember that, but I do. I helped create a good thing. This proposal, this conservation easement proposed today, is a good thing,” Cuffe said.
The Republican from Eureka spoke about his family’s history in the area, including a great uncle who drove cattle from Frenchtown up through the easement property into the Tobacco Valley, his father, who was “one of the last to pull a cross cut saw” logging in the area, and his own experiences hunting, hiking and fishing in the region.
Cuffe alluded to other portions of northwest Montana that are privately owned and where “no trespassing” signs are becoming increasingly common.
“We don’t want to turn it into a rich man’s hunting paradise. We don’t want to turn it into a subdivision area,” Cuffe said. “I encourage a yes vote today on each of your part. I’m proud to support this. I’m proud like I was behind that school bus.”
The state’s timberlands, once the lifeblood of a number of towns across the region, have become smaller and more fragmented over recent decades as companies have bought and sold swaths of forestland and parceled bits and pieces off for development.
Just a decade ago, nearly 900,000 acres of the state’s privately-held forest land in the northwest was owned by Plum Creek timber. That company was purchased in 2016 by timber giant Weyerhaeuser, which three years later, sold off more than 600,000 acres to Southern Pine Plantations, a real estate investment company. Southern Pines subsequently sold nearly 300,000 acres to Green Diamond, a sixth-generation timber company.
Green Diamond currently owns the land, which includes the nearly 86,000 acres comprising both phases of the Great Outdoors Conservation Easement.
Jason Callahan, Green Diamond’s policy and communications manager, told the Land Board that the project was nearly six years in the making.
“We’re excited about this project. We think it speaks for itself, and I’m not going to tell you why it’s important for the community,” Callahan said.
Under the easement, Green Diamond retains full ownership but is “selling one stick out of our property bundle, that’s the development rights.”
Green Diamond will continue to manage the land as working forestland, and will continue to pay taxes to the three counties its land covers. The easement requires non-motorized recreational access for the public, but does not prohibit motorized access — Green Diamond is free to work out if and where it allows riders if it wants to. The easement’s language also stretches in perpetuity, a condition required in order to qualify for federal money.
“(Perpetuity) creates generational access to the land, generational access to growing timber, to grazing leases, accessing a third-party mineral rights, and of course, public access that will go on for generations with no gates and no limitations,” Callahan said.
But the permanent easement clause did lead Attorney General Austin Knudsen to cast the one dissenting vote. Knudsen has long been a vocal opponent to perpetual easements but supports shorter duration options.
“Forever is a long time. We don’t know what the future holds, and I think we’re really constraining ourselves,” Knudsen said.
He also said that voting for the project, being mostly federally funded, was akin to voting to increase the national debt.
The value of the second phase of the Montana Great Outdoors Conservation Easement is approximately $57.5 million.
Funding for the project includes $1.5 million from FWP’s Habitat Montana, which is raised from hunting licenses and a portion of recreational cannabis sales; $200,000 from the Montana Fish and Wildlife Conservation Trust; and $35.8 million from the U.S. Forest Service Forest Legacy Program, which provides funding to conserve working forests through the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Green Diamond has committed to donating approximately 35% of the easement’s value, roughly $20 million, as an in kind contribution.
The biggest pushback to the easement came from representatives of mining and resource groups.
WRH Nevada properties, a company that owns 54% of the mineral rights across the project area, had previously expressed concerns in both phases of the project that a conservation easement will limit its ability to conduct mineral exploration and future extractions.
“When we talk to mining companies, exploration companies, for possible partnerships or purchase, whenever the conservation easement comes up, their interest completely goes cold,” said Lloyd Parsons, a representative of WRH. “It has a real effect on our ability to do business in the state of Montana.”
He added that the appraisal of the easement property — more than $50 million — valued the mineral estate as worthless, even as the market for rare earth minerals has soared in recent years. The appraisal had also been done without consulting the company, he said, or offering to purchase the mineral interests.
A district court judge in Lincoln County had previously clarified that the language of the easement did not interfere with WRH’s mineral rights, which a lawyer for Green Diamond affirmed to the Land Board.
The Montana Mining Association also expressed concerns over the precedent set by the easement and that the state’s mining interests will face major obstacles in the future if the easement prevailed without more consideration.
Groups in favor of the easement included the Missoula Economic Partnership, the Montana Outfitters and Guides Association, the Montana Logging Association and the Trust for Public Land, Stimson Lumber Company and Stoltze Land and Lumber Company. Several individuals with roots in the area also voiced their support. County commissions for Sanders, Lincoln, and Flathead counties also supported the project.
Gov. Greg Gianforte was absent from the Land Board meeting while traveling to South Korea, but approved the project by proxy.
“Protecting and increasing public access remains our top priority,” Gianforte said in a statement. “This project does just that while preserving wildlife habitat while ensuring the timber industry remains a critical part of Montana’s economy. This easement builds confidence for further investment in Montana.”