Collaborative program awards money for land trust

Travelers for Open Land, a collaborative program that allows Montana visitors and residents to make voluntary contributions to conserve open land, last week awarded $33,000 to fund five Montana private land conservation projects.

Locally, $5,000 was awarded to Flathead Land Trust to help fund a conservation easement in the Smith Valley.

Travelers for Open Land was launched in 2009. Since then, it has awarded $181,365 to help fund 25 land conservation projects throughout Montana. Supporters include the Montana Lodging and Hospitality Association, Montana Association of Land Trusts, Montana Community Foundation and Montana Office of Tourism.

Local businesses that support the program include Montana Raft Company and Wild River Adventures in West Glacier; Stillwater Mountain Lodge and Garden Wall Inn in Whitefish; and Timbers Motel in Bigfork.

The Smith Valley project will fill in a puzzle piece of a block of conservation lands more than 1,600 acres in size in the Smith Lake wetland complex used by tens of thousands of migratory birds.

Under the conservation easement, the land will continue to be in private ownership and be managed by the landowner for agriculture, but the seasonally flooded hay lands on the property that function as wetlands part of the year will continue to provide important migratory bird habitat.

The project is surrounded on three sides by protected wetlands, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Smith Lake Waterfowl Production Area and private lands with conservation easements held with Flathead Land Trust, Montana Land Reliance and Natural Resource Conservation Service.