Montana Open Land Month recognizes all kinds of land conservation efforts

Anytime you travel from Bigfork toward Kalispell you see it — open land.

“Open land is comparable to an outdoor experience that’s not in a metro area,” Glenn Marx, executive director of the Montana Association of Land Trust, said. “Montana is an open land state. The Montana experience is invariably an open land experience.”

The term “open land” is broad. It includes private land used for agriculture, or placed into a perpetual trust so that it can never be developed. It includes federally owned lands such as wildlife refuges that may or may not be open to the public. And it includes land preserved, and used for public access and outdoor recreation such as designated wilderness areas like the Bob Marshall, the Flathead National Forest and Glacier National park.

There are 54 million acres of land in Montana used for agriculture, 3.5 million acres make up 16 designated Wilderness areas, and 20 million acres of Montana are National Forests. That land is all  considered open space.

This year, the month of July is being celebrated across Montana as Montana Open Lands Month.

The Montana Association of Land Trusts initiated the celebration, in part as a celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Montana Open Space, Land and Voluntary Conservation Easement Act, which was passed by the Montana Legislature in 1975.

The statute made it possible for Montana to hold conservation easements, and for private individuals to place their land in trusts, ensuring it could never be developed.

According to Marx, the act was a crucial part of Montana’s conservation efforts.

“That was a statute written by Montanans for Montana,” Marx said. 

Many of the people who were instrumental in getting the statute passed are still alive Marx said, and part of the open land month celebration is to honor the work they did.

As a historic milestone the law was the catalyst for a month celebrating open land, though the celebration is also to increase awareness about open lands.

“The whole idea of highlighting this is, these protections don’t happen by accident,” Paul Travis, executive director of the Flathead Land Trust, said. 

Both Marx and Travis cite Montana’s abundance of open lands as important to the Montana way of life, but also to the economy.

“It has a very important tie back to our economy,” Travis said. “And here in the Flathead Valley it has everything to do with how our economy is, which is a tourism economy. Conservation and economy I think are directly tied together.”

“We (Montanans) have a very strong conservation ethic, it’s really engrained. Whether you’re a farmer or a rancher or someone who lives in one of our urban areas. Montanans are so connected to the land. Whether its recreation or your livelihood, there’s a strong connection there.”

Marx agrees.

“I think that open land is vital to our agriculture industry, to our outdoor recreation industry, to our tourism industry and our way of life,” Marx said. “Open land feeds our bellies, our pocketbooks and our souls.”

THE MONTANA Association of Land Trusts is comprised of 12 different land trusts that work with landowners and other organizations to create conservation easements that keep lands open for agriculture and wildlife.

The Flathead Land Trust is one of those 12 organizations and is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. It was formed in 1985 by locals who were concerned about the loss of agricultural lands in the Flathead Valley.

“They saw encroaching development taking away some of our farm land,” Travis said.

Since its inception, the Flathead Land Trust has helped to conserve over 13,000 acres Travis said.

Last year, along with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, they added another 169 acres along the North Shore of Flathead Lake between Bigfork and Somers, in the form of an old homestead that was sold to Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

While they work largely with private landowners, in the past they have worked to gain more recreation opportunities for the public, such as adding land to Lone Pine State Park.

Though this month, they are celebrating progress and accomplishments, the Flathead Land Trust isn’t slowing down. Travis said they have several projects they hope to close this year. One would add to a stronghold of protected land around Smith Lake for migratory bird habitat.

Another will be along Flathead River, as part of their River to Lake initiative.

“Montana is constantly changing,” Travis said. “If we want to keep some of the special qualities that make Montana special we have to work on it.”

THE MONTANA Open Lands month celebration includes a wide variety of activities. The Montana Association of Land Trusts has released one of four videos explaining the open land story. A woman in Bozeman has illustrated a book playing off the children’s book “Good Night Moon,” called “Good Night Big Sky.”

On the celebration website, openlandmt.org, a calendar of events around the state are listed, with the option for people to submit their own events for promotion through the celebration.

The Community Association for North Shore Conservation’s Restore-the-Shores Rendezvous in Bigfork later this month is on the calendar, as well as an event the Flathead Land Trust is hosting with the Whitefish Legacy Partners and Whitefish Trails.

It also serves as a forum for people to share photos and their own stories about their experiences with open land.

“Really its just a great opportunity to shed light and highlight what we love about open land,” Travis said. “People love living here because of what we have. That’s what makes this place so special.” Marx hopes the celebration reminds Montanans not to take the place they live for granted.

“I just hope as a group, their general thought is ‘We’re really lucky to live in Montana, and one of the reasons we’re so lucky is because, we’re surrounded by open land,” Marx said. “That’s not something we should take for granted, that’s something we should recognize and appreciate.”

On the web: openlandmt.org.