The Gallatin Valley Land Trust (GVLT) is pleased to announce that they’ve reached the 50,000 acres conserved milestone with the successful completion of a conservation easement in the Amsterdam-Churchill area of Gallatin County on the Madison-Gallatin Plateau. The 395-acre Bruce Visser Farm features prime agricultural soil, wildlife habitat, and scenic open space that will now be protected forever. The property adds to an existing block of 7,900 acres of conserved farmland that GVLT and farmers and ranchers have worked for decades to protect. As development marches west of Four Corners and Belgrade, this large block of conserved land will serve as a buffer to ensure that agriculture remains viable and the wide-open spaces and scenic quality of the area stays intact. A conservation easement, GVLT’s primary tool for conservation, is a legal agreement between GVLT and the landowner that limits development on the property in perpetuity, keeping the landscape open and scenic forever.

“The Visser Farm is a productive working farm in an area of intense development pressure,” GVLT Lands Program Manager Chad Klinkenborg said. “The area has some of the best soil in the state of Montana and represents the open landscape of the Gallatin Valley. We had to protect it.”
The farm was first purchased in 1946 by Bruce Visser’s father, Henry. Today, Visser runs a small cattle operation on the property, and farms wheat, barley, and hay. His land provides excellent winter-range habitat for mule deer. Native montane grassland systems on the property are home to several species, including coyote, red fox, badger, and a variety of game and non-game grassland bird species.

Located just six miles from Four Corners and less than five miles from Churchill, the Visser Farm was at high risk of development. Nearing retirement and faced with increasing pressure from developers, Visser realized he would be forced to sell his family farm if he could not find a financially viable option to keep it in agriculture. 


In a letter to the Gallatin County Open Lands Program, a funding partner on the project, Visser penned:

“An easement is the only way that I can preserve my ranch and ownership without sales or development. I have a lifetime of work and memories here as well as my dad before me. We have put everything we have ever achieved back into this ranch. I hope to be able to preserve it as a ranch property and continue to raise cattle, hay and grain.”

When a landowner places a conservation easement on their property they are transferring a property right, their ability to develop or split the property, to the land trust and therefore reducing the value of their land. While some landowners can fully donate the value of the development rights they are transferring through a conservation easement, many cannot afford to do so. In those situations, GVLT works with the landowners to apply for funding to help cover the value of the conservation easement. The landowner always donates a portion of the value of the conservation easement, but the local and federal funding sources are critical to make these transactions possible for many farmers and ranchers. The Visser conservation easement was funded by the Gallatin County Open Space Program, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Agricultural Lands Program, as well as a significant amount of value donated by the landowner. Now that his land is protected by a conservation easement, Visser hopes to retire and lease the land to a local farmer.

“This property will forever be 395 acres,” said Klinkenborg. “It will never be fragmented or developed for additional residences and has to remain in agricultural production forever. We are humbled to have been part of this effort and thankful to Bruce for this contribution to our valley’s future.”
 The Bruce Visser Farm Conservation Easement represents GVLT’s 117th conservation easement for a grand total of 50,007 acres conserved. The 50,000 acres conserved milestone is a significant achievement for GVLT, and the Gallatin Valley.

What is a conservation easement? The Gallatin Valley Land Trust (GVLT) partners with private landowners to conserve working farms and ranches, fish and wildlife habitat, open lands and scenic views. To protect these special places, GVLT uses conservation easements, which are voluntary agreements with landowners that limit development on a property while keeping it in private ownership. Each easement is tailored to the specific property and runs with the title of the land in perpetuity. GVLT is responsible for upholding the easement’s terms. Because a conservation easement limits development rights and therefore decreases the value of the land, landowners may be eligible to write off the difference as a charitable donation. In some cases, landowners receive financial compensation for a portion of the value of the conservation easement. The public benefits from the protection of conservation values such as prime agricultural soils, wildlife habitat, river corridors and the overall character of our region.

About Gallatin Valley Land Trust
Gallatin Valley Land Trust connects people, communities, and open lands through conservation of working farms and ranches, healthy rivers, and wildlife habitat, and the creation of trails in the Montana headwaters of the Missouri and Upper Yellowstone Rivers. For more information, visit www.gvlt.org.

Bozeman, MT—The City of Bozeman Public Works Department and Water Conservation Division are carefully monitoring drought conditions in Bozeman and preparing for the possibility of a declared drought stage. The City has an established Drought Management Plan which outlines four “stages” of drought that can be declared by the City. No official drought stage has been declared at this time.

 
Bozeman is considered a semi-arid climate and relies on Hyalite Creek, Sourdough Creek, and Lyman Spring for its water supply.  The City’s Water Conservation Division monitors for drought by tracking local data such as stream flow, reservoir volume, and snowpack, as well as national climate data.  Snowpack and streamflow levels in Bozeman’s municipal watershed are currently below normal.

 
Water Conservation Program Manager Jessica Ahlstrom says, “It should come as no surprise to residents that hot temperatures and low precipitation have made us concerned about water usage and water supply levels going into the summer. Drier than normal conditions means we are more likely to experience drought this year.” 

 
Ahlstrom adds, “Now is the time to start proactively conserving water. Every drop we save now is a drop available for tomorrow.”
 
In order to ensure a healthy water supply throughout the summer, the City asks all residents to do their part. The single biggest thing that residents can do is decrease outdoor water use by reducing watering days and/or watering times on your sprinkler system, and avoiding watering during the middle of the day.  Watering between 4am and 8am is the most efficient time of day to water. Residents can also install high efficiency toilets, clothes washers, showerheads, and faucet aerators in their homes. To learn more about ways you can decrease water usage at home visit: https://www.bozeman.net/government/water-conservation.

 
The City is monitoring conditions and will continue to update the City’s website and social media with the latest information.

HELENA - Angling restriction on several rivers go into effect today due to warming water temperatures and low flows.

The restrictions include what are commonly known as “hoot owl” closures, which means fishing is closed from 2 p.m. to midnight, and some full fishing closures. The closures and restrictions will stay in effect until conditions improve.

The closures and hoot owl restrictions include:

• Beaverhead River hoot owl restrictions from the mouth to Laknar Lane Bridge;
• Smith River hoot owl restrictions from the confluence of the North and South Fork of the Smith River to Eden Bridge south of Great Falls;
• Shields River full fishing closure from the mouth to Rock Creek;
• Lower Big Hole River hoot owl restrictions from the confluence with the Beaverhead River to Notch Bottom FAS;
• Upper Big Hole River full fishing closure from Saginaw Bridge on Skinner Meadow Road to the North Fork Big Hole River;
• Jefferson River entire river hoot owl restrictions;
• Sun River hoot owl restrictions from the mouth of Muddy Creek to the Highway 287 Bridge.

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ drought policy provides for angling closures when flows drop below critical levels for fish, when water quality is diminished, or when maximum daily water temperatures reach at least 73 degrees for three consecutive days. The current forecasts for hot daily temperatures and existing low flows prompt implementing restrictions now.

These closures are designed to protect fish that become more susceptible to disease and mortality when drought and warm water conditions exist.

All stress to fish at this time of year is cumulative, and anglers should consider fishing in cooler waters during times of low flows and high water temperatures in rivers. Anglers can help reduce stress for fish by following these practices when catching and releasing fish, though fish mortality may still occur: 

• Fish during the coolest times of day, where permitted. 
• Land the fish quickly. 
• Keep the fish in water as much as possible.  
• Remove the hook gently. Using artificial lures with single and barbless hooks can make hook removal faster and easier.  
• Let the fish recover before releasing it. 

If high temperatures and extremely low flows persist anglers may want to consider fishing areas with less stressful temperatures and conditions, such as larger lakes or reservoirs, or higher elevation waterbodies.

Bozeman, MT – The City of Bozeman and the Bozeman Fire Department are asking residents to take precautions this summer and the Fourth of July holiday. The Bozeman area continues to experience continued dry and hot weather and the City is urging the community to consider not using fireworks at all this year.  Though this one of the few times a year, when Bozeman residents are legally allowed to use fireworks within city limits, celebrating unwisely, could lead to the loss of life or property.

Bozeman Fire Chief Josh Waldo says, “According the National Interagency Fire Center, in 2020 there were 53,563 human caused wildfires in the United States.  With a record setting heatwave forecasted for next week and heading into the 4th of July amidst seasonal drought conditions across Montana, we’re urging people to celebrate and recreate responsibly this year. While we encourage everyone to have a great 4th of July, we are asking that we all do so safely and take necessary precautions to reduce the risk of fire.”

 
Additional information about Bozeman’s fireworks restrictions can be found in the City of Bozeman Municipal Code and on the City of Bozeman website.
 
Additionally, during this time of year our area 911 dispatch center gets hundreds of calls to report complaints of non-compliance with fireworks restrictions. If they are non-emergency calls they should be directed to 406-582-2000. If emergency assistance is needed, call 911.

WHITEHALL – Game wardens with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks are seeking information on two pelicans that were recently shot and killed illegally on the Jefferson River. The pelicans were found near the Limespur Fishing Access Site, about a mile upstream from the entrance to Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park. Wardens believe the birds were shot sometime between the afternoon of Saturday, June 19, and the morning of Sunday, June 20. Anyone with possible information is encouraged to call the FWP violation reporting hot line at 1-800-TIP-MONT. Callers can remain anonymous and could be eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000.  

There are many myths about money. One of the most dangerous ones is that borrowing is never a good idea. In fact, the entire global economy is based on the concept of borrowing and repaying. Unfortunately, it is possible for people, and corporations and governments, to let things get out of control. But the basic idea of borrowing should not be viewed in a negative light. There are at least five times in the average person's life when it's not only a good idea but the only way to deal with a particular situation. Provided you take out loans in good faith, repay them on time, and don't pay excessive interest, the whole process can be to your advantage. When does it make sense to take out a loan? Here are common examples.

Buying a Home
Few working adults have the cash to buy a home outright. That's why nearly every homeowner starts out with a mortgage loan to obtain their first residence. Of course, contracts vary greatly in terms of interest rates, amount owed, down payment percentages, closing costs, and other components. Repaying a home mortgage on time is one of the best ways to improve personal credit scores.

Paying For a College Degree
What's true for acquiring a house applies to getting a college degree as well. Many prospective students borrow from private lenders in order to get competitive rates and flexible financing agreements. Each year, first-time and returning degree candidates turn to Earnest private student loans to cover all their school-related expenses. Four-year degrees, master's programs, and doctoral studies can call for ongoing access to sensible student loans.

Purchasing a Car
Car loans are one of the most common consumer forms of indebtedness. Even older teens are familiar with the basics of these financial arrangements. You pay a certain amount down, perhaps get credit for a trade-in, agree to make regular payments for several years at a fixed rate of interest, and you own the car when it's paid off. People do buy cars for cash, but for young couples and professionals, the standard way to purchase a vehicle is to pay it off over a period of years.

Acquiring a Business
Even wealthy individuals tend to finance the purchase of a business, whether the entity is an independent company or a franchise. The main reason so few people pay cash to buy a business is that the prices are so high. Even a small company might sell for millions of dollars. The solution? Going into debt to acquire ownership and operate the organization your way, on your terms. Some banks specialize in providing the financial wherewithal for people who buy and sell businesses, just as some financial institutions concentrate on mortgages or vehicle financing.

Covering Emergency Expenses
What happens if you face a financial emergency that you don't have cash ready to cover? Unless selling your car or taking out a second mortgage is an option, you'll probably consider an unsecured loan. The better your credit scores, the better deal you'll get, of course. The point is that when unexpected medical bills arrive or a similar emergency rears its head, borrowing is often the wisest option.

HELENA – To prevent the spread of disease, such as salmonella, bird enthusiasts should consider either removing their bird feeders for the summer or cleaning the feeder regularly. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks has received several phone calls recently about dead birds around feeders and birds with crusty eyes.

Birds don’t need supplementary food in the summer. They typically eat naturally occurring food, such as insects, during this time of year when they are nesting and rearing their young. 

If you suspect that you are seeing sick birds, or find dead birds around your feeders, please contact your local FWP office. Bird feeders should be removed in the event illness is observed. The ground under feeders should also be cleaned as droppings will contain the salmonella bacteria.

Even when there is no sign of disease, feeders should be cleaned and disinfected at least every other week, or even weekly. Prevent overcrowding by spreading feeders out or using feeders that only allow a few birds to visit at one time.

Cleaning feeders

• Clean your feeders with warm, soapy water. Disinfect with a 10 percent bleach solution to kill bacteria. Rinse the feeder and allow it to dry completely before using it again. Disinfect your birdbaths as well.
• Clean your bird feeding area by washing all structures holding your feeders and raking the ground surrounding the feeders.
• If you have observed sick or dead birds, do not reinstall your feeders for a few weeks. As birds begin to migrate and cease traveling in flocks, it will be okay to put feeders back up.

If you find a dead bird, place it in a double plastic bag. Please keep the bird in a cool location (such as a cooler) until you’ve contacted FWP.  FWP may want samples for testing. Wear gloves and wash hands thoroughly afterwards. 

If you live in bear country, please consider placing feeders greater than 10 feet high, and more than 4 feet from nearby trees and bring them in at night or keep your feeders down for the active bear season.  If bear activity is observed in the general vicinity of the feeder or your home, the feeder should be removed permanently.

New policies could eradicate gray wolf populations in Northern Rockies states

BOZEMAN, Montana – A coalition of wildlife advocates and hunters, represented by the non-profit environmental law firm Earthjustice, today asked the U.S. Forest Service to issue new protections for wolves in designated wilderness areas following Idaho and Montana’s enactment of a rash of aggressive anti-wolf laws.

The petition, submitted to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and top Forest Service officials, asks the Service for protection of wolves in national forest wilderness areas from new Idaho and Montana laws allowing professional contractors and private reimbursement programs--resembling 19th-century wolf bounties--to dramatically reduce wolf populations in the two states.

During their 2021 sessions, the Montana and Idaho legislatures enacted harsh anti-wolf laws that target up to 1,800 wolves. One goal of the laws is to artificially inflate elk populations – which are currently at or above population objectives in most management units – to levels last seen in the mid-1990s, before wolves were reintroduced to their historical range in the Northern Rockies. Wolves are being targeted even though scientific studies show that drought and excessive hunting quotas, not predation, caused some elk populations to decline.

“A wilderness is supposed to be a wild place governed by natural conditions, not an elk farm,” said Earthjustice attorney Timothy Preso. “We are calling on the Forest Service to prevent Montana and Idaho from taking the wild out of wilderness through their aggressive wolf-removal campaigns.”

The petition asks the Forest Service to issue new regulations and closure orders to prevent wolf killing by professional and subsidized hunters and trappers across nearly 8 million acres of designated wilderness in Idaho and Montana, including such flagship areas as the Bob Marshall Wilderness in northwest Montana and the Frank Church-River of No Return and Selway-Bitterroot Wildernesses in central Idaho. These proposed measures include:

• Initiating a new rulemaking to safeguard the wilderness character of these protected places

• Imposing restrictions on bounty hunting of wolves to prevent wilderness degradation
• Prohibiting wolf hunting and trapping activities by private contractors in congressionally designated wilderness areas

The groups’ petition focuses on a guarantee in the 1964 Wilderness Act that the • • • Forest Service must manage designated wilderness as “an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, … retaining its primeval character and influence, … which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions.” New laws that authorize professional contractors and subsidized trappers to drive down wolf populations threaten to degrade wilderness conditions by upsetting the balance of predator and prey and eliminating a keystone wildlife species that is an icon of the wilderness landscape.

The petitioner groups include the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Friends of the Clearwater, Humane Society of the United States, Humane Society Legislative Fund, International Wildlife Coexistence Network, Montana Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, Western Watersheds Project, Wilderness Watch, and Wolves of the Rockies.

The following are statements from the petitioner groups:

“Wolves need wildernesses to serve as a refuge where they can be safe from the slaughter they face across Idaho and Montana,” said Andrea Zaccardi, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Protecting wilderness requires the Forest Service to also protect wolves, which are so ecologically important to our national forests.”

“The state-sanctioned killing of wolves in Idaho and Montana threatens to needlessly damage the natural balance within our wilderness areas in these states for years to come,” said McCrystie Adams, managing attorney at Defenders of Wildlife. “We urge the U.S. Forest Service to abide by its duty and take immediate action to safeguard the unique character of our wilderness areas against these states’ wolf-killing measures.”

“The wild Clearwater region is the northern half of the largest relatively intact ecosystem in the lower 48 states,” said Gary Macfarlane, Ecosystem Defense Director for Friends of the Clearwater. “Wolves and other species make places like the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness truly wild. This petition seeks to keep it that way.”

“Dispatching trappers and private contractors to cruelly and ruthlessly kill wolves on public lands threatens both the survival of the species and the character of the wilderness areas where they range,” said Nicholas Arrivo, managing attorney for the Humane Society of the United States. “The Forest Service must take action to mitigate the damage that Idaho and Montana’s reckless wolf-killing legislation will cause.”

“The Forest Service has long recognized that the presence of the Northern Rockies' treasured wolves on the landscape enhances and preserves congressionally designated wilderness areas," said Keisha Sedlacek, director of regulatory affairs for the Humane Society Legislative Fund. “The agency must carry out Congress’ intent to protect wolves from commercially driven slaughter.”

“The Montana Wildlife Federation supports ethical, fair chase hunting of wolves, but this is anything but ethical or fair chase,” said Nick Gevock, conservation director of Montana Wildlife Federation. “Paying contractors to go into wilderness areas and kill wolves amounts to an all-out eradication effort that harkens back to the 19th Century. These are wild areas that offer some of the best hunting in the country for all species, and these moves degrade that. It’s disgraceful and it needs to be stopped.”

“Wolves are essential to the overall health of ecosystems, but Montana and Idaho’s new laws aim to decimate their populations in the Northern Rockies. We cannot allow the modern equivalent of a bounty system for wolf killing to operate in wilderness areas— the very places meant to provide refuge for wildlife to thrive,” said Dan Ritzman, Director of Lands, Water and Wildlife at the Sierra Club. “With the extinction crisis bearing down, we need wilderness areas to remain intact and in support of life-sustaining biodiversity more than ever.”

“Wilderness is a place where natural processes should prevail, and the howl of the wolf should echo from peak to vale,“ said Erik Molvar, Executive Director of Western Watersheds Project. “Healthy populations should be allowed to thrive throughout the range of the gray wolf, and their ability to flourish should not be impeded by commercially-driven killing, especially in Wilderness.”

“Montana and Idaho have declared a despicable war on wolves and on the very idea of Wilderness itself,” said George Nickas, Executive Director of Wilderness Watch. “The Forest Service has the authority and mandate to protect these special places and their wildlife. It needs to put a stop to this ugly slaughter.”

“Americans need to know that wolves can exist unmolested by man in our few remaining wildernesses,” said Marc Cooke, representative of Wolves of the Rockies.