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County eyes easement on Swan Valley acreage (complete article from source)
Source: Missoulian , by Chelsi Moy
July 12, 2007
Missoula County commissioners will decide Wednesday whether to use a small chunk of open space bond money on a 320-acre conservation easement in the Swan Valley.
The land sits at the base of the Cooney Creek drainage near the Bob Marshall Wilderness and is surrounded on three sides by national forest land.
Vital Ground Foundation, a local nonprofit that protects grizzly bears and their habitat, purchased the conservation easement near Condon from a Choteau couple in January for $950,000.
The foundation is now soliciting donations for the project and has raised $250,000. The landowners donated 46 percent of the value of the conservation easement. Part of the $75,000 request to Missoula County for open space money would help reimburse the cost of the sale.
Advocates of the project say it's a worthwhile cause because of the area's easy visibility from Montana Highway 83 and its location in the heart of the Swan Valley, and also its mix of rare, endangered and threatened wildlife in the area, part of which “makes Montana, Montana,” said Ryan Lutey, director of land and staff attorney for the Vital Ground Foundation.
If approved, the project would be the third approved by county commissioners in the last month, and the fourth since voters approved a 20-year, $20 million city-county open space bond last November.
Previously, the commissioners voted to spend about $300,000 to ensure no development occurs on nearly 4,000 acres of land in Potomac and Greenough. The city of Missoula used open space bond money to purchase 40 acres near Kelly Island.
Commissioners have said they want to use the open space money in all regions of Missoula County.
So far, the Cooney Creek conservation easement is the cheapest request for open space money to come before the commission, said Pat O'Herren, director of the county's Rural Initiatives office. For every $1 the county puts toward the conservation easement, the Vital Ground Foundation will solicit $12 in donations.
The project is unlike the Sunset Hill conservation easement in Greenough or the Hayes family ranch conservation easement in Potomac - both areas with working agricultural land or active timber harvesting. The Cooney Creek project focuses mostly on wildlife habitat.
Grizzly bears frequently use the Cooney Creek drainage to access the Swan Valley. It's important for bears to have large expanses of interconnecting land to live on and roam, Lutey said. In addition, Cooney Creek contains one of the last genetically pure strains of westslope cutthroat trout
About 1 1/2 miles of public-access road veers through a section of the private land. The road ends just shy of the Smith Creek Pass trailhead, on U.S. Forest Service land.
The Vital Ground Foundation also has entered into a tentative agreement with landowners on the adjacent property to create a conservation easement on another 110 acres by the end of the year.
There is currently one homestead on the land and the agreement allows for one additional home for the landowner's children, O'Herren said.
The Missoula County commissioners will take action on the Cooney Creek easement at their weekly public meeting Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. in Room 201 of the Missoula County Courthouse Annex.
Reporter Chelsi Moy can be reached at 523-5260 or at Chelsi.Moy@missoulian.com.
Click here for complete article from Missoulian
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