HELENA — Multiple conservation leases and conservation easements were approved at Thursday’s Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting.
Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Director Christy Clark says, “It is a really important way of protecting Montana’s way of life.”
Conservation leases are a popular tool that Montana landowners are using to put a thirty- to forty-year lease on their property in exchange for payment
Twenty-two of those leases passed on Thursday.
Additionally, two conservation easements passed, Stafford Ferry and Great Outdoors Phase Two.
These easements are where a landowner permanently limits the use of their land to protect conservation values.
Stafford Ferry is officially FWP land to conserve the critical wild sheep habitat in the area.
The Great Outdoors Phase Two easement protects public access and hunting heritage near Libby and will provide working forestry.
Clark says these conservation efforts will help provide better access across the state.
“With that public pressure, we need to find a way to expand access, and so of course these easements are voluntary and they give us extra hunter days, fishing days, all those things.”
Leases and the Great Outdoors Phase Two will go to the land board meeting in October.
