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Groups tell Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne how cooperation is preserving the Blackfoot River watershed
By PERRY BACKUS of the Missoulian
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne toured the Blackfoot Valley on Tuesday afternoon to witness firsthand some of the projects undertaken by the Blackfoot Challenge.
Photo by MICHAEL GALLACHER/Missoulian
OVANDO - Blackfoot Valley rancher Jim Stone never was much interested in fish.
Growing up on the family ranch, there were always cows to feed, hay to cut and fences to repair. There just wasn't any time to think about fish.
On Tuesday, Stone told a large group of his neighbors and friends - and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne - he'd finally figured out what fish have to do with cows.
“Fish are the indicator of how well we're doing here,” Stone said. “They're the indicator of how well we're managing the riparian area. They're the indicator of how well we're doing on the uplands. ... It's all about ridge-top-to-ridge-top management.
“It's the coolest damn thing,” he said.
Throughout the crowd, heads were nodding - Stone knew these were people who “get it.”
“I'm seeing that I can protect this resource and at the end of the day put more pounds of beef on my cows,” Stone said. “I couldn't do it by myself. That would have been impossible.”
Stone credited a unique partnership between a host of private, state and federal entities called the Blackfoot Challenge for helping open his eyes - and maybe save his ranch.
“I'm not sure we'd still be in the ranching business if it wasn't for this partnership,” Stone said, adding he owes plenty to employees of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who helped start and continue working to sustain the partnership.
Stone, the Blackfoot Challenge's chairman, was just one of a long list of people who stepped forward to talk about the Blackfoot Challenge with Kempthorne on Tuesday.
The Blackfoot Challenge is a cooperative venture between federal and state government employees, local ranchers, environmental groups and industry. The idea of building partnerships to protect the 1.5 million-acre Blackfoot River watershed started 40 years ago.
Since its formal inception in 1993, the Blackfoot Challenge has protected more than 140,000 acres of private land from development, restored 2,600 acres of wetlands and 2,300 acres of native grasslands, reduced conflicts between people and grizzly bears by 50 percent and helped bring back native fish populations.
A partnership between The Nature Conservancy and the Blackfoot Challenge is also working to preserve vast tracts of forested lands previously owned by Plum Creek.
Standing within a stone's throw of one of the group's most recent stream restoration projects - a new 7,000-foot meandering beauty called Hoyt Creek on Stone's Rolling Stone Ranch - Kempthorne listened carefully as local, state and federal folks stepped forward to talk about the accomplishments of people working to preserve the Blackfoot valley.
Ryen Aasheim, project manager for the Big Blackfoot Chapter of Trout Unlimited, said local landowners have worked closely with state and federal agencies to improve the tributaries of the Blackfoot River, which are vital in helping native trout species recover.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks surveyed more than 110 different Blackfoot River tributaries and found that
90 percent were impaired in some way, Aasheim said. Since then, more than 200 landowners have participated in 400-plus projects on 42 different streams.
The result has been a
450 percent increase in westslope cutthroat and twofold jump in bull trout numbers, she said.
Gary Sullivan of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service helped to get the conversation going in the Blackfoot Valley years ago. Back then, he said, people weren't talking to each other and neither were the different agencies.
Once the conversations began, some amazing things began to happen.
“Conservation easements were born in Montana in 1976 in this watershed,” Sullivan said. “The very birthplace for them was here.”
The first easements were paid for with migratory bird conservation dollars as people began to realize the government didn't need to own everything in the valley for the land to be protected forever, he said.
“We found that if we can live in harmony with the landscape, the critters will come along,” Sullivan said. “And you don't have to battle it out in the courts.”
Jamie Williams of the Nature Conservancy said the Blackfoot Challenge's success has energized people living elsewhere.
“It's given a lot of communities a lot of hope. ... There's a lot at stake here for the future of collaborative conservation in the West,” Williams said.
“This area in Montana is really what the state is about,” said Jeff Hagener, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks director. “This is really the heart of it. ... It's here because of what these people have done in partnership.”
Other valleys around the state haven't had the same foresight. In many of those, there's a house on every 40 acres, he said.
Kempthorne, who has been touring the country to talk with people about cooperative conservation and other natural resource issues, said he was “very impressed. This is the finest example of cooperative conservation that I have seen or heard about.”
It's an example Kempthorne said he plans to take back to Washington, D.C.
After being presented with a Big Blackfoot River poster, Kempthorne said he will hang it in a prominent place.
“People need to see that places like this still exist,” he said.
At that, someone from the crowd yelled: “Don't tell them where it is though.”
By PERRY BACKUS of the Missoulian
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne toured the Blackfoot Valley on Tuesday afternoon to witness firsthand some of the projects undertaken by the Blackfoot Challenge.
Photo by MICHAEL GALLACHER/Missoulian
OVANDO - Blackfoot Valley rancher Jim Stone never was much interested in fish.
Growing up on the family ranch, there were always cows to feed, hay to cut and fences to repair. There just wasn't any time to think about fish.
On Tuesday, Stone told a large group of his neighbors and friends - and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne - he'd finally figured out what fish have to do with cows.
“Fish are the indicator of how well we're doing here,” Stone said. “They're the indicator of how well we're managing the riparian area. They're the indicator of how well we're doing on the uplands. ... It's all about ridge-top-to-ridge-top management.
“It's the coolest damn thing,” he said.
Throughout the crowd, heads were nodding - Stone knew these were people who “get it.”
“I'm seeing that I can protect this resource and at the end of the day put more pounds of beef on my cows,” Stone said. “I couldn't do it by myself. That would have been impossible.”
Stone credited a unique partnership between a host of private, state and federal entities called the Blackfoot Challenge for helping open his eyes - and maybe save his ranch.
“I'm not sure we'd still be in the ranching business if it wasn't for this partnership,” Stone said, adding he owes plenty to employees of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who helped start and continue working to sustain the partnership.
Stone, the Blackfoot Challenge's chairman, was just one of a long list of people who stepped forward to talk about the Blackfoot Challenge with Kempthorne on Tuesday.
The Blackfoot Challenge is a cooperative venture between federal and state government employees, local ranchers, environmental groups and industry. The idea of building partnerships to protect the 1.5 million-acre Blackfoot River watershed started 40 years ago.
Since its formal inception in 1993, the Blackfoot Challenge has protected more than 140,000 acres of private land from development, restored 2,600 acres of wetlands and 2,300 acres of native grasslands, reduced conflicts between people and grizzly bears by 50 percent and helped bring back native fish populations.
A partnership between The Nature Conservancy and the Blackfoot Challenge is also working to preserve vast tracts of forested lands previously owned by Plum Creek.
Standing within a stone's throw of one of the group's most recent stream restoration projects - a new 7,000-foot meandering beauty called Hoyt Creek on Stone's Rolling Stone Ranch - Kempthorne listened carefully as local, state and federal folks stepped forward to talk about the accomplishments of people working to preserve the Blackfoot valley.
Ryen Aasheim, project manager for the Big Blackfoot Chapter of Trout Unlimited, said local landowners have worked closely with state and federal agencies to improve the tributaries of the Blackfoot River, which are vital in helping native trout species recover.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks surveyed more than 110 different Blackfoot River tributaries and found that
90 percent were impaired in some way, Aasheim said. Since then, more than 200 landowners have participated in 400-plus projects on 42 different streams.
The result has been a
450 percent increase in westslope cutthroat and twofold jump in bull trout numbers, she said.
Gary Sullivan of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service helped to get the conversation going in the Blackfoot Valley years ago. Back then, he said, people weren't talking to each other and neither were the different agencies.
Once the conversations began, some amazing things began to happen.
“Conservation easements were born in Montana in 1976 in this watershed,” Sullivan said. “The very birthplace for them was here.”
The first easements were paid for with migratory bird conservation dollars as people began to realize the government didn't need to own everything in the valley for the land to be protected forever, he said.
“We found that if we can live in harmony with the landscape, the critters will come along,” Sullivan said. “And you don't have to battle it out in the courts.”
Jamie Williams of the Nature Conservancy said the Blackfoot Challenge's success has energized people living elsewhere.
“It's given a lot of communities a lot of hope. ... There's a lot at stake here for the future of collaborative conservation in the West,” Williams said.
“This area in Montana is really what the state is about,” said Jeff Hagener, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks director. “This is really the heart of it. ... It's here because of what these people have done in partnership.”
Other valleys around the state haven't had the same foresight. In many of those, there's a house on every 40 acres, he said.
Kempthorne, who has been touring the country to talk with people about cooperative conservation and other natural resource issues, said he was “very impressed. This is the finest example of cooperative conservation that I have seen or heard about.”
It's an example Kempthorne said he plans to take back to Washington, D.C.
After being presented with a Big Blackfoot River poster, Kempthorne said he will hang it in a prominent place.
“People need to see that places like this still exist,” he said.
At that, someone from the crowd yelled: “Don't tell them where it is though.”
