Conservation easements helps ranch improve wildlife habitat, relations with hunters

GLASGOW--At a time when ranchers, sportsmen and environmentalists seem to be increasingly at odds, an agreement to preserve agricultural land in eastern Montana is proving its benefits to all -- even the animals.

Three years after a conservation easement was negotiated on 23,000 deeded acres of the Page-Whitman cattle ranch in Valley County, wildlife habitat has been preserved and game and non-game bird numbers have increased on the land, according to Pat Gunderson of the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Hunters are happy about having guaranteed access to the land. And the ranch's co-owner, Steve Page, says relations with hunters have actually improved.

But perhaps most important is that the agreement provided cash benefits to the landowner for managing the land for wildlife benefit, which was in large part consistent with the way he was currently managing for livestock, says Gunderson, a wildlife biologist at FWP's regional office in Glasgow.

"Our agreement recognizes that under good management, wildlife and domestic livestock can co-habitate," says Page.

The conservation easement, finalized in February of 1994, also involved the Brewer Ranch near Broadus, which has about 34,000 acres, about half of which are deeded. Under the agreement, the Page-Whitman Ranch received $575,000 and the deed for the Brewer Ranch in exchange for attaching conservation easements to both properties.

The cost for the public was about $1.7 million, or about $41 per acre, according to the FWP department, which, along with the Department of State Lands and the Bureau of Land Management, helped negotiate the agreement. In return, habitat on an area roughly a third the size of Flathead Lake has been protected for elk, mule and white-tailed deer, antelope, upland game birds, waterfowl and other wildlife.

In accepting monetary compensation, the ranch owners agreed to a habitat management plan and to certain restrictions on property rights.

For the rangelands --which encompass rolling sagebrush and grassland -- the ranch uses a rest-rotation grazing system and has installed water wells and ponds.

On the river bottom lands near Tampico, the plan involves seeding grasses and legumes for nesting cover for pheasants, waterfowls and other birds. Haying and pasturing is allowed after birds and waterfowls have finished nesting.

If bird numbers are any indication, the strategy is working. "We've seen an increased number of pheasants and non-game birds since these improvements were implemented," says Gunderson.

The owners also gave up the right to apply pesticides through aerial spraying, set up commercial feedlots, plow native range land or establish fee hunting or guiding on the properties.

Still, the decision to accept these restrictions was not difficult, says Page. That's because fundamentally, what's good for ranching --good range management -- can enhance wildlife. "The two are very compatible."

A lot of landowners are concerned about "giving up their property rights," says Gunderson. "But most of the ranchers we work with are concerned about saving the values that are there." And in most cases, he says, that is consistent with managing for preserving the conservation values.

Actually, a conservation easement is an exercise in private property rights, says Jim Knight of the Montana State University Extension Service. "Landowners who give easements gain the personal satisfaction, and some financial compensation, for protecting the existing conservation values already found on their land," he writes in a new Extension publication on the subject.

Landowners retaining an easement can retain the right to restrict public access to their land. But in the case of the Page-Whitman Ranch, the agreement guaranteed hunter and public access. Though Page was initially concerned about this aspect of the agreement, he says it has not been a problem. Since the agreement, the ranch's relationship with hunters has actually improved, he says.

Hunting on the ranch is now managed as part of the FWP's block management program, which provides signage and rules that hunters must follow. Hunters must check in at ranch headquarters, where they receive maps and information about restricted areas.

"We've developed a much better relationship with sportsmen than we had in the past. This program has gone a long way to eliminate conflicts," says Page. "It's a very well organized, well structured program," he says.

Because the ranch works so closely with the FWP department, the properties probably receive additional attention by game wardens to ensure that sportsmen conduct themselves in a sportsmanlike manner, says Page.

The process of working through the conservation easements was lengthy, but well worth it, he adds.As a rancher , whose occupation has been criticized of late, Page admits to a certain satisfaction in quieting the critics.

"We're doing our part to address the public's environmental concerns about agriculture. And through our partnership with Fish, Wildlife and Parks, that agency is in a better position to defend livestock grazing on these lands."

See related story: Extension Publication Describes Conservation Easement Economic Advantages.