Conservation Strategies Subcommitee
The Conservation Strategies Subcommittee helps to maintain the traditional uses of private working lands and to promote coordinated land management practices across public and private ownership boundaries. These efforts are focused on lands with high ecological significance and that have high community values for public access and timber management. Currently, this subcommittee serves to coordinate opportunities to work with private landowners to achieve their conservation objectives through voluntary agreements – primarily conservation easements. This group continues to work as a partnership of interested stakeholders to share information and develop conservation tools and strategies to promote and conserve the extraordinary qualities of the Swan Valley.
The Montana Legacy Project
A cooperative effort among many organizations, including Swan Ecosystem Center, has led in 2009 to the acquisition of nearly 45,000 acres of former Plum Creek Timber Co. lands in the Swan Valley. They were acquired temporarily by The Nature Conservancy and The Trust for Public Land (two national land trust organizations) to be passed on to the Flathead National Forest in Phase 2 of the Montana Legacy Project. The purpose of the Montana Legacy Project is to protect working forest lands, wildlife habitat and public access.
Additionally, if all goes as planned, approximately 16,000 acres will be acquired for state ownership in Phase 3. These parcels are intermixed with lands in the Swan River State Forest.
Also in Phase 3, are lands not scheduled for state or federal ownership. These include Section 31 across from the Swan Valley Community Hall that may be available for community purposes, such as an historical society museum. Swan Ecosystem Center is working with the Upper Swan Valley Historical Society and the Swan Valley Community Council to protect part or all of Section 31. Also available is Section 3 on Elk Creek, which Swan Ecosystem Center plans to add to the Elk Creek Conservation Area.
Swan Valley Factsheet - December 2009 (PDF).
For more information visit The Montana Legacy Project.
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