Helena, MT - June 29, 2004 – The Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee has included $18.3 million in its preliminary ’05 budget bill for the Blackfoot-Community Project, according to the office of U.S. Senator Conrad Burns. Burns’ office notified the Blackfoot Challenge today that the subcommittee, which Senator Burns chairs, included his entire funding request for this project. He is hopeful the funds will be approved by the full Senate Interior committee and conference committee later this year.

“We are tremendously grateful to Senator Burns for his strong support of this project,” said Jim Stone, chair of the Blackfoot Challenge, the landowner watershed group that has been spearheading the project.
“After all the community meetings we’ve put into this over the last two years, it’s gratifying to see Senator Burns go to bat for us in such a major way. This funding is a huge step in making our community vision a reality,” added Stone. 

The Challenge is working with the local community on a plan that determines future ownership of thousands of acres of former timber company lands ringing the valley. As part of the plan announced last fall, The Nature Conservancy has purchased and is temporarily holding 38,300 acres. The Conservancy will re-sell them to public and private buyers according to the community-driven plan.

The funding, if approved, would be used by the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service and state agencies for the purchase of some of these lands to ensure continued public access and traditional uses desired by the local community.  “The goal of this project is to maintain the valley’s tradition of ranching, forestry, wildlife and public access for future generations,” said Stone.

"It just makes sense," said U.S. Senator Conrad Burns.  "I've supported this program from its beginning because giving Montanans the power to determine their own economic future is really what the federal government is about," he continued.  "There is nothing more important to me than maintaining the integrity of our lands in the eyes of those who live, work and play on it."

“It’s amazing what can happen when our public officials and our community citizens all work together to protect the rural lifestyle and natural resources of this valley,” said Stone.