By SONJA LEE
Tribune Staff Writer
OVANDO - Their name is just two words.
Their mission, however, is a mouthful.
The Blackfoot Challenge teams about 160 partners on just about as many projects in a valley that winds 132 miles through the northern Rocky Mountains.
Since the '70s, landowners along the Blackfoot River have protected recreation opportunities, prime hunting lands, grizzly bear country and the ranching lifestyle along the river celebrated in Norman Maclean's novella, "A River Runs Through It."
While it's officially managed out of a tiny office in Ovando, the Blackfoot Challenge often makes its decisions during late-night meetings under the stars or handshakes over a beer at Trixi's Saloon. It is recognized nationally as a model of how a grassroots organization can meet private and public interests.
These interests - including local ranchers, federal, state and local agencies, conservation organizations and private corporations and foundations - work together to manage the Blackfoot River and adjacent land.
Earlier this week, members of the Blackfoot Challenge met to reflect on their successes and to celebrate and thank their partners.
"We all leave our agenda at the door," said Denny Iverson, a rancher near Potomac. "What we do, we do for the valley. I give a little. The neighbor gives a little. There's no grand scheme. It just works."
The mishmash of members bridge widely differing views about land use to manage the mountainous watershed, home to seven communities and nearly 2,760 households.
They are considered a powerhouse in the field of conservation.
The Blackfoot Challenge receives millions of federal dollars it puts toward projects aimed at keeping the landscapes in tact. The program, and its partner Trout Unlimited, is featured in a spread about "Heroes of Conservation" in the September issue of Field & Stream. And the program is even being showcased at an upcoming White House Conference on cooperative conservation.
From the bottom up
The power behind the Blackfoot Challenge was evident in the attendance at its celebration near Ovando on Wednesday afternoon.
U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., and Kathleen Clarke, director of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, joined ranchers and philanthropists for pitchfork fondue at the Rolling Stone Ranch.
Dignitaries, land managers and ranchers tried to pin down some of the reasons the Blackfoot Challenge has evolved into such a model organization.
Clarke said as she learned more about the program, she had to ask the inevitable.
"I said, 'So who is opposed to it?'" she said. "They told me, 'No one,' and it's true. If someone has had a problem, they have brought them to the table and made them comfortable. It's an incredible example of people listening to one another."
Burns said he continues to support Blackfoot Challenge and fight for federal dollars for the program, primarily because it is "homegrown." He said if the locals support it, he can support it.
"You approached it the right way," Burns told members as they huddled in a garage at the ranch, owned by Jim Stone, chairman of the Blackfoot Challenge board of directors.
Burns helped the organization secure close to $34 million for Blackfoot Community Project, a land acquisition and conservation easement program.
Many, even Burns, said the reason the Blackfoot Challenge has been such a success is because decisions don't start with government. Public agencies are great partners, but the landowners have the initiative to push the projects.
Jeff McNally, who also ranches in the valley, said the Blackfoot Challenge is a shining example of grassroots at its best.
"We work from the bottom up, not the top down," he said. "We bring in all the elements, and we make a conscious effort to make sure everyone knows which way we are zigging or zagging."
Weeds and fish
The Challenge is involved in projects ranging from complicated conservation easement purchases to mapping noxious weeds. Landowners and organizations aren't involved in every project, but everyone is involved in one or two - and that's another key to the program's success.
"There's been a long history of conservation ethic and local leadership in the valley," said Tina Bernd-Cohen, executive director of Blackfoot Challenge.
The Blackfoot Challenge formally took shape as a nonprofit collaboration in 1993. Conservation work, however, had been going on years earlier.
Much of the official, initial conservation work in the 1.5 million-acre watershed focused on Montana's favorite enemy - weeds.
It wasn't too hard to line up a lot of people who wanted to take out spotted knapweed and leafy spurge. Now hundreds of landowners are engaged in a joint effort to manage weeds on more than 350,000 acres.
Soon members started thinking about ways to improve fish habitat, like installing fish screens in irrigation ditches. More than 300 miles of fish passage barriers were removed. And members of the Challenge restored 2,600 acres of wetlands.
Today the Blackfoot Challenge is involved in hundreds of projects. Drought management, forestry and habitat and water-quality restoration are a few of the umbrella issues.
The projects go in different directions from there. With the help of the Challenge, 10 trumpeter swans were reintroduced in the valley earlier this year. Electric fences have been put up along several ranches to protect calving operations and beehives from grizzly bears.
The conflict and mistrust that often accompany conservation efforts doesn't prevail in the valley, said Bernd-Cohen. If someone has a problem, it isn't left to fester, she said. Those parties come to the table and find a solution.
"Everyone works very hard," she said. "We have spent years building trust and credibility. The handshake makes a difference."
Community Project
Before gathering at the Rolling Stone Ranch to celebrate their successes, dignitaries were invited to tour parts of the valley and learn more about the Blackfoot Challenge. About 15 people piled into a school bus and headed into the valley to see Blackfoot Challenge gems.
One of the most significant Blackfoot Challenge projects is the "Community Project," a joint effort with the Nature Conservancy.
The community project is an attempt to guide ownership and management of land in the valley formerly owned by Plum Creek.
In September 2003, Plum Creek agreed to sell the Nature Conservancy about 88,000 acres of the valley over five years. Last year, the Nature Conservancy bought about 43,000 acres for $32 million, and picked up options to buy the rest of the land for about $38 million.
The lands are being re-sold by the Conservancy based on a plan that those who live in the valley came up with. The end result should be a large block of land with mixed public and private ownership that protects the entire landscape's values, said Hank Goetz, lands director of the Blackfoot Community Project.
Goetz jokes that it should be called the "meetings are us" project, because of ongoing meetings with landowners and agencies to make sure everyone is on board in deciding how best to manage the land.
Ranchers with land adjacent to the Plum Creek property, for example, will have a chance to acquire acreage. The land is protected by conservation easements. Easements protect open space, agriculture and wildlife habitat from future subdivision or development.
The goal, designed by landowners and others in the Challenge, is to consolidate ownership and protect recreational access, grazing, wildlife habitat, economic stability and forestry, Goetz said.
Landscape plan
Under a cloudy sky, the tour group stared across a series of wetlands along 1,100 acres included in the community project that will be transferred to the BLM on Tuesday.
"This is incredible habitat for grizzly bears and waterfowl," said Greg Neudecker, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services biologist and vice chairman of the Challenge.
Tom Ray, general manager of the northwest region of Plum Creek, said getting involved in the Blackfoot Challenge made a lot of sense for the company.
"We wanted to be a part of efforts to come up with a large landscape plan for the whole valley," he said.
Selling the land was the best option, he said. Because of its conservation values and distance from existing mills, the company could see a lot of reasons to work with the Challenge. Plum Creek can continue to harvest timber on the land it still owns in the valley and be a partner in the Blackfoot Challenge, he said.
From a financial standpoint, the community project is by far the Nature Conservancy's most ambitious project in the state, said Jamie Williams, state director of the Nature Conservancy.
"We were willing to take the risk because of the importance of the project in this valley and because of our confidence in this program," he said.
Different uses
The Nature Conservancy and Blackfoot Challenge also are trying to raise $10 million in private funds for the project. They raised about $5.2 million.
Of the privately raised money, about $4 million will be used for the Blackfoot Community Conservation Area. The conservation area is one of the most unique aspects of the community project. A community-based council will manage the conservation area, with cooperative land management stretching across ownership lines.
"This is going to be a real experiment in natural resource democracy - I guess that's what you call it," Goetz said.
As the tour bus travels down Boot Tree Road to a portion of the conservation area, all of those multiple uses are evident. Black Angus cattle fill swaths of land. ATV tracks peel away from the road, and lavish log homes are hidden behind the thick forest walls. Shotgun shells left from skeet shooters and spotted knapweed litter spots along the tall grass.
The idea is to bring land users together and form community "objectives" for managing the property.
The core of the conservation area will be 5,600 acres south of Ovando Mountain. The Blackfoot Challenge will own and manage the land based on ideas put together at public meetings and through a landowner survey.
Nearly 1,000 residents in the watershed will help decide how best to manage the land.
Leadership
Those in the Blackfoot Challenge say the cornerstone of their success is simply working together.
"It boils down to the landowners," said Stone. "We make sure everyone is engaged."
He said ranchers can support the Blackfoot Challenge because protecting the valley is essentially the same as protecting their livelihood.
Theodore Smith, executive director of the Henry P. Kendall Foundation in Boston, said the foundation continues to support the Blackfoot Challenge because of the extraordinary work it does to protect the land for future generations. He said the Blackfoot Challenge is a model of good conservation.
"There is good leadership at all levels," he said.
Reach Tribune Staff Writer Sonja Lee at slee@greatfal.gannett.com, or at (406) 791-1471 or (800) 438-6600.
Originally published August 21, 2005
