December 15, 2006 - Ovando, MT — Everyone knows that change is happening and it’s happening fast when it comes to western Montana landscapes like the Blackfoot watershed.  Higher land values, pressures on natural resource jobs, increased population and changing land uses all have potential impacts on the rural character of our watershed communities.

Yet while change may be inevitable, many landowners, residents, non-profit watershed groups and government agencies are working together to address and direct the change by creating innovative strategies to keep rural communities strong and intact. 

There are many inspiring examples of progressive community-based planning across the watershed and nearby in the Swan (as shared weekly in this column).  The focus of this article is to provide an update on one of them: the Blackfoot Community Conservation Area, or BCCA, a project that is linking natural resource management with local cultural heritage and economy. 

The BCCA is a result of the broader Blackfoot Community Project involving the partnership between the Blackfoot Challenge and The Nature Conservancy to acquire and resell up to 88,000 acres of former Plum Creek Timber Company lands to public and private owners based on a community-driven plan.  Project lands stretch from the headwaters of the Blackfoot watershed at Rogers Pass to the Clearwater drainage.  The BCCA, located just north of Ovando and at the southern end of the Bob Marshall and Scapegoat Wilderness Areas, involves a 41,000-acre landscape that will be cooperatively managed across public and private ownership lines.  The area consists of land owned by the Lolo National Forest, Department of Natural Resources & Conservation, MT Fish Wildlife & Parks, private individuals, and a 5,600-acre parcel of former Plum Creek Timber Company lands that is currently owned by The Nature Conservancy (known as “the Core”). 

The heart of the BCCA project is the 5,600-acre Core.  Based on landowner interest in seeing the land kept open for traditional uses like timber, grazing and recreation, the land will be transferred from The Nature Conservancy to the Blackfoot Challenge for community-based ownership and management in 2008. 

To meet this goal, the Blackfoot Challenge and The Nature Conservancy have joined together in a $10 million private fundraising campaign to fund the purchase, long-term stewardship and management of the BCCA Core.  Campaign funds will also be used to cover tax payments to the county, to acquire conservation easements, and to meet project management costs.     

To chart the course for community ownership and management, the Blackfoot Challenge Board of Directors developed a BCCA Council in August 2005, comprised of fifteen diverse members including five agency/land management representatives (US Forest Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, MT Fish, Wildlife and Parks, MT Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, and The Nature Conservancy), five private landowners, and five user group representatives.  The task of the Council is to develop a shared vision and management plan for the Core 5,600 acres.  Once the plan is drafted, reviewed and comments received by the public, the Council will begin establishing a cooperative Memorandum of Understanding and management suggestions for the larger 41,000-acre landscape. 

Folks in the community may wonder what the vision is for the BCCA.  Based on many discussions, the shared philosophy of the BCCA Council is to develop a working landscape that balances ecological diversity with local economic sustainability for the future benefit of the Blackfoot watershed community.  Management will entail activities that seek to conserve, enhance and maintain wildlife habitat, wetlands, water, grasslands and timber resources while maintaining traditional uses including hunting, recreation, agriculture, and forestry. 

The BCCA Council has met monthly for over a year and made important progress.  Meetings are very interesting as ideas are kicked back and forth related to how best to balance land and community needs.  To date, they have coordinated a resource inventory of the property to assess current conditions, drafted a recreation policy that seeks to maintain public access as it currently exists, identified management issues and uses with goals and objectives, completed at least three major road restoration projects, to meet ecological and recreational objectives using local contractors, and hosted field tours for local, regional, and national audiences. 

On Wednesday, January 24, at 7 p.m. at the Ovando Gym, the Blackfoot Challenge  will host a public meeting to provide an update on the Blackfoot Community Project, the BCCA,  and a Proposed Cooperative Landscape Stewardship Pilot Project.  Community members are invited to attend to learn more about the projects, ask questions, and provide input.  It is a key opportunity for local landowners, residents and resource users across the Blackfoot watershed and beyond to help shape the future of the BCCA. 

The meeting will also include a presentation and opportunity for members of the public to share their thoughts on a proposed Blackfoot Cooperative Landscape Stewardship Pilot Project, involving legislation for 1) forest stewardship at the landscape level focused on sustainable logging, restoration work, watershed improvements and hazardous fuels reductions, 2) a biomass project in Seeley Lake, and 3)  adding 87,000 acres to the Bob Marshall, Scapegoat and Mission Mountain Wilderness Areas consistent with existing USFS management and the Lolo National Forest Plan revisions.

For more information, please visit the Blackfoot Challenge website: www.blackfootchallenge.org or contact Blackfoot Lands Director, Hank Goetz at hank@blackfoot.net (406)793-5589.