With land prices soaring in Montana, groups that assist landowners with conservation easements to protect sage grouse habitat from being developed are running into a financial roadblock.
"Unfortunately ... there's nowhere left in Montana where we can go to a landowner and sit down and do a deal," said Brad Hansen of the Montana Land Reliance.
Hansen was speaking during a recent meeting of the Montana Sage Grouse Oversight Team (MSGOT). The presentation was intended to provide new team members with information about the Sage Grouse Habitat Conservation Program, according to Therese Hartman, program coordinator. No legislation to alter the program is being contemplated, she added.
History
The MSGOT was formed after the 2015 Montana Legislature created the Sage Grouse Stewardship Act. Initially funded with $10 million in state money, the act was a way for Montana to proactively prevent stricter federal regulations by protecting the birds' habitat through conservation easements.
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Since then, the Montana Land Reliance alone has completed 14 conservation and one restoration project affecting 106,842 acres. Meanwhile, The Nature Conservancy has worked with seven landowners to protect more than 35,000 acres, valued at more than $22 million.
In total, the Sage Grouse Habitat Conservation Program has created 22 easements, three of which are leases with the other 19 perpetual easements, according to Hartman. The easements have resulted in the conservation of about 132,000 acres. Public access is not a requirement of the agreements.
Listing threat
The Legislature's action was in response to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ruling in 2010 that greater sage grouse were warranted for protection under the Endangered Species Act. However, the agency said it would not list the birds, instead relying on states and the Bureau of Land Management to protect them and their habitat.
"In Montana, a significant portion of sage grouse habitat is on private lands," Hansen said. "There was a real concern that private landowners may be required, one way or another, to manage in favor of the bird."
One reason the Montana program has been popular among landowners is because it enables them to earn money without selling their property.
"It goes back into the rural communities," Hansen said of the easement funds. "It goes back into the ranch. It helps folks expand. It helps pay down debt. It helps buy out the uncle who is kind of wrecking things."
Lands with easements can be sold, but they may be assessed at a lower price because certain parcels can't be developed. That loss of value is part of the easement calculation.
Jim Berkey, with The Nature Conservancy, said his group's work focusing on southwestern Montana near Dillon has paid dividends for other wildlife in the region, as well as sage grouse, while helping ranchers.
"They need all the help they can get to try to keep their adjacent lands open and try to be able to keep their operations financially viable and large enough to compete," he said.
Popular program
Hansen said the Montana Land Reliance could do another 15 projects if there was more state and federal funding.
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"There's that much interest out there in this program," he said.
Michael Freeman, Gov. Greg Gianforte's representative to the group as well as chairman, said the oversight team is "looking at expanding our tool box," possibly by offering shorter-term conservation easements to increase participation and "broaden the base."
That's a tactic Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks has employed under Gianforte as some Republican state legislators have attempted to kill perpetual easements. FWP has employed its Habitat Conservation Lease program, as a counter to complaints about perpetual conservation easements, by offering 30- and 40-year conservation leases. FWP's goal is to enroll 500,000 acres in five years.
MSGOT member Sen. Mike Lang, R-Malta, said the program to preserve sage grouse and their habitat in Montana is working but that it does have flaws.
"We'd have a lot worse regulations if the feds were controlling this, and that's why the MSGOT is here," he said.
Freeman echoed Lang's remark, adding the state is doing its "best to balance a lot of interests" while looking to improve the program.
Sage grouse
When counted in 2023 on their spring mating grounds, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks estimated sage grouse populations in the state at about 51,000 birds, down from around 53,000 last year and 70,000 in 2021. The 2023 survey, however, was shortened by spring snows which could affect its accuracy, FWP noted.
The prairie birds' populations are known to fluctuate for a number of reasons including drought, predation, high temperatures, invasive species, wildland fires and the availability of foods.
The BLM has noted its monitoring indicates that the low point of the birds' population cycles are now below previous years.
A west-wide satellite analysis documented a decline of 1.9 million acres of habitat between 2012 and 2018, 1.1 million acres of which was on BLM land.
Conserving sagebrush habitat benefits more than 350 other wildlife species including elk, mule deer and pronghorns, according to the Department of Interior.
Land management
Sage grouse are found in parts of 11 western states, largely on lands overseen by the BLM. In 2010, the agency began work on its land-use plans for 70 million acres of sagebrush habitat. It took five years to complete the work, but before the plans could be implemented then-President Donald Trump stepped in to amend the documents.
After a judge invalidated the Trump administration's changes, in 2022 the BLM began to update its work with newer science, releasing its final plan in November.
The BLM considered roughly 38,000 comments from the public on the draft environmental analysis, along with information shared by state, local, tribal and federal partners during more than 100 meetings held over two years, the agency noted. The final proposals is an attempt to balance land conservation with development.
In a letter addressed to U.S. Interior Secretary Debra Haaland, 18 biologists representing more than 600 years of experience have called for the adoption of stronger conservation measures to protect the sagebrush ecosystem, which they say is under serious threat.
On the other side of the argument, Republican politicians in states like Wyoming have threatened to kill the BLM plans before they are implemented in hopes of increasing oil and mineral development on federal lands.
Prior to European settlement, sage grouse habitat was estimated at more than 296 million acres.
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