20,000 Acres of Montana Timberland Opened to Hunters

A conservation easement valued at $29.3 million has locked in permanent public hunting and fishing access across roughly 20,000 acres of privately owned timberland in northwest Montana. The Trust for Public Land announced the deal Thursday, its fourth such agreement with the Stimson Lumber Company.

What the Easement Covers

The easement permanently protects 20,629 acres of forest from development across Lincoln, Mineral, and Sanders counties. The protected land isn’t one contiguous block but a patchwork spread across the region, including habitat and travel corridors for elk, mule deer, whitetails, and moose.

For hunters, the access numbers are the headline. The property already provides more than 6,000 days per year of public hunting access, according to a Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks scoping notice published in April. That access is now secured in perpetuity.

The timberland also shares 115 miles of border with U.S. Forest Service and state lands, so the easement effectively adds more entry points to existing federal ground.

The easement protects 39 miles of streams, 309 acres of riparian habitat, and 472 acres of wetlands, helping maintain water quality for about 30,000 downstream residents.

Who Paid for It

MFWP owns the easement and approved it at an August meeting, but it did not put up any money. The U.S. Forest Service’s Forest Legacy program contributed $10.2 million. The Trust for Public Land raised about $1 million in private donations, utility Avista added $250,000, and NorthWestern Energy donated $150,000. Stimson Lumber donated the remaining 60 percent of the easement’s value, roughly $17.7 million.

Stimson is one of the largest landowners in that part of the state, according to the Billings Gazette. The deal builds on 107,664 acres the company has already committed under conservation easements for public access in northwest Montana.

“In a state where forestland faces continued risks of subdivision or sell-offs, conservation easements like this permanently protect and benefit working forests, clean water, wildlife, the local economy, and public access to the out of doors,” said David Weinstein, TPL’s Northern Rockies director.

All three counties supported the easement. Just 14 comments were submitted during the public comment period, and all substantive concerns were addressed.

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