Email
Print20 Years of Trust
After two decades of land conservation, there’s still work to be done
Photo By Renee Hiebert
(page 1 of 2)
It wasn’t a big day for wildlife sightings down by the Teton River. Midday in early January rarely is. But as Chet Work, executive director of the Teton Regional Land Trust (TRLT), and I skied across the Six Springs Ranch, forded its partly iced creeks, and weaved through the wetland’s dense willows, we flushed a pair of Wilson’s snipe out of a creek bottom, were inspected by a pair of bald eagles in a tree high above us, and surprised a moose family of four, which trotted off to hide themselves in a deeper thicket.
“These species are what it’s all about,” said Work. “That’s why we are here.”
Indeed, these are just three on a list containing dozens of Species of Greatest Conservation Need that the TRLT takes into account as a biodiversity qualification when considering land for conservation and stewardship. Some other iconic species on the list are the trumpeter swan, American white pelican, sandhill crane, gray wolf, and grizzly bear.
The three-hundred-acre Six Springs Ranch is one of the 119 conservation easement properties that have been put under stewardship of the TRLT over the past twenty years. The organization’s service area is the entire Upper Snake River Watershed, covering 5.8 million acres.
The Medicine Lodge Creek property, situated northwest of Dubois, Idaho, is another great example. At 2,617 acres, it brings expanded diversity by adding dry upland habitat to extensive wetlands and riparian corridors. This easement also includes some of the human values that TRLT works to conserve. Views of the distant Italian Peaks and the Red Conglomerate Mountains will forever be protected with this land in trust, and the legacy of ranching will remain intact.
The size of individual easement properties is less important than the richness of the biodiversity, the connectivity among parcels, and the overall combined acreage. Particularly important are connections that maintain corridors migrating wildlife follow from their summer grazing habitats to critical wintering grounds. For example, one contiguous series of lands provides access for ungulates such as mule deer, elk, and moose to the Sand Creek Desert in the sagebrush-steppes of western Fremont County.
The TRLT is staffed by impressively qualified individuals, their resumes sprinkled liberally with M.S. and B.S. biology and environmental science degrees from esteemed universities. With many years of combined experience, this capable team of professionals produces tangible results. A position at the TRLT offers an opportunity to manage many and varied resources, from mountains to wetlands, and has resume-building cachet: A recent Resource Specialist opening drew sixty-nine applicants from near and far—even one from the United Kingdom. Through its staff of ten, eleven board members, and thirty-nine partners, the TRLT is able to keep tightly to its mission: “To conserve agricultural and natural lands and to encourage land stewardship in the Upper Snake River Watershed for the benefit of today’s communities and as a legacy for future generations.”
Genesis of the Teton Regional Land Trust
This large ambition was not born overnight. In 1990, Michael Whitfield was the founding member of the original Teton Valley Land Trust, whose service area comprised just the Teton Basin. Mostly because of its prominent wetlands, this basin is ranked as the number-one private lands conservation priority area within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). Ironically, its beauty, diverse wildlife, and location along the west slope of the Tetons are the very qualities that could bring about more and more destructive human intrusion.
Whitfield’s vision, even twenty years ago, projected that the runaway pro-development, instant-resort values taking hold in places like the Colorado Rockies could equally target and impact the natural environments of Teton Basin. Whitfield holds an M.S. degree in biology from Idaho State University, was a Ph.D. candidate at Montana State University in conservation biology, and has conducted extensive field research on raptors in the GYE. What better person to lead the charge?
The Land Trust’s first effort took five years to bear fruit. The first easement was a discovery process in itself: Without the benefit of staff or pay, Whitfield navigated the myriad and complex pre-qualification, contractual, land-use, and stewardship details. It was signed into easement in January 1995. Thus began a proactive, collaborative nonprofit community organization that creates the opportunity for landowners to be proud partners in a conservation movement, while still holding on to their land.
In 1998, the Teton Valley Land Trust joined with the Fremont Heritage Trust to become the TRLT. The Six Springs Ranch is the land on which the TRLT’s offices sit today, occupying the original, converted and expanded farmhouse south of Driggs. In 2009, the TRLT met the rigorous quality standards set forth by the national Land Trust Alliance and was awarded the distinctive title of Accredited Land Trust.
Of the 5.8 million acres of land within the Upper Snake River Watershed, 3.7 million acres, or 63 percent, are public lands (state or federal) and 2.1 million acres are held privately. The efforts of the TRLT have brought more than 29,000 acres, or about 1 percent, of those private lands under protection.
“It is not the quantity, but the quality of the land based on our essential values,” explained Matt Lucia, TRLT stewardship director.
“Landowners are increasingly coming to us as they see the importance of protecting the wild nature of the region and its ranching heritage. Otherwise, when we see value and need in an area of private land, and it seems to meet our criteria, we will approach the landowner and ask that a conservation easement be considered.”
The 2009 addition of the 198-acre Breckenridge property is one of the more highly celebrated easements in TRLT history. Magnificent views that greet travelers as they descend into the valley from the north are now preserved. The Breckenridge easement contains wetlands, including one mile of Teton River frontage (twenty miles of the Teton River are now TRLT-protected; 110 miles of river and stream frontage total), lower portions of Spring Creek, and important wildlife habitat with elk, moose, and white-tailed deer wintering grounds. This easement also protects a four-generation family holding that began as a ranching operation in the late 1800s. It was the second conservation easement put in TRLT stewardship for the Breckenridge family, and they are contiguous—making it even more valuable for species such as long-billed curlew, Columbian sharp-tailed grouse, black-crowned night heron, and Yellowstone cutthroat trout.
