Easement to protect N. Fork land

The Missoula-based Vital Ground Foundation announced Thursday that a conservation easement has been secured on a 160-acre parcel of land in the North Fork Flathead River drainage and a new grant program has contributed toward a conservation project on the lower Flathead River.

“Focused on protecting habitat specific to the needs of the threatened grizzly bear, the Cedar Creek Conservation Easement is Vital Ground’s first project in this corner of the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem,” the foundation said in a press release.

“As development pressures from the growing community of Columbia Falls push into more remote and wild areas like the protected property, the easement will ensure the permanent protection of the property’s wildlife, riparian and open space values,” it continued.

The foundation did not identify the property owner.

Grizzly bears have been documented in the vicinity of the Cedar Creek property, which supports an abundance of seasonal food sources. Extensive wetlands produce early spring forage, an important food source after bears emerge from dens, along with high-calorie serviceberries and huckleberries during the summer.

The Helena-based Cinnabar Foundation awarded Vital Ground a grant to fund the conservation easement purchase.

Since it was established in 1990, Vital Ground has helped protect and enhance more than 604,000 acres of habitat crucial to grizzly bears and other wildlife in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Alaska and British Columbia.

The Travelers for Open Land program was launched last year, and recently awarded four Montana land trusts a total of $10,000 for conservation projects.

The Flathead Land Trust was among the recipients, getting $2,500 that will be put toward a conservation project on the Louden family farm near Church Slough on the Flathead River.

The project is part of the broader Flathead River to Lake Initiative, which has secured land purchases and conservation easements on a series of properties in the lower Flathead Valley and the north shore of Flathead Lake.