Land preservation includes rare firefly habitat

The Flathead Land Trust last week secured more than 300 acres of land to conserve critical habitat for the tens of thousands of migratory birds that use the Flathead area’s wetlands each year.

Laura Katzman, a land protection specialist with the land trust, said the two tracts of land in the Smith and Mission valleys provide migratory waterfowl with a place to rest and find food during their grueling transcontinental trips.

Visible from the bike path to Kila, a 142-acre tract of land donated to the organization by Ron and Carley Iverson will eventually become part of the Smith Lake Waterfowl Production Area.

“It’s some really high-quality wetland,” Katzman said. “It’s most important to migratory waterfowl, but there are many other birds that use the area.”

Her organization also purchased a conservation easement on 159 acres in the Mission Valley, using part of a $1 million grant through the North American Wetlands Conservation Act.

The land will remain in private ownership, with no public access, but Katzman said the 38-acre wetland within the property is notable for its high level of biodiversity.

“They’re really unique wetlands — you can be standing in one spot and see skunk cabbage, aspen and ponderosa pine,” she said. “To see them all together, so close, is really neat.”

Located near the National Bison Range, the easement includes more than half of a mile of Sabine Creek and a half mile of an unnamed spring-fed creek.

Because the springs provide relatively warm water throughout the year, she added that it is one of just two places west of the Continental Divide in Montana that harbor fireflies.

The other place is a patch of wetlands north of Bigfork.

The easement provides a migration corridor between the Mission Mountains and the bison range. Deer, grizzly and black bears, hawks and waterfowl are known to frequent the property.

“We’re really appreciative that there are landowners interested in preserving this valuable wetland and fish and wildlife habitat on their property,” Katzman said. “It’s the landowners and the people of the valley leaving a legacy for all of us to enjoy for years to come.”

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.