Montana Land Board overhauls land-swap process

The Montana Land Board voted Monday to overhaul the process it uses to evaluate land-swap proposals. This is the first time the Land Board has made sweeping changes to Montana’s land-swap policy in more than 20 years, and it happened with limited public notice.

State Auditor James Brown introduced the proposal. Jack Connors, the chief lawyer working for the State Auditor’s Office, described the change as a “red-tape reduction” initiative that eliminates “unnecessary bureaucracy.” Brown added that it will address water- and corner-crossing related disputes and create multiple opportunities for interested parties to comment, thereby adding transparency to the process.

But opponents pointed out that the proposal itself didn’t incorporate a robust public notice and comment period. They argued, unsuccessfully, for more time to evaluate it. 

“This is big,” said Kevin Farron with Montana Wildlife Federation. “This is opaque. This is something that was given to the public seven days ago in its full form … A 30-day scoping and comment period should be the very least that we should be getting out of this.”

Gov. Greg Gianforte’s motion to add a 30-day comment period to Brown’s proposal failed on a 3-2 vote. At the close of Monday’s meeting, the board voted Brown’s proposal through, 4-0. Gianforte abstained from the final vote. 

Land swaps allow state land managers to exchange public land for private land of “equal or greater value” to the state, which uses revenue from its trust land to support public schools and other government programs. There are more than 5 million acres of state trust lands in Montana that are administered by the Land Board, in coordination with the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. The Land Board, which is composed of Montana’s top five elected officials, has the authority to approve exchanges, which are often used to consolidate land ownership in areas where public and private land are interspersed in a checkerboard pattern that creates public access challenges.

Key pieces of Brown’s plan adhere to the existing policy and the state laws from which they flow. But there are some notable shifts in the use of consultants and in the process for evaluating a property’s economic and recreational value.

One section of the policy, for example, specifies that while trust land should generally “be valued for its highest and best use,” considerations will be made for “limiting factors.” It instructs the DNRC to apply a “commercially reasonable discount” for state lands lacking a documented legal access — e.g., land that is in the checkerboard. 

Another change pertains to a state law specifying that state lands with bodies of water that have significant public use — or access to navigable lakes and streams — can only be swapped for private land with similar water resources. Brown’s policy narrows the definition to specify that the state water resources must have a “documented history of being meaningfully used for crop irrigation, livestock watering, fishing, recreational floating activities or waterfowl hunting” to be subject to that law.

Multiple opponents appeared to reference the East Crazy Inspiration Divide Land Exchange in their comments as evidence of what can go wrong when powerful landowners use paid consultants to broker deals with public agencies. That agreement was executed with help from a pair of real estate consultants and a public relations professional hired by the Yellowstone Club, the private ski and golf club near Big Sky and one of the parties to the exchange. The Forest Service authorized the swap in January of 2025. 

“Recent third-party brokered land exchanges in Montana have produced deals where the public received high-elevation terrain of limited utility, while giving up productive lower-elevation land and established recreational access,” argued Russell Fruits with the Montana chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers during comment on the proposal. “Those outcomes are not accidents. They’re what happens when no one is in the room to independently be accountable to the public.”

The proposal drew support from several well-known lobbyists who frequent the halls of the Capitol, including Raylee Honeycutt with the Montana Stockgrowers Association, Clayton Elliott with Trout Unlimited, Ben Lamb with the Montana Conservation Society and former Democratic lawmaker Tom Jacobson, who lobbied for eight entities during the 2025 Legislature, including the Taylor Luther Group, which represents the interests of some of Montana’s highest-profile businesses and landowners.

“Montana’s Constitutional guarantees are unchanged: land values must at least be equal [and] acreage as close to equal as possible,” Jacobson said. “Land swaps are not inherently bad. Controversy arises from lack of early public input, and this policy directly fixes this. I ask for a do pass.”

Discussion among the all-Republican Land Board was tense during the board’s hourlong meeting. Brown enumerated his attempts to engage DNRC in the policy revision and expressed frustration with the agency’s unresponsiveness. Gianforte interrupted 10 minutes into Brown’s comment, directing him to stop repeating himself and wrap up his thoughts.

Attorney General Austin Knudsen supported the proposal, arguing that Brown and his office had used “thoughtful outreach” to garner support from unlikely allies.

“Clayton, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a time when you and stockgrowers may be on the same sheet of music,” he said, referring to Clayton Elliott with Trout Unlimited. “I think this puts the power back where it needs to be, which is with the five of us right here and not inside the bureaucracy [of the DNRC].”

Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen said little during the Monday meeting. Susie Hedalen with the Office of Public Instruction voted to approve the change, arguing that issues arising from the use of consultants “can always be proposed for us to review again.”