by John Dowd
“My philosophy is that you can always make more money, but you can’t make more land,” said Charlie DeVoe, a landowner in the Bitterroot Valley. He, among many others, decided to work with a local nonprofit organization called the Bitter Root Land Trust, in order to help preserve his property from subdivision in perpetuity. He explained that, as more land is bought, sold and broken into parcels, the open natural environment of Montana is disappearing. He believes that in order to protect the future of the natural environment and the animals and plants that live on it, something must be done to stop development. “Stop thinking about yourself and think about the next generation,” said DeVoe.
DeVoe owns about half of a 820-acre parcel in the upper portion of the Burnt Fork area. The area is a pristine wildlife habitat, and natural as it was before civilization. His property is home to a year-round herd of nearly 300 elk that move in and out of the area. DeVoe says there are over 150 types of native wildflowers, natural springs and an environment for numerous large and small game animals. In order to protect the space, he pushed for his sister, who previously owned the entire parcel, to place the piece into a conservation easement with the trust.
According to DeVoe, his father bought the property in 1979 with the intention to parcel it off and sell it, making money from its subdivision. When his father passed, the parcel ended up in his sister Sarah’s name, and DeVoe, who had spent much time on the property and appreciated it, knew it was time to act. He brought his sister, who had spent very little, if any, time on the property, to see what it was really about. After seeing the beauty and numerous animals including the elk, they agreed to set it up through a partnership with the Bitter Root Land Trust. She also did so for financial reasons that are available when setting up such an agreement.
“There’s not another place I’ve found with more diverse wildlife in such a small area,” said DeVoe. “The animals are here year-round, and they’ve been here much longer than we have.
You start to take that away, and they’re going to run out of places to live.” DeVoe bought half of the property in order to further preserve and enjoy that half. “I wanted to leave it as natural as possible.”
“For the past 25 years, we’ve leased pasture out for grazing every year to local ranchers. It helps us, because it keeps the fire hazard down and benefits the health of the land, while offering a place for ranchers to run their cattle during a time when land is getting harder and harder to find around the Bitterroot,” added Charlie. “It’s a win for everybody.”
DeVoe urges other landowners to do the same as he did to preserve the natural majesty of the valley. The land trust aided him in preserving the land in its full acreage, preventing it from ever being subdivided, even after it is passed down through future generations. The agreement also limits development on the property, acting like a snapshot as it is once it goes into the agreement.
“The momentum we’ve seen by landowners who want to conserve their properties all over the valley, and especially in the Burnt Fork neighborhood, is becoming a national model for conservation in the land trust community,” says Melissa Odell, Lands Director at the Bitter Root
Land Trust. “The DeVoe property is a fantastic example of the wide variety of important
Bitterroot values that we work with landowners to conserve. The diverse wildlife, water, forest, rangeland and scenic views of open space will be here forever thanks to the vision of Charlie and Sarah. Our community is fortunate to have landowners like the DeVoes, and our landowners are fortunate for the overwhelming support of conservation by our community.”
For more information on the Bitter Root Land Trust, interested parties can call (406) 375-0956 or visit www.bitterrootlandtrust.org.