 |
|||||
| December 1998 UM assists with unique
People from all over the world also visit the E Bar L, which is one of the oldest continually operated guest ranches in the West. It's a place with the power to renew mind, body and soul. Ranch owner Bill Potter said his dad fell in love with area while working as a surveyor for the Milwaukee Railroad in 1913, and the family has been a prominent fixture in the valley ever since. Potter knows the ranch is special - England's Prince William even vacationed there a few years ago - and he wants to ensure the area is preserved for future generations. So his family entered into a conservation easement agreement this fall with the Nature Conservancy and The University of Montana to forever shelter 4,000 acres from development. "What we are trying to do is establish something for perpetuity," Potter said, gesturing at a stand of timber on the ranch while white-tailed deer grazed behind him. "You can't just walk away and think this will always be the same." The easement, which prohibits subdivision and new homes, is unique because it allows for harvesting ranch timber resources in a sustainable, ecologically based manner. The easement also requires active forestry management from the Potter family, the Nature Conservancy and UM.
The land is about six miles northeast of UM's 28,000-acre Lubrecht Experimental Forest, which is used by the University's School of Forestry for research, demonstration projects and education. Lubrecht director Hank Goetz was instrumental in developing the conservation easement for the Potters. "We basically view this as an extension of the Lubrecht Forest," Goetz said. "We have had a good working relationship with the Potters for the past 25 years or so, and this agreement will help us maintain that relationship. Bill has always been good about allowing us to use the ranch for research and demonstration - basically the same things we use Lubrecht for." Goetz said the easement is cutting-edge because it requires active forest stewardship. It's the only conservation easement of its kind in Montana. The Nature Conservancy is an organization committed to preserving plants, animals and natural communities and diversity. The organization will contract with UM to help manage the ranch's timberlands. One clause in the easement limits cutting on the land to annual growth. Goetz said new growth is about 150 board feet per acre annually in that area, so about 500,000 board feet - roughly 100 truckloads of logs - still could be harvested each year. UM staff and possibly forestry students will monitor the easement to ensure the proper amount of timber is harvested. "We wanted to set a limit but not tie the hands of future landowners," Goetz said. "Who knows? Markets and technology may change in the future, so we wanted to leave a little leeway." The Potters, UM staff and Nature Conservancy officials will meet every September to decide together how to best manage the easement land. Signing the easement gave the Potters benefits other than good forest management and preservation of their land for the future. Since the land can't be subdivided, its value has dropped, which gives the Potter family tax breaks. Goetz said Bill and Betty Potter are role models for how private landowners should strive to increase the health of their timberlands. The Potters have developed their own logging methods, and Goetz said they are moving toward an uneven management style, in which trees of different ages are located together, creating a healthier forest. The Potters often leave the best trees in a stand, making the forest more like what occurs in nature. Their method of logging also provides a long-term flow of income that is sustainable over the years. Bill said his ranch was one of the first places logged in the Blackfoot Valley back in 1885, and he dreams of returning his forests to prelogging condition. "It takes four or five generations to establish a good stand of timber," Potter said. "What I'm trying to do is establish a tradition." -- Cary Shimek
|
|||||
 |
MAIN HALL TO MAIN STREET HOME |
||||
