Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Bar B Ranch receives levy funding

Conservation project is second in Blaine County

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By KATHERINE WUTZ
Express Staff Writer

Owners of the Bar B Ranch near Carey will receive $140,000 from the Blaine County Land, Water and Wildlife Levy to help place 732 acres of the ranch under a conservation easement.

Blaine County commissioners approved the use of the funds Monday. This is the second project to receive funding from the Land, Water and Wildlife Levy, a two-year, $3.4 million assessment on county property taxes meant to preserve open land and farm space from development.

Clare Swanger, project coordinator for the Land, Water and Wildlife Levy, said the county is only paying 36.8 percent of the total cost of the easement; the rest of which will be paid by The Nature Conservancy.

“Financial leverage for the county is almost 2 to 1,” she said during the Monday meeting.

Mark Davidson, spokesman for The Nature Conservancy, said the ranch is important to preserve, both because it’s a working family ranch and also because it has important wildlife habitat.

“This project is not just about the wildlife,” Davidson said. “It’s about [owner] Jim [Barton] and his family.”

Davidson said the ranch, which is mostly sagebrush steppe, is important habitat for sage grouse and pronghorn antelope. Part of the ranch has already been placed under an easement through the Grassland Reserve Program, a program through the Natural Resources Conservation Service intended to protect sage grouse habitat.

With the completion of the Nature Conservancy-owned easement, the entire ranch will be protected from development in perpetuity.

The project was approved in concept by the Blaine County Commission in October 2011, but took 10 months to obtain final approval. Swanger said in an interview that such a time frame is not unusual for easements of this type, and was actually somewhat faster than she expected.

“Everybody wants to get them done, and you want to do them yesterday,” she said. “But to do it right takes whatever it takes.”

The commissioners complimented Barton and the Land, Water and Wildlife Levy Advisory Board for working to bring the project to its close.

“This was a project that took a long time and a lot of work,” Commissioner Larry Schoen said. “The outcome here is once again exemplary.”

The first project to receive county funds was a 1,100-acre conservation easement held by the Flat Top Ranch near Carey, owned by John and Diane Peavey. Blaine County contributed $200,000 toward the purchase of that conservation easement in December.

Kate Wutz: kwutz@mtexpress.com

 

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