Perched just to the south of the Burnt Fork drainage in Stevensville, where more than 7,000 acres of working lands have been conserved over the last decade by local families in partnership with BRLT, sits Sunset Bench – a natural, long section of prime agricultural land and wildlife habitat with steep slopes leading to the green valley below.
Landowners Mike Sylvester and Meghan Hanson look around at the ground they protected through a conservation easement in 2019 in partnership with BRLT and think about what might have been – which, more than likely, would have been a subdivision. With panoramic mountain views of the Bitterroot and Sapphire Mountain ranges, this piece of land was ripe for development. The property was subdivided into 13 different lots, complete with septic, wells, and underground electric.
“This is the right thing to do,” says Mike. “Other parts of the country have already changed so much. To have these open spaces is amazing.”
With conservation values including a mix of agriculture, ponderosa pine forest (with a year-round spring for wildlife) and open sage fields, Mike and Meghan saw a brighter, more open future for the land which serves as a secluded haven for wildlife.
When it came time for Mike and Meghan to consider building a residence on the property, they agreed they wanted to have as low of an impact on the land as possible. As such, they planned for a net zero small house on the edge of the property – the first in Montana to be certified Passive House through PHIUS (read more about the design here). They sited the home on an area previously disturbed as a riding area with storage sheds nearby that have been repurposed as a garden shed and a bunk house.
“This home is 5.5 miles away from where I was born and spent the first 17 years of my life,” says Meghan. “Having moved away I returned back to this piece of land so spectacular it required that a home here be integrated into and take nothing from it.”
Through working with BRLT to place a conservation easement on the property, the character of the property, as well as Sunset Bench and the surrounding Burnt Fork neighborhood, will continue to be safeguarded for future generations.
“We feel fortunate to have this choice,” says Mike. “The decision to conserve the property was clear, these are special places. My hope is that this inspires more landowners to consider conserving their land.”
Thank you to landowners Mike and Meghan for their vision for conservation, and to supporters like you for helping to make it possible.
