Success Stories

Lifelong Bitterroot Valley farmers and ranchers Bob and Laurie Sutherlin have spent decades establishing and growing Sutherlin Farms with a goal in mind: to keep their land in agriculture for generations to come. Bob was only a teenager when he first started buying cows, and until they could afford to buy their own, he and his wife Laurie rented ground to run their cattle and farm.

“When you grow up not having ground and have to put it together yourself, you take a different look at that land,” says Bob. “It’s something you worked your whole life for and wanted.”

Resting on some of the richest soil in all of Ravalli County, Sutherlin Farms is primarily used for irrigated crop production, including hay, alfalfa, grain and silage corn, all of which are grown to feed their cow/calf operation and herd of Red Angus that has seed stock all over the world.

“It takes good productive ground to raise enough hay to winter these cattle. You can’t just let it go away,” says Bob.

Nearly all of the farm – 99% to be exact – is identified by NRCS as “agriculturally important soil.” In addition to prime farmland, the property’s open space provides valuable wildlife habitat as well as areas for wildlife movement, especially for locally important species such as elk, deer, sandhill crane, bald and golden eagle, and other raptors.

With several other conservation easements close by and directly adjacent to the farm, the newly conserved Sutherlin Farms has added to the area’s preservation of open space near the Bitterroot River.

“Bob and Laurie making the decision to keep this ranch intact gives their grandkids the opportunity to carry on the family’s tradition of ranching when they grow up if they choose,” says daughter-in-law Lacey Sutherlin. “As parents, knowing they have that option to the contribute to the legacy in agriculture is really special for us.”

Thanks to the decision to conserve their farm, the Sutherlin family has guaranteed the preservation and enhancement of one more section of open space in western Montana – forever.

As soon as fifth generation Bitterroot rancher Drew Lewis was old enough to move out on his own from his family’s commercial dairy farm in the Bitterroot Valley, he was ready to pursue a new avenue that he was certain wouldn’t include farming.

“Everything is easy compared to dairy farming,” says Drew with a laugh. “When I graduated and started my own fencing operation, I moved entirely away from ranching. I was ready for something new.”

It wasn’t until he met his wife Kaci, also a Bitterroot Valley native, and started a family of their own that they realized they missed the ranching lifestyle after all, with a shared dream of having their own cattle and piece of property someday. They started to explore ways that would make it possible for them to start their own operation.

But, it wouldn’t be that easy. Land values in the Bitterroot Valley have skyrocketed over the past few years just as they have all over Montana, making it nearly impossible for young people to enter the ranching industry on their own.

“Growing up here, you take all the open space and this way of life for granted until you realize that opportunity might not be available for you anymore,” says Drew. “The ag world seems to be vanishing, and we were determined to find a way to be able to afford something of our own, especially now that the valley has such high land prices.”

After learning more about the conservation easement tool through extensive meetings with the Bitter Root Land Trust, Drew and Kaci made the decision to purchase a 420-acre ranch in the Burnt Fork area of Stevensville with the goal to conserve the property always at the forefront.

Thanks to critical funding received from the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Agricultural Land Easement Program and the Ravalli County Open Lands Bond, the Lewis family officially conserved Triple D Ranch in partnership with the Bitter Root Land Trust in the summer of 2022.

Named Triple D Ranch in honor of their three young children – Dash, Diem and Denali – the land consists mostly of hay and pasture ground that supports the family’s cattle operation, Skyline Angus. The ranch also serves as a wildlife corridor to a variety of different native species including elk and deer, adding to more than 7,000 protected acres of family farms, ranches and wildlife habitat in the Burnt Fork neighborhood alone, many of which were also made possible thanks to the funding support of the Agricultural Land Easement Program.

“We held true to our vision to conserve the ranch over the past few years, during a time when land values are incredibly high and we could have made more money selling the land to someone else,” says Drew. “Our motivation to work with the Bitter Root Land Trust to protect this place was in large part for the benefit of our kids. They all have their own cows that they are responsible for, help with chores and have come to love the ranching lifestyle. We want this to still be here for them and our grandkids someday.”

Thanks to the vision of the Lewis family, and critical support from funding partners like the NRCS, 420 acres of prime farmland is now protected forever.

The Bitterroot Valley draws people from all walks of life – each with their own backstory, passions, and unique reasons for calling this special place, “home.” But one commonality is prevalent across community members: a love for open space.

Gary Beadle was born and raised on a farm in the Midwest. He grew up learning to love everything that the farming lifestyle had to offer. When it came time for him to head out on his own, he landed in an urban area, with a career that placed him on the inside of an office – a complete opposite landscape from what he had always known.

“When I first met my husband Gary, he couldn’t have been doing anything different than how he grew up – always dressed for work in white shirt and trousers,” says Robin Beadle. “But I knew he was a farmer from his past and loved hearing the stories he would tell me from life on the farm. I was enchanted by it – and that my husband had that value system of understanding the importance of agriculture, growing your own food and hard work. We felt we needed to move elsewhere to get back to those roots.”

After feeling an instant connection to the Bitterroot during a trip in the early 2000’s, they decided to jump in with both feet and were able to purchase acreage in Victor, which they dubbed “Rory R Ranch.” During their early years in the valley, Gary and Robin quickly observed how the valley was changing. It concerned them.

“Coming from a large urban area like Chicago, over those 40 years, I saw such an explosion of suburban development with people purchasing all of this valuable agricultural land in Illinois and seeing it be divided into subdivision after subdivision,” says Gary. “I knew if there was going to be this heightened level of development in Ravalli County, that preserving the ag land would be critical.”

When a large ranch went up for sale west of Stevensville in the Burnt Fork neighborhood, the Beadles jumped at the opportunity to protect it from subdivision. Formerly known as the Mytty Ranch, they purchased a significant portion of it and instantly started to discuss the next steps, which would be to preserve the property for the future of agriculture in the valley.

“As soon as we bought the ranch in Stevensville, things really started to blow up here with land prices skyrocketing and more and more people moving to the valley,” says Robin. “The timing was perfect when we started talking with the Bitter Root Land Trust about the easement. It was almost meant to be.”

The Beadles were both very familiar with the concept of land conservation and the conservation easement tool when they began meeting with the land trust. It was something that they had been interested in doing from the very beginning with their Victor ranch, and what drove them to ultimately purchase the Stevensville ranch. After conservation staff visited the property, there was no doubt that this project would be a perfect model for a conservation easement.

The property is comprised of two large tracts of land totaling 1,260 acres of open-space rangeland that includes sagebrush shrublands and montane grasslands, along with miles of ephemeral creeks and riparian habitat, all of which collectively support locally important species such as elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer, and fox, and “Species of Concern” such as Brewer’s sparrow, evening grosbeak and sage thrasher. The shrublands and grasslands provide grazing opportunities for cattle, as well as scenic views of natural open space that can be enjoyed by the public traveling along a number of significant valley roadways.

“I know personally when I go to the larger grassland parcel, I can go up there and just get lost,” says Gary. “You look around, and it’s just amazing to look to the west and to the north, the south and the east, and all you see are mountains, grassland, and wildlife. It’s as if you’re in the middle of heaven. No structures, no people – just wildlife and natural beauty.”

And now, thanks to critical funding support from the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Agricultural Land Easement Program and the Ravalli County Open Lands Bond, 1,260 acres of the ranch are conserved.

“We’re just so happy that we were able to put this property in an easement and preserve it for future generations,” says Robin. “People move here with different intentions. This is a special place, and if we don’t reasonably protect it, it will be gone. We just want to keep it this way the best we can, forever.”

When Carola (Carol) Woolsey-Mielke’s parents Vernon and Maria Woolsey first started leasing the ground that is known today as Haywire Flats in 1948, the property consisted largely of sagebrush. They started working to clear off the bench area and, after many late nights and weekends with the help of their family, transformed the land into productive farmland which would eventually come to produce wheat, barley, and oats. The Woolsey family purchased the ranch in 1959 and it has remained in Carol’s family ever since, owned today by she and her husband Ed.

After Vernon passed away in 2006, the property was not used for agriculture again until several years later when Carol and Ed’s son-in-law Lance Brown expressed interest in farming the land. Unfortunately, with the shape it was in, it wouldn’t be that easy.

Since the ground was last farmed, the sagebrush had grown back and inched its way back onto the property. Bull thistles and other aggressive weeds had taken over. Fences were in bad condition, with a majority having to be replaced. It took time and energy to revive the ground, but eventually the family was able to get the job done.

“In respect for all the hard work my mom and dad did on this land, we figured out a plan to reclaim the bench property and were able to turn it back into usable land again,” says Carol. “Just as my dad would have wanted.”

After turning the soil, piling, and burning piles of sage, wheat was able to be planted once again. Sine that time, the property has been continually sprayed for weeds, and the sagebrush burned to keep it from infringing back onto the property. The property carries up to 40 pairs of cows and calves each year during the summer, leaving ample grazing for elk and mule deer and open space for other wildlife that frequent the property in the winter months.

“This piece of beautiful Bitterroot Land has always been a part of my life. My mother and father instilled in me the love of the land – especially the Sapphire Mountains. My mom was a Holocaust survivor, and she was very much into the land and that it was your responsibility to take care of it.”

And, by making the decision to place the 258-acre Haywire Flats into a conservation easement, the Mielkes have taken care of the property and its future, forever. The Haywire Flats property was the last piece of the puzzle that created a 7,150-acre contiguous link of open land preserved by numerous landowners in the Burnt Fork neighborhood for wildlife, agriculture and future generations that begins on the foothills of the Sapphire Mountains and runs to Logan Lane on the outskirts of Stevensville.

“When I was growing up, my dad and I would go ride the fences and check cows. We always ate our lunch in the shade of a huge old juniper tree, with Slocum Creek running close by. My dad would tell stories of growing up in the Bitterroot, and we would talk about life in general.”

In 2011, Carol and Ed hand-built a small dry cabin in that exact spot where they gather with their kids and grandkids often.

“It always seems that Dad is very close when I spend time there.”