The road to conservation is unique for every family that BRLT has the honor of working with to protect the land they love. The Ellison family’s legacy of over six decades spent ranching in the Bitterroot inspired siblings Dan, Mike, Sarah, Cathy, and Rebecca to pursue the protection of their family ranch so that future generations would have the opportunity to create their own memories on the land someday.
“Mom and Dad bought the ranch in 1960,” says Dan, recalling memories of moving from Florence to what became the Ellison Ranch. “When it came time for us to move to Stevensville, we drove cows and calves from a ranch on Eight-mile Creek down the Eastside Highway on horseback. That’s just the way you did it back then.”
Parents A.C. and Jean led the Ellison family in making the ranch their own, farming hay and corn for silage to support their cow/calf operation. Bisected by North Burnt Fork Creek, the ranch has always been, and continues to be, critical habitat for wildlife including whitetail and mule deer, turkeys, great blue heron, a variety of waterfowl, great-horned owls, sandhill cranes, and many raptor species.
“Back then, my folks weren’t too conservation oriented,” Dan continues. “They were totally focused on raising their five children and making a living in agriculture. But when we did a restoration project along North Burnt Fork Creek on the ranch in 2011, there was a bald eagle nest in a cottonwood tree there. Dad would drive Mom over to look at the eagles often, and it became a big deal for them – it got them started thinking about how to balance a livestock operation with what they could do for wildlife.” Having an endangered species, and the symbol of our nation, nesting on their ranch was the catalyst that got them thinking more seriously about conservation.
The creek restoration project, a partnership with Montana Trout Unlimited, allowed them to fence both sides of North Burnt Fork Creek where it bisects the property, protecting riparian vegetation and preventing streambank erosion from cattle. A major replanting effort followed a year later, and its positive results are visible throughout the stream corridor.
Mike reflects on the need to expand protected lands in the Bitterroot Valley.
“Our family has lived in the Bitterroot for 70 years and has seen dramatic changes – not all of which are for the better. As teenagers we could spend a day fishing on the Bitterroot River and not see another person. The project in 2011 to protect Burnt Fork Creek was a small, but important step for wildlife conservation. Now it’s a visible reminder of the value of open space in the valley, and will give future generations a glimpse of what life was once like in this part of the last, best place.”
After their father passed away in 2012, Jean and the Ellison siblings made the decision to lease the ranch out to a local ranching family.
“When Dad passed away, the ranch was running 660 head of yearling cattle and there really wasn’t a way for a transition to continue ranch operations in the next family generation,” says Dan. “With none of the siblings there to help mom it was harder to continue running yearlings on the ranch. But it was still important to all of us for it to stay in agriculture. Leasing it out first to the Myttys, and then to the Sutherlins, two great local ranching families, has made it possible to keep the ranch focused on livestock operations and preserving open space instead of it becoming a residential or commercial development.”
With a long-term lease in place, Mike, Sarah, and Dan got to work on a long-term plan. Despite being miles apart from one another- in Helena, the Pacific Northwest, and even London- they worked together to find a way to protect the ranch in perpetuity. A conservation easement tool, they learned, could help accomplish that.
“There is no way we could have protected the ranch if we hadn’t worked together as a team,” says Dan. “We talked about it, looked at the pluses and minuses, and decided it was worth it to forego income if that ground would eventually be developed, as opposed to knowing that it’s going to stay in agriculture in perpetuity. The easement combines protection for the wildlife the ranchland supports, a Montana lifestyle for future owners of the ranch, and continuation of the valley’s ongoing history in livestock and agriculture. We are overjoyed that with the help of the Land Trust we were able to get this easement over the goal line and get it done.”
Situated northeast of downtown Stevensville, the ranch is a proximal expansion of the more than 7,000 acres of contiguous private conservation easements completed by local landowners in partnership with BRLT and other land trusts in the Burnt Fork neighborhood. The Burnt Fork, named after the Burnt Fork Creek which starts in the Sapphire Mountains and flows through the neighborhood, is an area that has been used primarily for agriculture since the homesteading days. Officially completed in October, the Ellison Ranch conservation easement adds another 344 acres in the area that will be protected forever.
Reflecting on the project, Sarah says, “The valley has changed so much over the course of my life and this conservation easement preserves a portion of the valley. It keeps it rural. The connected land parcels that have been protected along South Burnt Fork Creek by the Land Trust creates a wildlife corridor that represents the landscape of my Montana childhood seventy years ago. It is a model of open lands preservation.”
The project was made possible thanks in part to funding received from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service’s (NRCS) Agricultural Land Easement (ALE) program and the Ravalli County Open Lands Bond Program. With bond dollars passed by Ravalli County voters in 2022, the Open Lands Bond Program features an approval process that includes a comprehensive 5 phase review by the Ravalli County Open Lands Bond Board, County staff, and the Board of County Commissioners.
“I’m delighted that our County Commission was supportive of our project, that the people of Ravalli County passed the Open Lands Bond, and to the members of the Open Lands Bond Board for being so supportive of the effort,” says Dan.
And, thanks to the Ellison family’s support of conservation, future landowners will have the opportunity to fulfill a dream of working in agriculture just as their family did. Speaking on behalf of the family, Dan concludes,
“When the ranch is eventually sold, it will be sold with the conservation easement deeded. We hope that someday, a young couple will be able to live on the ranch and start a family built around ranching values – hopefully another generation that’s attracted to the Montana lifestyle of agriculture, livestock and open space that would continue to use and care for the ranch as it’s been used for decades.”
To learn more about the Ravalli County Open Lands Program, visit the Ravalli County website. To learn more about the NRCS RCPP program, click here.
Photos by BRLT volunteer Nathan Wotkyns, Wide Angle Photography