It’s springtime on Lazy KD Ranch in Darby.
A deer’s shed antler lies on the ground surrounded by buttercups where it quietly fell – the sign of a shift in the season in the 
Bitterroot.
A sea of purple, bright yellow and pink stretches across the grassland like an endless patchwork quilt below the jagged, snow-capped Como Peaks. Lupine, arrowleaf balsamroot, shooting stars, and other wildflowers line either side of a dirt two-track that winds through the grassland to the forest line. The deep ruts from the wagon wheels that once used the road to travel to Lake Como are now replaced by hundreds of elk tracks, the only travelers that use it now.
Today, the ranch is quiet, but the land is awake – just as it’s always been, and, thanks to the Durland family and a new conservation easement, just as it will be for centuries to come.
Ever since Frank and Mary Cook, great grandparents of current landowners and siblings Les Durland and Larry Durland, Marti Ramsey and Melanie Durland, purchased the ranch in 1892, the ranch has played a central role in shaping the agricultural and ranching heritage of the town of Darby. The family generously allowed public access on the old road to Lake Como, which traveled through the ranch for decades. At one time, the Como Post Office operated out of the foyer of the ranch home, and the family gifted a portion of land across what is now Highway 93 to build the historic Como Schoolhouse. When the Big Ditch washed out on the property in 1939, Larry Durland, father of the Durland siblings, was integral in helping to rebuild the ditch with horse and plow.
“My father said to me, I want you to hang on to the ranch as long as I’m alive. After I die, I don’t care what you do,” says Les. “Well, Dad, it’s always gonna be a ranch.”
The newly protected 183-acre ranch is made up of productive, irrigated grassland for haying and cattle grazing, pristine wildlife habitat including grasslands, native rangeland, forest and riparian habitats, and scenic views of agricultural and open space from a variety of public roads for travelers and daily commuters to enjoy. The siphon for the Bitterroot River Irrigation District’s Big Ditch is also located within the property, providing critical irrigation water from Lake Como to thousands of acres of agricultural lands in the valley below.
Sitting in a uniquely narrow part of the valley near the Bitterroot National Forest, the land serves as a key area for wildlife movement from the Bitterroot and Sapphire Mountain Ranges. The ranch is within Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks’ designated winter range for both elk and mule deer, and the ranch’s rangelands, grasslands, shrublands, forest, and cottonwoods support wildlife including moose, black bear, and Species of Concern such as Great Blue Heron, Bald Eagle, Golden Eagle, and Lewis’ Woodpecker.
Situated at the southwest corner of Highway 93 and Old Darby Road, the ranch adds to more than 4,000 acres of land protected through completed and in-progress conservation easements in the Darby/Como corridor, made possible by local families in partnership with BRLT and partner conservation organizations.
“When I suggested to my siblings that we consider putting a conservation easement on the ranch, they agreed it was important to us that it always remains a ranch,” says Les. “We were fortunate that the Bitter Root Land Trust existed and was able to help achieve our goals.”
The Lazy KD Ranch conservation easement was funded by the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s (NRCS) Agricultural Land Easement (ALE) program, landowner donation, and local bond dollars from the county-voted Ravalli County Open Lands Bond Program.
For Bitterroot landowners, like the Durlands, who have been stewards of working lands for more than 100 years, their legacy has shaped our community and our valley’s agricultural and ranching heritage that is critically important to protect. Thank you to the Durland family for choosing to partner with BRLT to benefit agricultural land, wildlife habitat, and open space for the future of this valley, and to the Ravalli County Staff, County Commissioners and the Open Lands Bond Board for helping to bring this project across the finish line.
“We are grateful that the Durland family will always be a part of the Bitterroot Valley,” says Les. “If not in person, definitely in mind.”