Conservation Boom Benefits Teton Valley

Supporters of farming, ranching and wildlife in Teton County have cause to celebrate. Private landowners in collaboration with the Teton Regional Land Trust and a variety of federal, state and private partners have protected 1,000 acres of key agricultural lands and fish and wildlife habitat in the past 12 months through permanent conservation easements. A conservation easement is a legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust that permanently limits uses of the land in order to protect its conservation values. The average allowable development on these new conservation easement properties is approximately one home per 165 acres.

 

In Spring 2008, Ed Schauster and Melissa Pangraze joined six other Teton County landowners who permanently protected their property through a conservation easement with TRLT in the past year. Ed and Melissa worked with TRLT and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game through the Landowner Incentive Program (LIP) to protect their 160-acre property for the benefit of at-risk wildlife species.

Idaho Fish and Game generously provided partial acquisition costs for the project, but approximately 80% of the easement value was donated by the landowners. Ed and Melissa were married on this property in 2000, and it holds a special place in their hearts.

It is also a special place for wildlife. Their property provides winter and transitional range for a herd of elk that summers in the Big Hole Mountains and depends on private lands along the Teton River corridor during winter.

The property also provides refuge for a number of vulnerable bird species such as Columbian sharp-tailed grouse and short-eared owl. Approximately 20 acres of the property are managed as a grain food plot to benefit sandhill cranes and waterfowl in the early spring and during fall migration. According to former Land Trust Stewardship Director Rob Cavallaro, "The Schauster-Pangraze property is a key conservation easement due to its value to both wintering big game and high conservation priority wildlife species like sandhills. We couldn’t ask for better land stewards than Ed and Melissa. They understand and care deeply for their land and the surrounding landscape."

The Teton River corridor received an extra measure of protection thanks to the Breckenridge family who granted a conservation easement on 80 acres at the confluence of Spring Creek and the Teton River. This property is part of one the oldest, continually operating cattle ranches in Teton Valley and still supports the family ranching operation. It also hosts a great variety of wetland-dependent wildlife such as moose, long-billed curlew, waterfowl and Yellowstone cutthroat trout. The landowners donated most of the value of the easement, but the acquisition was partially facilitated through funding from the North American Wetlands Conservation Council, the Bonneville Power Administration, the JKL Capital Fund and a bequest from the late Fred Mugler.

If you’re driving up Packsaddle Road to recreate, you might enjoy knowing that important private lands on and near the National Forest boundary are protected forever. The 125-acre McGlinsky-Norton property, near Rammel Hollow in the Big Hole Mountains, is a donated no-build conservation easement that buffers the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. This project is a mosaic of forested and mountain-shrub habitats that provide seasonal elk and mule deer habitat and shelters a variety of other wildlife such as black bear, northern goshawk, great gray owl and ruffed grouse. Transactional costs to complete this easement were donated by the JKL Capital Fund.

Down-slope from the McGlinsky-Norton easement, an additional 350 acres of land were protected by two landowners in the Packsaddle area. These properties are both active agricultural operations and were protected through a unique funding collaborative comprised of significant donation from the landowners, a bequest from the late Fred Mugler, funds from the Farm and Ranch Land Protection Program administered through the Natural Resources Conservation Service, financial support from the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and local neighbors. These properties, along with the Schauster-Pangraze and McGlinsky- Norton easements help preserve key agricultural lands and a connection for elk traveling between the Big Hole Range and the Teton River.

Further south in Teton Valley is the Rainbow Bend property pre-served by Bill and Libby Graham. In late 2007, the Grahams donated a conservation easement on this 160-acre parcel, reserving only one building area. The Rainbow Bend easement buffers the Teton River, preserving scenic quality for floaters and anglers. It also provides refuge for a variety of fish and wildlife - like wintering sharp-tailed grouse and trumpeter swans - and important nesting and brood-rearing habitat for waterbirds.

Nancy and Blaine Huntsman donated an easement on 120 acres along lower Fox Creek. This property lies within the Foster’s Slough wetland complex and hosts a remarkable variety of fish and wildlife including spawning Yellowstone cutthroat trout, nesting long-billed curlew, wintering trumpeter swans and moose. The Huntsman family has completed major habitat restoration on Fox Creek and have enhanced wetlands on the property to benefit wildlife.

Due to the generosity and vision of private landowners, Teton Regional Land Trust now holds permanent conservation easements on 9,500 acres in Teton County. And the conservation boom continues. The Land Trust is currently working with Teton County landowners to preserve another several thousand acres of important farm/ranchlands and fish and wildlife habitat in the next two years. ■