A conservation easement, carefully crafted to reflect the unique qualities of the land and landowner’s goals, is just the beginning of our relationship with a private landowner. GVLT has a responsibility to steward conservation values in perpetuity. Once a conservation easement is in place, GVLT staff work with landowners to sustain the long-term conservation values specific to each property and to support landowners’ land management efforts that help enhance wildlife habitat and conserve land. At least once per year, we contact the landowners of all conservation easements and monitor each property to ensure that the terms of each conservation easement are being upheld.


GVLT works to refer landowners to appropriate local resources and experts, resources that our landowners find helpful. Click here for a comprehensive list of resources available on issues like forestry, weeds, water, wildlife management, and range management.

If you have a resource that you recommend, please submit your suggestions to: GVLT Stewardship, P.O. Box 7021, Bozeman MT 59771 or email our Stewardship manager, Peter Brown, at peter@gvlt.org.

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Agriculture

The Gallatin Valley has some of the most productive agricultural soils in the region and also one of the highest rates of farmland converted to development in the Western U.S. GVLT is proud to have partnered with dozens of families where our soils are the most productive – around Amsterdam-Churchill, Gooch Hill, and the East Gallatin River corridor. These conservation projects help keep families on their farms and ranches and help ensure that this land will always be available to agriculture.

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Open Space

Spectacular 360-degree views of open lands and mountain ranges are part of what make our region so special. This spectacular viewshed is threatened by residential subdivision and sprawl. Thanks to the vision and generosity of our conservation easement donors, the Gallatin Valley Land Trust been able to protect some of the most important scenic resources in the area. One example is a series of three conservation easements near South Cottonwood Canyon. The Wolny family donated one of GVLT’s first conservation easements, and since then we have conserved two adjacent properties on the Buck/Butterfield and Bos farms, protecting more than 1,200 acres of scenic resources stretching all the way to the Gallatin National Forest. This view will be forever protected from residential development.

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Wildlife Habitat

Since our inception in 1990, GVLT has focused much of its conservation efforts on private lands with high value for wildlife habitat. Our first conservation easement on Bozeman Pass helped begin protection of that critical wildlife corridor, and since then we’ve completed dozens of projects in wildlife movement corridors, critical elk habitat, mule deer winter range, grizzly habitat, and important river corridors and riparian areas. In addition, GVLT is proud to partner with private landowners on restoration and habitat enhancement projects when possible. One example is the Murphy Ox Yoke Ranch, where GVLT, Trout Unlimited, and the Murphy family worked to restore habitat for native cutthroat trout. After over 80 years of being dewatered, this project restored water to Fridley Creek and Yellowstone Cutthroat trout have returned to this drainage.

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Public Access

From time to time, a landowner contacts GVLT with interest in providing permanent public access to their land. Two of GVLT’s recent conservation projects, the Oyler easement (2007) and the Half Circle Ranch (2009), are just such projects. The Oyler conservation easement provides public access to over 250 acres of land along the Gallatin River and provides access to over 400 acres of state land that was previously land locked. The Half Circle Ranch includes permanent access to the North Cottonwood Trail in the Bridger Mountain’s western foothills. Both projects give the public unique access through private land and could not have been completed without the generosity of private landowners.