A landmark agreement to streamline and enhance efforts to protect and conserve sage grouse habitat on Montana’s private lands was signed by the Soil and Water Conservation Districts of Montana, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the State of Montana yesterday at the Capitol in Helena.
This agreement, the first of its kind to be signed in the West, comes on the heels of Governor Bullock’s state sage grouse program and NRCS’s renewed commitment to the Sage Grouse Initiative, an NRCS-led partnership initiative. The Initiative provides private landowners across the West with working land solutions that also provide for sage grouse habitat.
[EasyDNNGallery|2290|Width|400|Height|400|position|left|resizecrop|False|lightbox|False|title|False|description|True|redirection|False|LinkText||]The Soil and Water Conservation Districts of Montana, an 80-year old non-profit organization that serves Montana’s 58 conservation districts, has been engaged with sage grouse conservation at the local level since 2011. They employ four range conservationists in eastern Montana to implement the Sage Grouse Initiative program with support from local conservation districts, non-government organizations, state and federal partners.
This agreement further solidifies the commitment by these partners to build and maintain a framework of cooperation to provide Montana ranchers with a local, common-sense approach to sage grouse conservation efforts. “We [conservation districts] do not have a lot of money and we rely on our state and federal partners for funding, but what we do have is the trust and working relationships with the local landowners and communities where sage grouse live,” said Jeff Wivholm, President of the Soil and Water Conservation Districts of Montana.
For more information about Montana's Sage Grouse Initiative and local partnerships, visit http://macdnet.org/programsevents/sage-grouse-initiative-in-montana/.
Copyright © 2015 Montana Association of Conservation Districts, All rights reserved.
