Call it a confluence of conservation with a great public access hook.
In 2022, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation worked with a traditional landowner and the Bureau of Land Management to conserve nearly 3,700 acres of pristine wildlife and riparian habitat in Montana’s popular Big Hole region, some 55 miles south of Butte in western Montana.
The transaction protects the connectivity of public land ownership, a migration corridor and elk calving and winter range. But it does much more than that.
The landscape also supplies important habitat for mule and whitetail deer, moose, pronghorn antelope, small game, upland birds and waterfowl.
Plus, since both the Big Hole River and Seymour Creek cross the property, it provides crucial riparian habitat for brook, brown, rainbow and westslope cutthroat trout as well as refuge for the last wild population of fluvial Arctic grayling in the Lower 48.
That watershed serves as an important linkage corridor between the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Continental Divide Ecosystems for lynx and grizzly bears.
RMEF carried out extensive conservation work in the immediate region, including conserving a 32,000-acre project 13 miles to the north 23 years earlier that now includes the Garrity Mountain Wildlife Management Area and expanding the Mount Haggin Wildlife Management Area that’s right next to this parcel.
And a major win goes to all who enjoy public access. Since BLM manages the property, it’s public land that’s open for hunting, fishing, hiking and other activities.
Creating and improving public access is a long-time focus of RMEF’s mission.
Since 1984 – RMEF has opened or improved public access to 1.6 million acres.
To view the sites and boundaries of RMEF land conservation and access projects, turn on the RMEF layer and use the code RMEF when you sign up for your onX subscription to receive a 20% discount.