Montana Project Conserves Tobacco Roots Habitat and Opens More Public Access

Here is a land deal that actually means something on the ground: more protected habitat and more room for the public to hunt, hike and backpack in southwest Montana.

In the Tobacco Root Mountains west of Bozeman, a 396-acre private parcel has been conserved through a sale to the U.S. Forest Service, with RMEF helping facilitate the deal. The ground sits on the northwest end of the range in a mix of grasslands and mountain foothills with curl-leaf mahogany, Douglas fir, Rocky Mountain juniper and limber pine. It supports elk, mule deer and moose winter range and serves as year-round range and a migration corridor for pronghorns.

The access piece is just as important. The project also improves public access to more than 2,757 acres of Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest and BLM lands that were difficult to reach because of rugged terrain. That is not a talking point. That is boots on public dirt where access was harder before.

The land had been in the Hunt family since the 1960s. Instead of selling it off for more subdivision pressure, landowner Paul Hunt worked toward putting it in public hands. That is the kind of decision that lasts long after one hunting season.

Habitat conservation, working with willing landowners and opening real access are how we keep western hunting from becoming a rich man’s museum piece. Protect the winter range, keep migration routes functioning and let regular people use the land they help support.