Mission & Key Programs
Five Valleys Land Trust has served the lands, waters, and communities of western Montana since 1972. We are driven by our mission, “To protect for future generations western Montana’s natural legacy—our water, wildlife habitats, agricultural lands, and community open spaces.” We accomplish this through our two main programs: conservation and stewardship.
Our conservation program works collaboratively with private landowners, governmental agencies, tribes, and other organizations to conserve private lands. The primary tool of this work is voluntary, perpetual conservation easements. To date, Five Valleys has completed nearly 200 different conservation easement projects.
Our conservation program also helps facilitate public acquisition of community open lands. Over the last half-century, Five Valleys has facilitated 50+ public land acquisitions including beloved community landmarks such as Mount Jumbo, Mount Sentinel, Alberton Gorge, the Route of the Olympian Trail, Rock Creek, and Marshall Mountain, among many others. Combined, Five Valleys’ conservation program has helped to permanently conserved over 100,000 acres across our region.
Our stewardship program underpins our work, ensuring that the lands we have protected remain whole and healthy in perpetuity, in partnership with our conservation easement landowners. This program also cares for the three properties that Five Valleys owns and manages for the benefit of the public: the Rock Creek Confluence near Clinton, the Lincoln Community River Park in Lincoln, and the Mount Dean Stone Community Forest outside of Missoula. Five Valleys’ stewardship program cares for 86,300+ acres every year.
These programs are supported by our Operations, Development, and Outreach programs, as well as our robust Hands on the Land volunteering program. Hands on the Land mobilizes community volunteers to restore and improve conservation lands and support our work. In 2024, Five Valleys engaged 190 volunteers who donated 1,125+ hours to conservation.
service area
Five Valleys’ service area includes rugged mountain ranges, expansive river valleys, and rolling montane grasslands across ten counties of western Montana. The five river valleys that Five Valleys Land Trust serves are the Blackfoot Valley, Upper Clark Fork Valley, Bitterroot Valley, Lower Clark Fork Valley, and the Mission-Jocko Valley. This region lies entirely within the aboriginal territories of the Séliš and Ql̓ispé people of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.
unique in the transboundary rocky mountains
Five Valleys Land Trust’s service area is unique in that it represents a crossroads between four continentally significant ecosystems: The Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem, the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and the Bitterroot-Selway Ecosystem. These ecosystems support and safeguard the species that have existed in the Northern Rockies for millennia. The five river valleys that connect these ecosystems also nurture productive agricultural lands and provide for diverse recreational opportunities.
Five Valleys’ service area is entirely encompassed by the traditional territories of the Séliš and Ql̓ispé people of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. It also home to Montana’s second largest urban area – Missoula – as well as dozens of resilient and unique Western communities.
Permanent protection of open lands in this region will ensure that western Montana’s waters, wildlife, agricultural lands, and community connection to them endures for generations to come.
project highlight
Learn about the Indreland Ranch project here.
Photo in header by Jason Savage Photography.
