Land Trust Member Profile: Gallatin Valley Land Trust

By Heart of the Rockies Initiative
April 8, 2025
Uncategorized

mission & key programs

Founded in 1990, Gallatin Valley Land Trust (GVLT) has a mission to connect people, communities, and open lands through the conservation of working farms and ranches, healthy rivers, and wildlife habitat, and the creation of trails in the Montana headwaters of the Missouri and Upper Yellowstone Rivers.

service area

Since our founding in 1990, we have helped conserve over 72,000 acres of land in Gallatin, Madison, and Park counties through partnerships with private landowners, using voluntary conservation agreements. Through public and private partnerships, GVLT has also helped build and expand the Main Street to the Mountains trail system in Bozeman to nearly 100 miles, providing recreation, transportation, and a connection to nature.

unique in the central rocky mountains

Gallatin Valley Land Trust’s land conservation focus areas, which are within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, hold some of the highest quality and most threatened conservation values in Montana, including agricultural lands, scenic open space, critical wildlife habitat for an array of iconic species, and water quality and quantity.

“I have watched this valley change so much. I don’t ever want to see this property, which has been in my family for generations, get covered in asphalt and houses. [A conservation easement] is the best vehicle to protect the land while still allowing us to use it.”