Serving land trusts
Keeping family farms, ranches, and timber lands in family hands.
About
Land trusts formed the Heart of the Rockies Initiative in 2002 to increase their collective capacity to conserve important agricultural and natural lands across the Rocky Mountain West. Although each land trust is independent and deeply rooted in their local communities, they believed that by working together they could tell a bigger, more compelling story to build broader recognition of the region’s agricultural and resource values, bring more funding to the region to meet landowner’s needs, and better conserve landscape-scaled resources like fish and wildlife connectivity. Together, they are also building more equitable organizations and ensuring our work impacts all communities in the region.
Heart of the Rockies Initiative is based in Missoula, Montana, and its land trust members work across five states and two Canadian provinces: Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, northern Utah, eastern Washington, Alberta, and British Columbia.
OUR FLAGSHIP PROGRAM
The Keep It Connected program aims to strategically protect private land critical to retaining wildlife connectivity—the vital ability for wildlife to move between habitats as seasons change and populations expand—across the transboundary Central Rocky Mountains of North America. Keep It Connected is structured around a portfolio that includes active and ready private land conservation projects from our 30 land trusts members that are in need of funding.
Heart of the Rockies Initiative manages the portfolio. We are uniquely positioned to lead this strategic effort because of our strong relationships and trust with local and regional land trusts and landowners, local Tribes, and government agencies. Our focus on current scientific information and our collaborative approach maintains these important relationships.
Fund Development
We work to bring new funding into the landscape to support land trust operations and conservation projects, making conservation dollars go farther by leveraging this with regional, state, and federal match.
Heart of the Rockies Initiative maintains a private Keep It Connected website for donors only. This provides a secure opportunity for donors to review connectivity projects that each land trust features.
The Keep It Connected donor website is accessible by registration only to protect sensitive land trust and property owner information. Land trusts announce projects publicly after completion.
Science
We help bring the latest science and data so land trusts can make strategic decisions about where to invest their limited time and resources.
The Keep It Connected team at the Initiative has also developed trusted relationships with state and federal agencies and Tribes to gain access to sensitive wildlife data for use with our 30 land trust members. These data can include state wildlife telemetry data by species, wildlife migration models for each state and grizzly bear habitat connectivity models in partnership with the agencies and staff.
Our Conservation and GIS Manager uses these data to construct the connectivity narratives for each land trust project that is submitted. Each proposed wildlife connectivity project is first vetted by the Keep it Connected team and then by the Heart of the Rockies Foundation Board for approval before it is displayed on our donor website.
Policy
We work on policies that support landowners and land trust work.
Collaboration
We network and support each other through learning and mentorship.
Testimonials
Why
Private land ownership is the foundation of strong, rural ranches and farms. Many people who own and manage farms, ranches, and timberlands are willing partners in keeping their lands intact for wildlife habitat. Private lands tend to be lower in elevation and higher in productivity, with the best soils and water, and to be near riparian habitats, with the highest biodiversity. These areas are often the “link” between blocks of habitat, such as national forest, wilderness or roadless areas. These lands often represent critical deer, elk and pronghorn seasonal migration habitats.
Protecting these ecologically rich private lands not only benefits wildlife connectivity, biodiversity, private landowners, ranchers, and farmers, but it also benefits the rural community as a whole as well as the greater public. Additionally, some of the projects in the portfolio now offer the opportunity to support Indigenous partnerships.
Private working agricultural lands are the essential pieces that bind the greater landscape together, and land trusts are the key players in protecting those private lands. Land trusts bring the estate conservation tools needed for private landowners, ranchers, and farmers to conserve working landscapes while protecting wildlife habitat and connectivity. Land trusts protect private lands in perpetuity.
Land trusts work with willing landowners, meaning these landowners voluntarily give up their development rights in order to ensure their lands are conserved forever. As a result of two decades of capacity building, land trusts in our region have the relationships with landowners and credibility to make a significant contribution to conserving in the Central Rockies of North America.
Keep It Connected Success to Date
Funding Keep It Connected has raised since its launch in 2021
Acres Keep It Connected has protected since its launch in 2021
Keep It Connected offers perhaps the last best chance to conserve intact ecosystems that protect a full theater of wildlife and their habitats and the clean, rushing rivers that support salmon and other native fish along with nurturing vital human communities far downstream.
In today’s world of unprecedented residential growth and changing temperature and precipitation patterns, there is an urgent opportunity to narrow the financial gap and close a suite of projects that are critical for keeping remaining wildlife habitats connected.
Working lands are being lost at a rapid rate and are under increasing pressure every year. Time is of the utmost importance and the Initiative recognizes the urgency.
Our team will continue to support our 29 land trust members and local landowner- led collaboratives and seek new landowner and Tribal partnerships on these critical agricultural landscapes that exist in the spaces that connect our nation’s public lands.
Please join us!
LAND TRUSTS
Bear River Land Conservancy
- LTA Accreditation in process
- Established in 2011
- Region: Bear River Watershed, Utah
- Gabriel Murray, Executive Director
Bitter Root Land Trust
- LTA Accredited
- Established in 1996
- Region: Bitterroot Valley, Montana
- Lauren Rennaker, Executive Director
The Conservation Fund
- LTA Accredited
- Established in 1985
- Region: National
- Mark Elsbree, Montana and Northwest Director; Gates Watson, Montana State Director; and Dan Schlager, Wyoming State Director
elk valley land trust
- Established in 2019
- Region: British Columbia
- Kevin La Roche, Executive Director
Flathead Land Trust
- LTA Accredited
- Established in 1985
- Region: Flathead Valley, Montana
- Paul Travis, Executive Director
Five Valleys Land Trust
- LTA Accredited
- Established in 1972
- Region: Southwest Montana – Clark Fork, Blackfoot, Mission, Bitterroot, and Rock Creek river valleys
- Whitney Schwab, Executive Director
Gallatin Valley Land Trust
- LTA Accredited
- Established in 1990
- Region: Montana headwaters of the Missouri and Upper Yellowstone Rivers
- Chet Work, Executive Director
Inland NW Land Conservancy
- LTA Accredited
- Established in 1991
- Region: five counties in eastern Washington (Spokane, Lincoln, Pend Oreille, Stevens, and Adams) and two counties in northern Idaho (Kootenai and Bonner)
- Dave Schuab, Executive Director
Jackson Hole Land Trust
- LTA Accredited
- Established in 1980
- Region: Teton, Sublette and Fremont counties, Wyoming
- Max Ludington, President
Kaniksu Land Trust
- LTA Accredited
- Established in 2002
- Region: Sanders County, Montana, and Bonner County, Idaho
- Katie Cox, Executive Director
NATURE CONSERVANCY CANADA - BC
- Established in 1962
- Region: National
- Richard Klafki, Rocky Mountain Program Manager
The Nature conservancy of idaho
- LTA Accredited
- Established in 1951
- Region: Idaho statewide
- Tess O'Sullivan, Land Conservation Strategy Lead
The nature conservancy of montana
- LTA Accredited
- Established in 1962
- Region: Montana statewide
- Jim Berkey, High Divide Headwaters Director
The Nature conservancy of Wyoming
- LTA Accredited
- Established in 1951
- Region: Wyoming statewide
- Abby Scott, NW Wyoming Program Director
Nature Trust of British Columbia
- Established in 1971
- Region: British Columbia
- Jasper Lament, Chief Executive Officer
Palouse Land trust
- LTA Accredited
- Established in 1996
- Region: Benewah, Clearwater, Idaho, Latah, Lewis, Nez Perce, Shoshone counties in Idaho; Whitman county, Washington
- Lovina Englund, Executive Director
Payette land trust
- LTA Accredited
- Established in 1994
- Region: Adams, Idaho, Valley, and Washington counties, Idaho
- Craig Utter, Executive Director
Prickly pear land trust
- LTA Accredited
- Established in 1995
- Region: Lewis and Clark, Broadwater, and Jefferson counties, Montana
- Mary Hollow, Executive Director
Rocky Mountain Elk foundation
- Established in 1984
- Region: National
- Jennifer Doherty, Director of Lands
sagebrush steppe land trust
- LTA Accredited
- Established in 2004
- Region: Southeastern Idaho Counties of Bannock, Bear Lake, Bingham, Caribou, Franklin, Onieda, and Power
- Matt Lucia, Executive Director
wood river land trust
- LTA Accredited
- Established in 1994
- Region: Blaine, Butte, Camas, Custer, Elmore, Gooding, Jerome, Lincoln, Minidoka counties, Idaho
- Amy Trujillo, Executive Director
wyoming stock growers land trust
- LTA Accredited
- Established in 2000
- Region: Wyoming statewide
- Jessica Crowder, Executive Director
Elk Valley land trust
- Established in 2019
- Region: British Columbia
- Kevin La Roche, Executive Director
Photos courtesy of bynum and Iv