40 Years of Community Conservation in the Blackfoot

Propelled to fame by Norman MacLean’s “A River Runs Through It,” few Montana landscapes are as beloved as the Blackfoot River watershed. Those who are fortunate enough to live here come to know the forested valleys, hidden streams and elusive fishing holes where native westslope cutthroat trout and bull trout rise to dine.

2016 marks the 40th anniversary of The Nature Conservancy’s first conservation easement in the Blackfoot. In 1976, shortly after the passage of Montana’s conservation easement legislation, landowner Edna Brunner donated an easement on 1,800 acres on the banks of the Blackfoo...