The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has purchased more than 4,000 acres in Montana from the Nature Conservancy (NC) as part of President Joe Biden’s "America the Beautiful" initiative, the BLM announced last month.
The BLM paid $6.8 million for the 4,600-acre Ninemile Prairie parcel from the NC "to ensure permanent public access to former industrial timber land," the agency states in its April 22 announcement. The funds came from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the announcement reports. Ninemile Prairie is within the 1.5 million-acre Blackfoot River Watershed (BRW) project, outside Missoula. BRW is overseen by federal, state and private land managers that protect the region's ecological sustainability while developing better public access, according to the BLM.
“Collaborative, locally led efforts like this multi-year project in the Blackfoot River Watershed are important to our well-being and economy,” BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning said in the announcement. “This acquisition is a testament to the ongoing value of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and a wonderful example of President Biden’s America the Beautiful initiative in action.”
The NC reports the sale is part of a multi-year collaboration with the BLM to guarantee public access to land previously used for industrial timber. The BLM has purchased from the NC more than 30,000 acres in the BRW of formerly private timber land since 1998, according to the NC, and plans to purchase land adjacent to Ninemile Prairie later this year.
Ninemile Prairie and the BRW are popular for abundant hunting and hiking opportunities and is open to limited motorized use in summer and winter, according to the BLM. The area will be managed as other BLM lands in the BRW, the BLM states.
NC reports the acquisition achieves the mutual goals of allowing public access for recreational purposes with active forest restoration projects to improve the health and function of forests and watersheds.
“From the beginning," Chris Bryant, the NC's western Montana land protection director, said in the statement, "our goal in buying this former Plum Creek timber land was to secure it for public use and to restore the forests so we pass it on in better condition than when we bought it.”
“This is a great milestone in our partnership with The Nature Conservancy to acquire former private timber lands for public ownership,” Erin Carey, field manager for BLM's Missoula Field Office. “The BLM is proud to take on the stewardship of these lands and manage them for the benefit of the public over the long term.
The BLM currently manages over 245 million acres of public land in 12 western states and administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral property throughout the country.
