Commissioners to vote on preserving ag land

By JESSICA MAYRER Chronicle Staff Writer

Gallatin County Commissioners will vote today on whether to purchase three conservation easements with $1.3 million set aside by voters to preserve open space.

SEAN SPERRY/Chronicle An antelope rests in a field near the 4,400-acre Round Mountain Ranch in the Horseshoe Hills north of Bozeman. The proposed easement of the ranch will create a continuous wildlife migration route by bordering both the Dehaan and Anderson easements. Commissioner approval would ensure the three parcels, each evaluated individually, are used in ranching and farming in perpetuity.

The largest easement up for debate during the morning public meeting includes the 4,400-acre Round Mountain Ranch north of Bozeman.

“We didn’t want it to go into development,” said Round Mountain property owner Vonnie Cole. “We had some concerns about development encroaching.”

Deer, elk and antelope wander the Coles’ rolling property, just south of the Horseshoe Hills. Cattle graze there, too. If approved, their land will be one of the largest easements, valued at $2.39 million, ever purchased with Gallatin County Open Space Bond money.

If commissioners approve the Round Mountain deal, the county would pay $800,000 toward that easement from a pot set aside to protect open space in exchange for the family’s promise they won’t develop. The remainder of the easement would be paid for with federal funds and a property-owner donation.

“Nearly 70 percent is being donated outright by the landowner,” said Kelly Ramirez from the Trust for Public Land, which works to conserve open space and is helping facilitate the Round Mountain deal.

The Cole family says keeping the land in ranching wasn’t a tough decision.

Cole’s great-grandparents began working the land after emigrating here from Holland. Her grandfather was one of the first potato growers in the Churchill Area. And Cole’s dad worked the land for more than 60 years.

“It just kind of grew from that,” Cole said.

If an easement is placed on the Cole property, it will connect to the adjacent Dehaan and Anderson easements, both conserved in 2004. The new addition would bring the total area acreage preserved for growing and grazing up to 20,000 acres and create a continuous wildlife migration route, advocates say.

“That’s the most important thing,” Cole said.

But as the real estate market cools, the rush to protect open space, too, could slow.

The Open Lands Board, which evaluates conservation easements before commissioners have their say, approved the Round Mountain easement unanimously during the first round of discussion earlier this year. But after recently evaluating the deal again, as is customary, they sent it to the commissioners with a 50-50 vote.

“No one doubted the conservation value of the property,” said Barb Cestero, who sits on the Open Lands Board. “I think the concern was the amount of money for a piece that was not necessarily facing imminent threat.”

Though she voted for the easement, Cestaro said her peers were just being cautious.

“We always want to make sure we’re being smart about how we spend the taxpayers’ money,” Cestero said.

And even as the economy slows, large Gallatin County properties are retaining value, said Open Lands Coordinator Mike Harris.

“We haven’t seen appraisals drop yet for large tracts of land,” Harris said.

Because it can be tough to find landowners willing to conserve property—doing so generally requires donating a sizeable chunk of the easement value--and because this property connects a huge swath of land already preserved, it’s a good investment, Ramirez said.

And development, she said, isn’t likely to stall.

“It’s going to come,” Ramirez said. “It’s a beautiful place to live.”

Public Meeting

The commission will discuss the Round Mountain easement at its regularly scheduled 9 a.m. meeting Tuesday. The commission will also discuss using $100,000 to help purchase the 320-acre Visscher Conservation Easement in Kelly Canyon and using $400,000 for the 430-acre Leep Conservation Easement 13 miles west of Bozeman during the meeting.

Jessica Mayrer can be reached at jmayrer@dailychronicle.com or 582-2635.

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