Cody and Elizabeth Sherman are ensuring that their family’s farming legacy in the Mission Valley will endure. Today, with the help of Flathead Land Trust, they placed a conservation easement on their 387 acres of rich farmland west of Pablo, protecting their heritage of over a century. This important measure preserves fertile farmland as well as vital wildlife habitat west of Pablo.
Producing pasture, hay and grain, the conserved property supports the continued self-sufficiency of the family’s cattle operation. The entire property’s farmland is supported by high-quality soils, recognized by the Natural Resource Conservation Service as “prime farmland, if irrigated” and “farmland of local importance”. This land protection agreement ensures that these valuable soils will be available for agricultural use in perpetuity.
The success of this project was contingent upon federal funding secured through the Natural Resource Conservation Service Agricultural Land Easement program. It not only helped Cody and Elizabeth keep their farm intact, but they are reinvesting in local agriculture by utilizing proceeds from the conservation easement sale for a “1031 exchange.” This strategy allows them to purchase an additional 305 acres in the Mission Valley to maintain as farmland. The additional land will improve the sustainability of their farm and provide greater opportunity for future generations, as their children intend to carry on the family’s agricultural tradition.
Tristan, Elizabeth, Cody, Kiara, and Coleton Sherman (from left to right).
The newly protected land protects habitat used by a variety of wildlife and birds, including five species of concern. The agricultural land supports birds such as short-eared owls, long-billed curlew and sandhill cranes. The conservation easement also safeguards critical winter habitat for birds of prey. The Mission Valley has some of the highest concentrations of wintering birds of prey in the United States, and bald eagle, rough-legged hawks, red-tailed hawks, American kestrel, and occasionally golden eagle regularly use the Sherman property. It complements and adds to the protection of almost 2,200 acres of adjacent farmland under conservation easements.
long-billed curlew
Cody and Elizabeth are leaders in the community and in agriculture not only in the Mission Valley, but also statewide. Cody is a Producer Board Member of the CHS Mountain West Co-op, a director of the Western Montana Stockman’s Association, and the Chair of the Farm Service Agency County Committee. He is also a Board member of the Mission Valley Future Farmers of American (FFA) Alumni and helped establish a scholarship program, providing local 4H and FFA students with a foundation in agriculture and the cattle business. Cody has also been active in the community as a volunteer firefighter for over 20 years and is now on the Rural Fire Board for Ronan.
Cody Sherman on the family’s newly protected conservation easement
Elizabeth is secretary/treasurer for the Rural Fire Board of Ronan and the Mission Valley FFA Alumni. It is fitting that part of the Sherman family’s agricultural legacy in the Mission Valley will come from ensuring that their rich farmland remains available for farming in perpetuity. Agriculture can continue to thrive in a community in which their family has been deeply embedded for generations.
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