New Conservation Easement Protects Rich Creston Area Topsoil and Egan Slough

Prime Time for Preservation:

Flathead Land Trust is thrilled to announce the permanent protection of one of Flathead Valley’s agricultural jewels. On January 17, 2024, Charles and Renate Jaquette placed their 497-acre farm just east of Kalispell under conservation easement with Flathead Land Trust. Containing some of the richest topsoil in the valley, the easement adds to a growing network of conserved farms in the highly productive Creston area, including a 731-acre farm placed under easement by Myron and Vicky Mast and a 318-acre farm by the de Yong family with Montana Land Reliance late last year. Safeguarding these fertile farming grounds in the Creston area is vital to preserving the Flathead Valley’s agricultural heritage and way of life. This suite of protected lands also protects scenic vistas and open space that is exceedingly valuable to the public.

The Jaquette farm legacy has been passed down through generations, since 1907 when Charles’ grandfather, also named Charles Jaquette, first settled in the productive Flathead Valley. The family farm has raised everything from wheat, canola, potatoes, barley, peas, corn, soybeans, mint and hay to hogs. They had a few dairy cows in the early years and later switched to grazing some beef cattle. The property is perfect for agriculture, if irrigated, with the majority of it containing “prime farmland”, according to the Natural Resource Conservation Service.

Ag with a View: wheat and potato fields on the Jaquette property

The conservation easement will ensure that the family farm stays intact as one parcel and will limit residential and commercial development in perpetuity, protecting its conservation values. The rich soils will forever be available for agriculture and its wetlands will remain intact for birds and wildlife in the future. Encompassing over a mile of Egan Slough, the Jaquette property provides excellent bird habitat and is strategically located for both birds and wildlife at a landscape scale.

Building upon the existing network of more than 14,500 acres of conserved lands along a 50-mile stretch of the Flathead River and north shore of Flathead Lake, the Jaquette property is an integral piece of the preservation puzzle. This conservation network provides vital habitat and an important travel corridor for wildlife, including grizzly bear that travel along the passageway. Lying within a major bird flyway, the Jaquette easement serves as critical stopover habitat for birds to rest and refuel on their long migrations. It also affords nesting habitat for many birds including bald eagle, which nest on an island in Egan Slough within the property. Over 150 species of birds have been chronicled in the area, 24 of which are sensitive or species of concern.

The conservation easement was purchased with funding from the Natural Resource Conservation Service Agricultural Land Easement program. “This NRCS program is a great way for farmers to be compensated for keeping their valuable land in agriculture. The landowners are able to keep their land intact and have some cash for retirement or to pay down a mortgage or whatever the landowner chooses,” says Laura Katzman of Flathead Land Trust. “The easement ensures there will never be a residential subdivision or box store or gas station or dump on the property. The property will remain largely as it is today throughout time.”