Flathead Land Trust and local partners identified the Flathead River to Lake focus area as a landscape with high biological value and seriously threatened natural resources.
The Flathead River to Lake Initiative is a collaborative effort to conserve and restore our Flathead River and Lake natural heritage – excellent water quality, outstanding scenic and recreation values, abundant fish and wildlife, and prime farmland. The Flathead River to Lake Initiative focus area encompasses 50 miles of the Flathead River flowing through the Flathead Valley to Flathead Lake and includes the north shore of Flathead Lake. Click here to view the project area map. For in depth information about R2L, visit the website www.flatheadrivertolake.org.
Within the Crown of the Continent ecosystem and the northern Rockies landscape, the Flathead River and Lake provide habitat for threatened native fish, a high diversity of avian species, and an incredible array of terrestrial species. Flathead Lake is known as one of the cleanest lakes of its size in the world and contributes an estimated $10 billion to the local economy. The river and its associated wetlands have been identified as critical habitat by the Flathead Lakers Critical Lands project, the Nature Conservancy’s Northern Rockies Ecoregional plan, and includes two “Important Bird Areas” designated by Montana Audubon.
The Flathead River to Lake Initiative partners provide incentives and options for interested landowners to protect large parcels of critical habitat, including wetlands, riparian areas and adjacent farmland within the river corridor and on the north shore of Flathead Lake. Over the past 22 years the Flathead River to Lake Initiative has conserved over 8,000 acres of critical lands adding to a network of protected private and public lands in the river corridor and on the north shore of Flathead Lake that now totals nearly 14,300 acres. This protected habitat includes 45% of the 100-year floodplain, 30% of the main channel of the river, 56% of the wetlands, 56% of the quality riparian areas, 50% of the shallow groundwater, and 47% of the important agricultural soils in the focus area. About 59% of this protection is due to private land conservation and 58% due to the efforts of the Flathead River to Lake Initiative.
Read River 2 Lake News for the latest project developments under the River to Lake Initiative.
