Breaking with tradition, Flathead Land Trust presented Conservation Leadership Awards on July 10, 2024, at the Owen Sowerwine Celebration. Usually given at our winter party, we simply could not miss this opportunity to honor two of the organizations that have worked tirelessly for decades to find a conservation solution for the Owen Sowerwine property. Both Flathead Audubon Society and Montana Audubon have been instrumental in our ability to place a conservation easement on the 405-acre parcel just east of Kalispell.

The story of each organization’s involvement in the Owen Sowerwine project is intertwined, echoing the theme of collaboration in reaching permanent protection of this ecological oasis. It began during a time of budget shortfalls in Flathead County, when Flathead Audubon helped the Flathead County Parks Board pay the lease while determining a more permanent fix. In 1996, Flathead Audubon stepped forward to assume the lease and manage the area as a natural area. Facing a potential significant surge in lease costs due to a new assessment in 1999, Montana Audubon teamed up with Flathead Audubon to negotiate a long-term license for Owen Sowerwine at a more affordable rate. A series of subsequent licenses and permits held by both organizations allowed Flathead Audubon to continue managing Owen Sowerwine’s natural habitat for many years, but this distinctive project presented a unique challenge: protecting the property while generating income for Montana’s schools, as mandated for State School Trust Land.

Also mandated by law, Montana State School Trust Lands had not previously allowed for conservation easements on any of their properties. Enter Janet Ellis of Montana Audubon, current Montana State Senator, who lobbied for Montana Audubon for almost three decades. Janet was instrumental in changing legislation nearly twenty-five years ago, helping to enact a statute allowing a conservation easement to be placed on this specific parcel of land by a nonprofit.

Flathead Audubon Society and Montana Audubon have both recognized the significance of this incredible piece of property just outside the city limits of Kalispell from the beginning. Members of Flathead Audubon Society have worked tirelessly for decades to steward the land, from managing trails and invasive species to administering environmental education programs for school groups. Knowing that at least 168 bird species utilize the area, Montana Audubon designated the site as an Important Bird Area shortly after it was nominated by Flathead Audubon members in 2003. The Important Bird Area designation, one of only 42 IBA sites in the state, definitely helped to solidify support for the efforts of both Flathead Audubon and Montana Audubon to maintain the natural character of this valuable riparian area.

Pam Willison, Vice President of Flathead Audubon Society and Chair of the FAS Owen Sowerwine Committee, accepted the award on behalf of the local organization. As a retired teacher, Pam spoke eloquently on the significance of this milestone to the local chapter. Larry Berrin, Executive Director of Montana Audubon, travelled from Helena to speak at the program, and accepted on behalf of the statewide organization. Larry spoke earlier in the program, reiterating the significance of the site, both ecologically and as a community and educational resource, especially as a refuge for children, who “spend an average of an entire year in front of a screen by the age of seven”.

Since 2014, this annual award has been given in recognition of those whose leadership, vision, service and stewardship of incredible land and water resources has furthered meaningful conservation throughout the Flathead Valley and across northwest Montana. The dedication of Flathead Audubon and Montana Audubon has had a profound impact, and we are delighted to recognize their achievements!

Read more details about Flathead Audubon Society and Montana Audubon’s roles in securing Owen Sowerwine over the years HERE.

JoAnn Speelman Dramer shakes fellow founder, Mike Connor’s, hand as she is presented with the 2023 Conservation Leadership Award by Executive Director, Paul Travis on December 12, 2023.

With deep gratitude for her foundational leadership, we are honored to award this year’s Flathead Land Trust Conservation Leadership Award to JoAnn Speelman Dramer. Since 2014, this annual award has been presented in recognition of individuals whose leadership, vision, service and stewardship of our incredible land and water resources has furthered meaningful conservation throughout the Flathead Valley and across northwest Montana. JoAnn was one of Flathead Land Trust’s founders and the first Executive Director, who has given so much to this organization to ensure our success as the Flathead’s local land trust. The legacy of our lands is enriched by her foresight and dedication.

Jo Ann grew up in Ennis Montana on a family ranch along the Madison River. She and her first husband, Gene Speelman, graduated from the U of M School of Journalism in 1967, after which they moved to the Flathead Valley. She had a long and prosperous career as a journalist for the Missoulian, the Kalispell Weekly News with George Ostrem and ultimately at the Daily Inter Lake. In the early 1980’s she met Mike Conner, another FLT founding member, as he was working for the Flathead National Forest on the Wild and Scenic River easement acquisition program.  JoAnn, Mike and others helped form the steering committee that worked towards forming a local land trust.  Once Flathead Land Trust become an organization, JoAnn volunteered to be our very first executive director.

With a shoestring budget and an all-volunteer board, JoAnn had to make very effort to keep the organization moving forward, which was an incredible commitment of time, energy and passion to a fledgling organization.

JoAnn’s deep-rooted ties in the valley helped pave the way for Flathead Land Trust’s initial endeavors. Her connection to the Blasdel family helped forge FLT’s first project, laying the groundwork for the Blasdel Waterfowl Production Area. Flathead Land Trust partnered with Trust for Public Land, enabling them to purchase the 460-acre farm near Flathead Lake, which was later transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Additionally, JoAnn’s relationship with Alice Sowerwine likely played a role in Alice’s decision to place her family’s 157-acre parcel under conservation easement, Flathead Land Trust’s first, in 1988.

In the words of Mike Connor, fellow founder who also volunteered countless hours to build this organization, “Flathead Land Trust wouldn’t be without JoAnn. That’s just the way it is”.

Through the years she has been involved, JoAnn always volunteered to do whatever needed to be done.  She is a person of trust, is full of energy and is always there to help.  In fact, even today she is helping bring a new conservation easement to Flathead Land Trust. Beyond FLT, her generous spirit also keeps her busy volunteering for Toys for Tots, the Bigfork Riverbend Concert Series among other causes.  We can’t thank her enough for all that she has done for FLT and for the conservation of our outstanding land and water resources.

Liz Seabaugh accepts the 2022 Conservation Leadership Award presented by Executive Director Paul Travis and Board President Bill Corwin.

We are thrilled to announce that the Flathead Land Trust Conservation Leadership Award has been awarded to Liz Seabaugh and her late husband, Rusby (who passed away earlier in 2022). The award was presented at the Flathead Land Trust holiday and member appreciation party on December 13th.

Landowners are the heart and soul of our work. They are the integral piece that makes private-land conservation possible. Any landowner that chooses to conserve their land through a conservation easement is taking a bold step and is a hero in our book, but some landowners go above and beyond in their commitment to conservation.

Liz and Rusby Seabaugh are exemplary partner landowners who not only conserved their farmland in the lower valley in 2004, but also served as advocates for other landowners to do the same and pioneered efforts to restore riparian vegetation along the Flathead River.

The Seabaughs first moved to the Flathead Valley in 1970 where Rusby started a urology practice. In 1973, they moved to their home on lower valley to farm and ranch.

About twenty years ago, Flathead Land Trust and our Flathead River to Lake Initiative partners were putting to use new funding sources from the Bonneville Power Administration and the Natural Resources and Conservation Service to conserve private land in the Flathead. It took a leap of faith for landowners to work with us in implementing these complicated and time-consuming funding programs. Liz and Rusby stepped forward to be among the first landowners in the lower valley to conserve their land using these programs. In fact, the Seabaughs delayed the closing for the conservation easements on their properties to ensure that available funding went first to some of their neighbors also conserving their land with this funding.

In the years that followed, Rusby and Liz publicly advocated for the need to conserve the farmland in the valley and steered their friends and acquaintances to Flathead Land Trust’s door. They also contributed greatly to our community through other organizations over many years including Rusby’s service on the Flathead River Commission and Liz’s service on Foy’s to Blacktail Trails, among others.

Many farms along the Flathead River have historically cleared vegetation all the way to the river bank. This has reduced available habitat, negatively impacted water quality and caused bank instability. The Seabaugh farm suffered from this historical clearing as well and Rusby took it upon himself to do something about it. He spent a lot of time and money planting new native vegetation along a third of a mile of their farm’s river bank to address these impacts. Now you might think this involves just planting some vegetation and walking away, but of course, it is not so simple. You have to protect the vegetation from browsing deer and beaver, from the gnawing teeth of voles and from the smothering competition of noxious weeds. When the vegetation is young, you have to water them regularly during the summer heat and you have to accept and replace a great deal of vegetation loss not only from all of the above, but also from the eroding river bank caused by fluctuations in lake levels from Kerr dam and from boat wakes on the lower river. It is not an easy endeavor and by being among the first to do it in the valley, the Seabaughs provided us with many lessons learned through trial and error that allowed our partners to do it right the first time on other farms along the river.

Since 2014, this annual award has recognized individuals that have gone beyond the call of duty for the benefit of Flathead Land Trust’s conservation efforts. Whose leadership, vision, support, volunteer service and stewardship of our incredible land and water resources has furthered meaningful conservation throughout the Flathead Valley and across NW Montana. Liz and Rusby are true conservation champions and we are proud to honor them with this year’s award.

We are excited to announce that the Flathead Land Trust 2021 Conservation Leadership Award has been given to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, Region 1 with special recognition of Kris Tempel and Alan Wood, as well as to long-time FLT Board Member and Treasurer Jeff Jones.

The two awards were presented at Lone Pine State Park on November 29th to recognize the recipients for going beyond the call of duty for the benefit of Flathead Land Trust’s conservation efforts. Whose leadership, vision, collaboration, and ability to get things accomplished have furthered conservation efforts in the Flathead Valley and across NW Montana in a significant way.

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, Region 1 with special recognition of Kris Tempel and Alan Wood.

As Helen Keller once said, “Alone we can do so little. Together, we can do so much”. FWP’s collaboration with our organization over the past several decades epitomizes that statement. Our strong partnership together has produced a lot of good for both our organizations, our communities and most importantly for lasting conservation of important land and water here in NW Montana.

It’s hard to do justice in recognizing FWP for all that the agency has done (and continues to do). There’s just too many conservation success stories to share…so here are some of the high notes of our collaborative work together.

We partnered on more than 14 conservation projects using Bonneville Power Administration Mitigation Funding for a total of 2,900 acres of important farmland, habitat, and floodplain conserved along the main stem of the Flathead River through the River to Lake Initiative. We have also worked extensively with the agency to conserve important migratory bird habitat along the north shore of Flathead Lake, a result of which is FWP’s 426-acre North Shore Wildlife Management Area. The agency has had a hand in helping us complete just about all of our conservation easement projects through Wildlife Mitigation Funding which helps pay due diligence conservation easement project costs.

In 2018, we partnered on the 400-acre West Valley Wetlands conservation project where FWP stepped up to develop and now manages a bird viewing area for the public at one of the only staging areas for sandhill cranes in the Flathead. And of course, there’s Somers Beach which is Montana’s newest State Park thanks to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks….and the Bad Rock Canyon Conservation Project, which when completed this month, will protect 772 acres of some of our finest wildlife habitat in the Flathead and secure public access as a new FWP Wildlife Management Area.

It should be noted that without FWP, Flathead Land Trust would never have had the capability of doing projects of this scale and complexity. But, by working together, we have been able to achieve so much more…and I think after Somers Beach and Bad Rock, the sky’s the limit!

Finally, we acknowledge that any partnership is only as good as the people you’re working with. We have many people in the agency to thank but I want to give special recognition to two folks who we have worked with the most – Kris Tempel and Alan Wood. Alan, as you may know, recently retired after a distinguished career at FWP where he helped to conserve hundreds of thousands of acres of critical habitat, forest and ag lands in NW Montana. Alan believed in the power of good partnerships and his collaborative spirit helped us to get some truly extraordinary conservation projects accomplished.

Kris is also a force for conservation. A gifted grant writer who always seems to pull a rabbit out of the hat with large federal funding proposals. Last year, Kris’s two funding proposals from the USFS Forest Legacy Program were ranked in the top 5 – in the nation! This includes a $4 Million grant we received for Bad Rock. Kris’s skills and talent are critical to the projects and our work together, especially as we navigate the many steps of complex public acquisitions. We can’t thank her enough for all that she does to ensure success and get important conservation projects like Bad Rock across the finish line.

Jeff Jones, long-time FLT Board Treasurer

Jeff joined the Flathead Land Trust board in May 2013. He then became board Treasurer in 2014 and has held the position ever since. Jeff has a Master’s degree in Wildlife Resources from University of Idaho and worked as an ecologist and wildlife biologist for the US Forest Service, working for the Flathead National Forest from 1998 until his retirement.

When Jeff joined the board and then agreed to become the Treasurer, the organization was financially in rough shape. Through Jeff’s keen eye for finances as Treasurer and his strong leadership as a committed board member, we are now more financially strong than ever. He is also one of a handful of past board members who have served for a full 9 years and has had to step off due to term limits which shows his commitment for this organization and the conservation work we do.

Jeff many times would bring a differing perspective to board discussions and financial issues which ultimately lead to better decisions being made for the organization. He spent countless hours analyzing, raising questions about and troubleshooting financial reports as board treasurer. He was always fully prepared and engaged leading productive finance committee meetings each month, and put in countless hours of time with the executive director working on annual budgets and day to day financial policy and procedures. His attention to detail, oversight and ability to raise tough questions are what have made us a more capable, more professional organization these past 9 years. An organization that would not have even contemplated doing big community conservation projects like Somers Beach and Bad Rock Canyon even 5 years ago.

Congratulations to this year’s recipients of the FLT Conservation Leadership Award – Montana FWP, Region 1 and Jeff Jones! Thank you for your exceptional partnership and commitment to conservation of our most cherished open spaces and wild places in northwest Montana.