Face Of This Place
Gates Watson on Rocky Mountain Front
What inspired you to pursue a career in conservation?
During the last couple of years I was in college and right after I graduated, I was working for an internet startup company in Pittsburgh. It was a really exciting time—this was during the internet and technology boom. But at the end of the day, when I went home, I had a feeling that something was missing.
Around that time, I was approached to start an outdoor adventure program for youth in Pittsburgh. The experience of creating opportunity to get kids outside and enjoying nature was incredibly rewarding—but I also really liked the business side of getting the program up and running. I’d known about The Conservation Fund for a while at that point, and had always been impressed with their results-oriented approach to land conservation. The idea that I could accomplish these really tangible conservation successes, and do it by working with businesses and landowners, was really appealing to me. The blend of completing the mission and still running like a business is what I love about working for The Conservation Fund.
What landscapes across America speak to you personally?
Since I’m originally from Pennsylvania, the deciduous forests that are found in the eastern United States where I grew up really do call to me. The ecosystems found there are incredible. I still feel a strong connection to the area.
You moved to Montana 15 years ago; what do you love most about the state?
Montana is huge. The entire state is incredibly diverse and that’s one of the qualities I enjoy most about it. I live in western Montana, where the combination of mountainous forested terrain and the big river systems of the northern Rocky Mountains are what define the area.
As you travel east across Montana, you venture through a number of different ecosystems. On the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountain Front (the Front), where the mountains begin to blend into the Northern Great Plains, you’re met with a very dramatic landscape. The Northern Great Plains are quite vast and after leaving the mountains, it feels like you can see for hundreds of miles along the horizon. The Plains are one of the last intact grassland ecosystems in the world. We’re incredibly lucky to have these grasslands, and the beauty here is much more subtle than the rugged mountain views. The area is also incredibly rich from a species perspective; the grasslands are an important breeding ground for millions of ducks and songbirds. It’s a truly incredible place.
Beyond the beauty of the Rocky Mountain Front, what makes it so special?
It is undeveloped. Many of the landowners are traditional ranchers; they’re Montanans who have lived in the state for generations and are producing cattle on a working landscape. The Front is a transitional zone, from high mountain peaks and forested slopes into the Northern Great Plains ecosystem. It’s a short distance from the mountaintops to the prairie and that zone is incredibly rich with biodiversity. There are fully functioning populations of grizzly bears, wolves, lynx and wolverine, and 21 raptor species migrate through the area each year. It also comprises a third of all the plants found in Montana—over 700 species. The Front is habitat for over 220 species of birds, including 145 species that breed in the wetlands and uplands of the landscape.
How did The Conservation Fund get involved in protecting the Rocky Mountain Front?
In 2007, The Conservation Fund, The Nature Conservancy and the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) formed an exciting partnership to protect the delicate biodiversity found in the Rocky Mountain Front. Prior to then, partners had spent a significant amount of time building relationships with landowners across the landscape. In 2002, the USFWS was granted the ability to access the Land and Water Conservation Fund and it created a nexus for a great opportunity. (The Land and Water Conservation Fund is the federal program to conserve irreplaceable lands and improve outdoor recreation opportunities throughout the nation.)
With widespread trust in conservation built in the community, there were landowners knocking on partner’s doors to conserve their land through conservation easements. Most of the landowners in the area are fourth or fifth generation ranchers who did not want to see their land change because of rampant, unplanned development.
This unique partnership has helped to redefine a new conservation approach—instead of the periodic postage stamp sized projects that were being completed, we focused on a landscape-level opportunity to get as much accomplished in a rather short period of time. Our goal is about 220,000 acres and we have about 100,000 left to protect.
What’s next for the Front?
There’s a real sense that we’re in a race against time. We continue to lose ranch land at an alarming rate. We need to bust our tails to protect the intact landscape as quickly as we can. Opportunities come along and if you aren’t there to capitalize on them, it could be the last time you have the chance.
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Conservation AcquisitionRocky Mountain Front
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