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Making sure Montana farmers and ranchers get a fair shake when they sell their products to markets far and wide is crucial, Bullock said during a recent interview by phone. “My principle concerns are those impacting Montanans on the ground,” he said. “(Like) whether our grain growers can get a fair price for their product, get that product to the market and whether there’s sufficient competition and opportunity for our beef producers.”

It’s an issue that can’t be ignored if rural Montana communities are expected to survive.

“When you talk about small business in Montana, a third of our economy is based on agriculture. That’s where our small businesses lie,” Bullock said.

Special Report

One of Alvin Meeks’ most memorable adventures in western Montana’s Fish Creek country ended with him headed home empty-handed after one of his annual autumn elk hunts. The longtime resident of the area was archery hunting in a westside tributary of Fish Creek adjacent to the vast, two-state Great Burn roadless area. It was 1980 or 1981—it’s been so long he can’t be sure of the exact year.

“I was up Thompson Creek way back up in the lodgepoles. I was bugling,” he recalls.

Pretty soon, two hair-tingling bugles echoed back to him across the crisp air. “I thought, well, one of them has to be a hunter. But I didn’t see anybody else in there,” he said during a recent interview at the Big Pine Campground in lower Fish Creek.

Meeks’ doubts immediately vanished when two bulls—both very real and now very close—charged in. Crouching low, he watched as the two monarchs scanned for this intruder in their woods.

Though mostly a meat hunter, Meeks quickly eyeballed the larger of the two bulls.

“One of them was a great big one. I was hoping he’d come closer,” he recalled. “But he stayed back and the other one came in. He came in, kind of rushed and turned sideways.”

Special Report

Not a lot has changed in Montana’s rural Potomac Valley over the years. And that’s just fine for many of the multi-generational ranching families whose livelihoods are tied to this expanse of waving grass and trees drained by the lower Blackfoot River northeast of Missoula.

Today, just as it was nearly a century ago, the Potomac is a working landscape.

But faced with the possibility of large-scale changes sweeping across this broad valley and on to the low and rounded Garnet Range to the south, the valley’s ranchers did something that may surprise some. They got behind the transfer of tens of thousands of private acres in the Garnets—lands they’ve grazed their cattle on and cut timber from for decades—to the state of Montana.

The Potomac ranchers faced a stark set of choices. Either accept a future where their access to prime grazing lands is threatened by residential development or embrace an alternative that keeps the landscape whole.

So, in a place where politics generally fall on the conservative side of the spectrum, they backed the state’s purchase of most of the range’s north-facing slopes. The handwriting was on the wall, said Denny Iverson, a longtime rancher and logger from the Potomac. 

Special Report

Condon-area resident Tom Parker knows his backyard better than most. And that’s saying something, given that his backyard covers tens of thousands of rural acres in the scenic Swan Valley.

Asked about the best wintering habitat in the Swan, the longtime hunting guide can point to the mouths of specific drainages where unique microclimates create shallow snowpacks that draw in deer and elk. Where are the valley’s prime spring grizzly bear foraging areas?

You can bet he knows. 

Sandwiched between two great wilderness areas just a few hours northeast of Missoula, the Swan is a place unto itself. From jagged mountaintops in the grizzly rich Bob Marshall and Mission Mountains wilderness areas to the east and west, forested mountain slopes and brush-choked avalanche chutes drop steeply to the broad, north-south, glacier-carved valley.

With its diverse mix of forest, wetlands and lush meadow habitats, the Swan contains what is arguably some of Montana’s richest wildlife habitat and most cherished recreational lands.

Early on, those spearheading the Montana Legacy Project keyed in on the Swan Valley. In large part, it came down to the area’s significance for grizzly bears. For the opportunistic and wide-ranging omnivores, the Swan provides a much-needed connection between important islands of core habitat as well as a reliable place to forage in lean years.