missoula's open space bond

Beyond Open Space, Public Money Preserving Working Lands

By Jessica Mayrer, 9-19-07

	The Hayes family sold two conservation easements on their property through a combination of financial support from the Missoula County open space fund and the federal Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program. Photo by Anne Medley.

Editor's note: This is the second story in a series on how Missoula's $10 million open space bond is being put to work. Click here for the first installment.

Missoula County's open space bond, passed by voters last November, rounded up $10 million dollars to ensure the protection of area lands for perpetuity. But it's not just for treasured viewsheds like the hills around Missoula. Traditional agricultural and timber lands -- working lands -- protect Montana's heritage, too.

The preservation of the rural lifestyle for present and future generations is a stated mission of Missoula County's open lands committee. Part of that mission, says Pat O'Herren, the county's rural initiatives director, is to help people who want to stay on open and productive land, stay.

The most effective tool in the open-space-preservation toolbox is the conservation easement, essentially buying a property owner's development rights. Instead of buying properties outright, the city and county are employing the conservation easement to stretch their open space dollars, says Jackie Corday, Missoula open space program manager. Plus, she says, "it keeps farmers on the land."

The city and county are splitting the $10 million down the middle. To date, the city of Missoula has spent about $180,000 of its $5 million in open space money on 40 acres near Kelly Island and 341 acres on a working ranch -- the Grass Valley easement -- near the Missoula airport. The county has spent about $500,000 on four easements preserving 4,000 acres, all working lands. "The per acre value is astronomical," O'Herren says.

One of county's first open space pay outs was the Hayes family Circle Bar One Ranch in Potomac, east of Missoula in the Blackfoot Valley. The Hayes family has supported itself through a combination logging and farming since 1887. Now they are selling two easements that require the ranch stay undeveloped and open for farming, forever.

“What right we’ve given up, is the right to subdivide. So, this won’t be a concrete city,” says Cindy Hayes. By selling the easements, the family is leaving open nearly 500 acres of prime agricultural soils.

	Loretta Hayes points to her husband Pat Hayes Jr.’s grandmother, who, along with the Hayes family, first came to Montana (via Ireland then New Brunswick, Canada) in 1887. Since then, the Hayes family has supported itself through a combination of farming and logging. Photo by Anne Medley.

Five Valleys Land Trust, a land conservation organization aiming to protect Montana’s natural legacy, is working closely with area farmers and ranchers and public agencies to save historic farms from development. As FVLT's Jim Berkey says, “We’re not going to have petroleum forever. It’s important to keep some land open for growing food nearby.”

The Missoula County open space bond chipped in just over $100,000 toward the Hayes easement, while federal money is footing about 50 percent of the bill.

In exchange for the right to subdivide, the Hayes family will collect about $300,000. The easement is permanent and will stay attached to the ranch, even if it is sold.

“It will be preserved...forever to stay in ag,” says Hayes.

The federal portion of the bill was funded through the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program. Authorized by Congress in 1985 as part of the Food Security Act, it distributes between $1 million and $1.75 million each year in Montana.

The Protection Program's Dennis Dellwo says Montana’s building boom is a direct threat to our food supply and our cultural heritage. “If we lose that, we essentially we lose touch with the earth."

“It takes thousands of years to build a layer of good soil,” Dellwo says. “But it doesn’t take long to build a subdivision on top of it.”

	Loretta, Pat Jr. and Cindy Hayes, left to right, stand outside the home where Pat Jr. grew up and still lives in Potomac. The Hayes family has been working the Circle Bar One Ranch since 1887. Photo by Anne Medley.

The Hayes family could have collected from selling the property off in pieces, about $10,000 an acre, says Cindy Hayes. Even so, “It’s never been for sale,” she says.

Over the years, the family has grown alongside the operation, spanning nearly 5,000 acres and putting four generations to work.

“Everybody in our family had to work from the time they could sit on a tractor,” says Loretta Hayes, 80.

Pat Jr. went to school just down the road in the one-room school house in Old Potomac. And the Hayes kids all grew up tending to their chores on the ranch. Now, Mike Hayes, Cindy’s husband, works as a logger when he’s not farming.

Montana’s cultural fabric is kept intact by ranches like the Circle Bar, Berkey says.

Mike Hayes has worked all of his life to maintain that fabric. “He wants to leave a piece of Montana preserved,” says Cindy of her husband. “He couldn’t stand to see someone destroy what he’s tried to build in a lifetime, and his father did and his grandfather.”

The Hayes property is one of a diminishing number of farms that have really stuck it out for the long haul, Berkey says. And they will continue to growing wheat, oats and grain, on the ranch, but, eventually, someone else will take over.

“Whoever purchases it, they’re going to continue on a legacy,” Cindy Hayes says. “There’s a lot of blood, sweat and tears in this life, and a lot of cursing.”

Matthew Frank contributed to this story.

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