The Montana Natvire Conservancy (TNC) 



The Montana TNC's goal is to protect unique habitat, areas rich in biodiversity, and areas critical for 

 threatened or endangered species. Their efforts focus on land acquisition and conservation easements. 

 Their strategy along the Rocky Mountain Front is to secure habitats used most heavily by grizzly bears 

 and maintain critical linkages between public and private lands that enable bears to continue their 

 seasonal movements. To achieve this goal, the organization works with a variety of partners and 

 employs a number of tools including accepting or purchasing conservation easements from private 

 landowners, providing technical expertise to help other organizations acquire habitat and potentially 

 acquiring additional preserve lands. 



Working extensively with the Blackfoot Challenge and Plum Creek Timber Company, TNC has 

 purchased thousands of acres of former Plum Creek Timber Company lands in the Blackfoot region {see 

 Blackfoot Community Project). 



Other TNC projects involving maintenance and preservation of grizzly bear habitat include purchase, in 

 1978, of the 18,000 acre Pine Butte Swamp Preserve, on the Rocky Mountain Eastern Front. A travel plan 

 is in effect on the preserve that governs human movement relative to seasonal activities and grizzly bear 

 habitat. The goal of the plan is to reduce human induced displacement of bears, particularly in riparian 

 and wetland areas. In addition, in 1986, the Conservancy purchased 392 acres in the Swan Valley, 

 creating the Swan River Oxbow Preserve. The area provides grizzly bears with a corridor between the 

 Swan Mountain Range to the east, and the Mission Mountains to the west. 



2. Corporate Lands 



Plum Creek Timber Company 



Plum Creek Timber Company has implemented voluntary habitat management guidelines, outlined in its 

 Plum Creek Gnzzh/ Bear Best Management Practices document, in areas adjacent to U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

 Service (USFWS) Management Situation (MS) 1 lands. The guidelines are implemented on a site-specific 

 scale and are subject to change as new scientific information or site conditions warrant (Henning Stabins, 

 senior wildlife biologist. Plum Creek Timber Company). Management guidelines include: 



Plum Creek Grizzly Bear Best Management Practices 



Road density 



Maintaining open road density (ORD) of 1 mi/ sq. mi or less on timber 

 company lands. 



Timing of 

 management 



Coordinate management activities so they occur at time when area has least 

 biological importance to bears. 



Road construction 



Limit construction of new roads in preferred grizzly bear habitat such as 

 riparian zones and show chutes. If impractical, consider screening. 



Cover 



Retain cover in preferred habitat and along open roads. Even-aged cutting 

 units laid out so that no point in unit >600 ft from cover. 



Harvest in riparian 

 habitat 



Utilize silviculture prescriptions that maintain cover and forage values. Plum 

 Creek's Native Fish Habitat Conservation Plan also provides benefits. 



Plum Creek Timber Company is also a primary party in the Sivan Valley Grizzly Bear Conservation 

 Agreement (1997), along with the Montana Department of Nah.iral Resources (DNRC), Flathead National 

 Forest and the USFWS. The objective of the agreement is to establish an ecosystem based management 

 plan throughout the conservation area which allows affected parties to realize economic and recreational 

 benefits of their ownership while helping to conserve the grizzly bear and other species. Major elements 



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