Last week the Montana Chapter of the Wildlife Society presented the Flathead Land Trust with its 2013 Wildlife Conservation Award at the Grouse Mountain Lodge in Whitefish.
Flathead Land Trust, a local nonprofit organization focused on private land conservation, was recognized for its 27 years of conservation success in and around Flathead County.
The Flathead Land Trust works closely with private landowners that want to conserve their open space and working lands for future generations through voluntary legal agreements called conservation easements. The organization currently holds 51 conservation easements protecting over 10,459 acres and has played an integral role in helping other organizations protect an additional 2,231 acres. Through their cooperative work, they helped form and steer the Flathead River-To-Lake Initiative that has focused funding and conservation efforts on the mainstem Flathead River and north shore of Flathead Lake.
“Given these outstanding achievements and demonstrated conservation leadership that benefits the wildlife resources to which the Wildlife Society is so dedicated, what better way to acknowledge their contributions than to award the Flathead Land Trust with the Wildlife Society’s 2013 Wildlife Conservation Award,” said Alan Wood, wildlife program officer for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and member of the Montana Chapter of the Wildlife Society.
Marilyn Wood, executive director of the Flathead Land Trust, said, “It’s an honor to receive this year’s Wildlife Conservation Award. We work really hard with our partners to find conservation solutions that benefit private landowners and helps preserve what we all love about our rural landscape, clean water and abundant wildlife, so we appreciate when that work gets recognized.”
The Wildlife Society represents and serves the professional community of scientists, managers, educators, technicians, planners, and others who work actively to study, manage, and conserve wildlife and its habitats worldwide.