Page 16 - Flathead Beacon // 7.15.15

NEWS
FEATURE
Stewards of the
Land
Flathead Land Trust celebrating 30 years of conserving the valley’s natural heritage and rural landscape
BY DILLON TABISH
DFavid and Haydi Sowerwine. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON rom the crowded Bay Area in
Northern California, David Sowerwine and his wife, Haydi, last month retreated to a plot
of land secluded near the north shore of Flathead Lake. For David, arriving at the quiet countryside was like traveling back in time to when he and his siblings spent a greater part of their youth in this rural acreage that their father, Owen, had acquired in the early 1950s.
The Sowerwine family farm encom- passes 157 acres along the shores of Fen- non Slough, a meandering channel of the Flathead River near its final destination in the expansive, pristine lake. The prop- erty includes one of the valley’s original homesteads, and historic log cabins still dot the empty landscape.
The family is now only visitors; the real tenants are deer, geese, pheasants and the occasional grizzly.
“A lot of it is almost unchanged,” David said last month, gazing out across the panoramic view.
“I love the open views of the north shore, but I used to take it for granted, thinking it’s always going to be there ... It’s no accident. It’s taken a lot of work and taken dedication. It’s not by accident that we get to see this.”
As the Flathead Valley has grown from the days of Sowerwine’s youth, the farmland has remained intact because of
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the family’s partnership with an organi- zation devoted to conserving treasured space.
David and his family partnered with the fledgling Flathead Land Trust 30 years ago to acquire a conservation ease- ment, a guarantee that the land will not be developed or subdivided while allow- ing for historical uses such as farming.
Flathead Land Trust was founded by a group of community members who saw the likelihood of the valley’s urban growth in the years ahead and were interested in preserving some of its orig- inal rural character.
“This (valley) was an undiscovered gem and there was a sense that this was a place that was going to take off,” Lex Blood, a
professional geologist and longtime edu- cator who has served as a community advisor for the organization, said. “But this idea of conservation easements at the time was radical. Thirty years ago, people would look at the valley and say, ‘We’re never going to run out of land here.’”
As more tracts of farmland were sub- divided and sold, the importance of a conservation easement became clearer, Blood said.
Using the Sowerwine easement as a catalyst and building block, the Flat- head Land Trust gained momentum in the 1980s, preserving vital sections near Flathead River and other beloved hab- itat and property. Today, the nonprofit organization holds 52 conservation ease- ments totaling over 10,500 acres. The group, which is accredited through the national Land Trust Accreditation Com- mission for meeting national standards of excellence, has also collaborated with other organizations and agencies to com- plete 13 projects protecting over 2,600 additional acres. One of the nonprofit’s largest efforts is the River to Lake Ini- tiative, which has protected more than 5,000 acres of land along the Flathead River.
“People want to live here because they know it’s a special place. We all want to save those special qualities that make the Flathead so great. Open, undeveloped
David Sowerwine’s property along the north shore of Flathead Lake. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON JULY 15, 2015 | FLATHEADBEACON.COM