The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission on August 19 granted final approval for a conservation easement covering 20,629 acres of Stimson Lumber timberland across Lincoln, Mineral, and Sanders counties in northwest Montana, completing a conservation effort the company has pursued for more than 15 years.
The Easement
The Stimson Timberland Legacy Conservation Easement stretches across checkerboarded parcels from Libby to Superior, sharing 115 miles of boundary with U.S. Forest Service and state lands and another 15 miles with privately conserved property. The easement prohibits development, protects wildlife habitat and landscape connectivity, and guarantees permanent free public access for recreation — an estimated 6,000 days of hunting and angling use each year.
The land supports federally threatened species including bull trout, grizzly bear, and Canada lynx, and serves as a migration corridor for elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer, and moose. Commission approval is the final step; the easement does not require state land board review.
Financing the Deal
The easement carries an appraised value of $29,293,900. Stimson will donate roughly 60 percent of that — approximately $17,678,900 — through a conservation donation. A U.S. Forest Service Forest Legacy Program grant of $10.2 million, awarded last year, covers the largest share of the remaining cost. Avista Utilities contributed $250,000, NorthWestern Energy added $150,000, and the Trust for Public Land raised $1,015,000 in private donations to close the gap.
The Forest Legacy Program grant reflects federal investment in keeping working forestlands in private hands rather than allowing subdivision or development. Both regional utilities participated voluntarily, reflecting their interest in maintaining intact habitat and watershed function in the region.
Completing a Long-Term Strategy
Stimson’s resource advisor Barry Dexter told the Flathead Beacon that this approval closes out a conservation program the company has worked toward for more than a decade and a half. “This easement is the final step, the final building block in that process,” Dexter said. “When we complete this, the company’s nearly 130,000 acres will be under working conservation easements in this state.”
Dexter also pushed back against any perception that Stimson holds its Montana lands passively. “Stimson is an active manager of our timberlands; we are not an absentee landowner,” he told the outlet. The easements preserve timber harvesting as a permitted use, consistent with the working-forest model that conservation groups and the timber industry have increasingly embraced in Montana.
Broader Significance for Northwest Montana
The scale of the completed easement portfolio — 130,000 acres across northwest Montana — makes Stimson one of the larger private contributors to habitat and public access in the region. The landscape between Libby and Superior sits within one of the more intact wildlife corridors remaining in the northern Rockies, and the easement’s borders connect directly with federal and state public lands, reinforcing that connectivity.
For hunters and anglers, the permanent public access guarantee is significant. Easements of this type bind future landowners as well, meaning the access cannot be closed if ownership changes hands. The 6,000 annual days of projected use suggests the parcels already see substantial recreational activity, and formal easement protections provide certainty that will not exist without them.
Northwest Montana has been the site of several major public land and water policy decisions in recent months. A Flathead County judge recently upheld a DEQ wastewater discharge permit in a dispute over Lakeside-area water quality, reflecting the active regulatory environment across the region.
The commission’s August 19 vote marks the completion of a multi-year, multi-partner conservation transaction. With Stimson’s full Montana timber base now under easement, the company’s northwest Montana lands are permanently shielded from residential or commercial development while remaining in private, actively managed ownership.
