Missoulian - Cows with room: Ravalli County voters to decide on $10 million open space bond

Jay Meyer said he hopes voters will support Ravalli County's open lands bond, which would help protect the Bitterroot Valley's agricultural lands. “We were watching the rural lifestyle fade away,” Meyer said on his family's land south of Stevensville. “Sprawl is affecting how we live.”
Photo by LINDA THOMPSON/Missoulian

STEVENSVILLE - Driving along his property, Jay Meyer points to a fence. That's where it happened, he said. Someone drove off the road and onto his property, taking out the fence posts and wire for a good stretch, then taking off.

Allowing a fence to remain so would never do for this fifth-generation rancher. He pounded new poles into the ground, replaced the wire, and made everything right again.

Whoever created the damage never came forward.

“I look at it, and I'm proud that I got the fence back up and got it straight,” he said. “You see some of your own sweat and blood here. It looks good. It makes you feel like everything is worth it.”

Meyer's parents ranched this acreage south of Stevensville before him, and he and his wife, Colleen, raised cattle and hay and their three kids on the property. Those kids are now grown, each attending college and still connected to agriculture by profession or passion.

Meyer is one Bitterroot Valley resident who supports the county's open-lands bond, a $10 million, 20-year bond that voters will consider Nov. 7.

A priority for the bond: to protect the valley's agricultural lands, which are rapidly being snapped up and subdivided. Ranchers like Meyer can either sell to developers, or find other ways to capture their investment, perhaps through a conservation easement that would protect the land into perpetuity while allowing a small farm to stay in business.

“We were watching the rural lifestyle fade away,” he said. “Sprawl is affecting how we live. ... But it also is affecting what we see. The beauty of this valley is here because of agriculture. It was arid and dry, but farming practices changed it. People who are moving in see a valley floor where the land's been farmed for a century.”

This time of year the agricultural foundation of the valley is clear. The corn is done, the stalks still in the fields. Leaves are turning. The hay is cut and stacked. Herds of cows dot the landscape.

It's a gorgeous valley, and gorgeous draws development, including a private 18-hole golf course; wealthy second-homers; hobby farms; brokerage-house owner Charles Schwab's Stock Farm development, with homes pushing $800,000 or more; more than 1,000 new homes in the planning pipeline.

A wider, better highway through the Bitterroot makes commutes into urban centers easy. People who find Missoula too expensive or too crowded are looking at the Bitterroot.

What are farmers to do? They'll sell to the highest bidder and either quit farming altogether - their average age is 57 - or move to cheaper land in another county.

“There have been times when I've been up against big obstacles, where I personally felt the fight wasn't worth it,” Meyer said. He's been tempted to say “give me the highest dollar and get me out of here.”

But through the years, his family made it work. He taught school and now drives a school bus, jobs he has loved but also financially needed.

“What I've always wanted to do, what I've always loved most, is to be a rancher and a farmer,” he said.

Ravalli County has no pre-selected “cornerstone” property it wants to protect with the bond, said Dan Huls, a fourth-generation dairy farmer and chairman of the county's Right to Farm and Ranch Board, the driving force behind the open-lands bond.

The county would appoint an advisory board, whose members would design a points system for evaluating projects. Points might be given for land that protects water quality, for instance, or that provides public access, or is a certain size, or is particularly important for wildlife.

Public hearings would follow. Commissioners would have the final say.

Supporters made a point to call theirs an “open lands” instead of an “open space” bond. It's more than semantics, they argue: 75 percent of the county is federal forest or public land, already open space. What they want to protect are the open lands along the valley floor, where agriculture has a long, steady history. The county has lost 41,000 acres of agriculture land since the 1980s and could lose 40,000 more, leaving 179,000 acres, by 2020, according to a study and inventory conducted by Larry Swanson of the University of Montana's O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West.

If agriculture land goes, so does hay for horses on the hundreds of 5- and 10-acre ranchettes that dot the Bitterroot. So do veterinarians who handle large animals and the feed shops that cater to farm needs. Bank loans, hired help, machinery, supplies - all are part of the secondary economy that agriculture requires and supports, Huls said.

Huls and others are making the rounds, talking to civic and neighborhood groups around the county. They stress:

n The bond would be used for securing matching funds - “leveraged” is the word used - especially from national conservation programs concerned about small farms and agricultural lands.

n The program is voluntary for the landowners. Nobody will force anyone to participate.

n County commissioners have said they don't want to buy land that has to be maintained. Land aided by the bond would remain in private hands, but stay undeveloped.

n The land would not necessarily provide public access. Some would, some would not.

n Homeowners will be charged for the bond only if and when deals are made, so assessments will be phased in, not collected all at once.

n Agricultural land was the impetus behind the bond, but the bond also covers land that has value for wildlife, water and river quality, and that helps manage growth.

Ravalli County voters have a crowded, confusing ballot, with an interim-zoning request to limit subdivisions, five questions from the county's local government study commission, a North Valley library district levy, the creation of park district in Darby, and a parks district levy.

No organized opposition has cropped up, which doesn't mean the bond is a sure thing. Bitterroot resident and retired teacher Richard Knight said he's not against open land - in fact, he's worried about growth pressures in the valley - but he wants the county to be more creative.

Seek legislative changes to get a slice of gambling money for easements and open land, he suggests. Or add a few percentage points to land sales and subdivisions in the county, earmarking that money for protecting land.

“My whole point is that I agree with open space, but it should be financed through other sources, not just by taxpayers,” he said.

Hamilton has a new high school, an old municipal swimming pool that needs fixing, more and more roads that need maintaining. The burden is just too much, he said.

“It's $70 here, $100 there. It just keeps going up and up,” he said.

Meyer and Huls argue a bond today will give Ravalli County tools right now. Other solutions might be viable, but will take years to develop as hundreds of agricultural acres are subdivided and lost, they said.

Ravalli County has both the super rich and the very poor, and getting mill levies passed at the schools has been tough, so “we tried to keep it reasonable,” Huls said. “We figure it costs the average person about 9 cents a day; we're hoping people will see that as a good investment.”

Other counties that passed open space bonds find organizations and programs that offer $4-to-$1 matches for conservation efforts, which means a $10 million bond buys $50 million in projects, Huls said.

“What's in it for the little guy? The quality of life and the quality of the community definitely impacts them,” said Huls, who, as chairman of the county's planning board, sees the changes in the county from unique perspectives.

“People value their view, they value the beauty. This would help protect some of those views and some of that beauty.”

Huls and Meyer aren't sure whether they'd take advantage of the bond's programs if it passed. They'd like to have the option; both have children or relatives who'd like to continue raising cattle or tilling land or milking cows, which makes them unusual.

Their families have to make a living, or the land will be sold.

“This would give farmers a way to extract some value from their land,” Huls said. “Otherwise, they'd have to sell it off. They wouldn't have a choice.”

Easements also might help ranchers in their 70s who don't have heirs, or whose kids aren't farmers. They can protect land while providing a retirement for themselves or an inheritance for their family.

“We've been working hard to get the word out,” Huls said. “We just hope Ravalli County voters see the need for this, and are willing to support it.”

“Missoula had Mount Jumbo, Mount Sentinel, the Rattlesnake, walking trails, the riverfront. They were in danger of being developed, and Missoula wanted to protect them,” Meyer said.

“Here, it is the agricultural land that is in danger. If we want to keep our lifestyle and our heritage, if we want to keep the open lands that everyone enjoys, then we have to step in to do something.”

Reporter Mea Andrews can be reached at 523-5246 or at mandrews@missoulian.com

Ravalli County open lands bond

Election date: Tuesday, Nov. 7.

Amount: $10 million over 20 years.

Cost: About $32 a year for the average home, according to the county.

For: Protecting wildlife habitat, water quality, stream and river quality, controlling growth, protecting agriculture land, costs associated with setting up conservation easements and other land-protection tools; costs associated with the bond.

Does not: Require public access, landowner participation, government ownership.

Bond language:

Ravalli County, Montana, Open Land General Obligation Bond

Shall the Board of Ravalli County Commissioners be authorized to issue and sell general obligation bonds of Ravalli County solely for the purpose of preserving open lands in Ravalli County by purchasing land, conservation easements, and other interests in land from willing land owners for the following purposes: manage growth, preserve open lands, protect water quality of streams and the Bitterroot River, maintain wildlife habitat, protect drinking water sources, pay landowner costs and related transaction costs associated with an approved project, and pay costs associated with the sale and issuance of the bonds in the principle amount of Ten Million and 00/100 Dollars ($10,000,000), which bonds shall bear interest at a rate to be determined at a competitive sale, payable semiannually during a term not to exceed twenty (20) years and redeemable on an interest payment date after one-half of their term, with all expenditures based on recommendations of an Open Land Board, after public comment, approval by the Ravalli County Commissioners, and subject to Ravalli County's yearly independent audit?

Open Land Bonds - Yes

Open Land Bonds - No

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