Missoulian - Ravalli County open space bond placed on ballot

Ravalli County commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved placing a $10 million open space bond on the ballot this November.

“I think the commissioners are very supportive of the concept of open space, and we're very supportive of letting the people decide,” said Greg Chilcott, chairman of the county commission.

The bond, if passed, would give the county a chance to protect some of its dwindling open space, particularly agricultural land that is rapidly being devoured for subdivisions.

“I think there's a strong contingent of people who think that we preserve the feel of the community by preserving some of our open agricultural lands,” Chilcott said.

Dan Huls, active with the Bitterroot's Right to Farm and Ranch Board, is one of those people.

“The lands that we're going to be talking about are lands that are open right now to development,” said Huls, a fourth-generation valley rancher. “This is land that provides our viewshed, that protects our water and wildlife. Once development comes to those lands, it's gone forever.”

The county is looking at the open space money as a way to purchase development rights and help farmers with conservation easements instead of making outright purchases and creating public property.

“The intent is not to buy the land outright,” Huls said. “The intent is to buy the development rights. The farmer can still manage the land.”

In the 1980s, the Bitterroot had about 257,000 acres of agricultural land, but in recent years that number has dwindled to about 216,000 acres. A study by Larry Swanson of the University of Montana's O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West projects that figure could fall to 176,000 acres by 2020.

And it's not just farming and ranching that goes by the wayside as those lands are subdivided and turned into the green lawns and tidy houses of suburbia.

“It's our way of life that's gone then,” Huls said.

That way of life includes not just food production, but the money that flows from farmers and ranchers through the valley's communities, banks, stores and work force. Valley ranchers and farmers, for instance, spend $30 million a year on bank loans.

Huls and Chilcott said job No. 1 for supporters of the bond issue will be informing voters about what the bond will and won't do.

“I think there's a lack of information about there right now, but I think we have people very committed to getting the pertinent information out there,” Chilcott said.

Huls agreed.

“We're very, very committed to this,” he said. “We're ready to get out there and inform the voters about the benefits of the bond, about the ramifications of not passing it. I think we can engage people on terms that they'll understand, and we hope that will lead to them supporting the bond.”

Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or at mmoore@missoulian.com

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