KALISPELL — A coalition of local residents, farmers, conservation groups, and outdoor enthusiasts held a forum in Kalispell Thursday night called “Save the Flathead.”
Flathead Valley residents are fighting to protect their farmland. Here's how.
The forum focused on how a community-driven open-space bond could help protect Flathead County’s working farms and wildlife habitat from private development.
“Do we want to drive through Creston and actually see farm fields and farmers out there and elk and deer or do we just want to see subdivisions and houses? I mean because that’s what’s coming,” said Heritage Custom Farming Co-owner Tryg Koch.
Koch has been farming in the Flathead for 19 years and co-owns Heritage Custom Farming.
He grows a variety of crops on 3,000 acres on 100 percent leased land.
“There’s not very many farmers that still own land and just farm their deeded grown; it’s all leased, there’s a lot of leased acres out there,” said Koch.
Koch was one of a handful of speakers at the “Save the Flathead” forum that talked about how a community-driven open-space bond could protect Flathead’s vital land in perpetuity through conservation easements.
“People want to do something; they don’t want it to all go to infrastructure and roads and development, but they also don’t know what to do, they have no idea, so let’s give them something, it may not be a fix for everybody, but that is what we can do, that’s what this will do,” said Koch.
Four counties across Montana have approved similar open-space bonds, including Ravalli County, approving the measure in both 2006 and 2022.
“The first one passed with 57 percent approval; the second one passed with 71 percent approval,” said Ravalli County Commissioner Dan Huls.
Huls said almost 16,000 acres in Ravalli County have been put into conservation easements thanks to funding from open-space bonds.
He said protecting vital farmland and wildlife habitat is a non-partisan issue that unites communities.
“Because it’s tangible and you can see it, the money doesn’t just disappear into a black hole; it’s visible,” added Huls.
The coalition hopes to have an open-space bond measure on the ballot in Flathead County by 2028.
“Try to at least get it on the ballot and let the people of Flathead Valley make that decision: 'Hey, is this something we want to do? Do we want to protect this wide-open space?'” said Koch.
