The Flathead Land Trust recently received the Montana Chapter of the Wildlife Society’s 2013 Wildlife Conservation Award.

The trust, a local nonprofit organization focused on private land conservation, won the award for its 27 years of conservation success in and around the Flathead Valley.

The trust works closely with private landowners who want to conserve open space and traditional working uses on their land through voluntary agreements called conservation easements.

The trust currently holds 51 conservation easements protecting more than 10,459 acres and has played an integral role in helping other organizations protect an additional 2,231 acres.

Through cooperative work with other organizations, the trust helped form and steer the Flathead River-To-Lake Initiative, which has focused on conservation efforts along the main stem Flathead River, its sloughs, and the north shore of Flathead Lake. 

“Given these outstanding achievements and demonstrated conservation leadership that benefits the wildlife resources to which the Wildlife Society is so dedicated, what better way to acknowledge their contributions than to award the Flathead Land Trust with the Wildlife Society’s 2013 Wildlife Conservation Award,” said Alan Wood, regional wildlife program manager for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and a member of the Wildlife Society’s Montana chapter.

The award was presented Feb. 28 at Grouse Mountain Lodge in Whitefish.

“It’s an honor to receive this year’s Wildlife Conservation Award,” said Marilyn Wood, executive director of the Flathead Land Trust. “We work really hard with our partners to find conservation solutions that benefit private landowners and help preserve what we all love about our rural landscape, clean water and abundant wildlife, so we appreciate when that work gets recognized.”