As the city continues its goal of creating a new land use plan, there are some real conservation opportunities at hand. One of them is creating a wildlife corridor along the west flank of Teakettle Mountain so elk, deer and bears can migrate from the mountain to the Bad Rock Wildlife management area to the south.

Deer routinely cross the river in this area and I assume elk do as well, though I’ve only personally seen deer.

The corridor doesn’t have to be huge and it doesn’t have to impinge on further development of the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. property.

Developer Mick Ruis in his plans for the property has already set aside a big chunk of north end of the property as open space. What is needed is a slice along the mountain that would provide wildlife safe passage to the south.

Most of  the land I’m thinking about is already old Columbia falls Aluminum Co. landfills that can’t be developed into housing anyway. I realize this property is outside the city limits, but it could soon very well be inside the city limits, so it would behoove the city to consider such a designation if the parties (CFAC and Ruis) are amenable to it, which I think they would be, with just compensation.

While the federal government has put the clamps on many pots of funding, the Land, Water and Conservation Fund is viable thanks to the efforts of Congressman Ryan Zinke and Sen. Steve Daines. They recognize the importance of land conservation here in Montana and across the West.

Another potential funding source is the Natural Resources Damage Assessment Plan for the CFAC site. The damage assessment plan (which is also part of Superfund law) looks to quantify and gauge the damage to the environment caused by the plant and will, eventually, look to recover damages.

Both funding sources could bring a modest wildlife corridor along the base of the mountain to fruition.

The next step would be a wildlife crossing at Highway 2 somewhere near the House of Mystery, which is a natural pinch point for wildlife to access the Swan Range at Columbia Mountain and, by extension, the Bob Marshall Wilderness.

(Fifty miles is nothing for a herd on the move. I recall several years ago when a small herd of bighorn sheep showed up at the base of Columbia Mountain. I took a photo of one in the Bad Rock Canyon next to the Hungry Horse sign. Biologists were at a loss as to where they came from, as the closest herd was about 80 miles away.)

I will leave you with a familiar ending that North Fork columnist Larry Wilson often used in his writings:

What do you think?