Addition to wildlife area dedicated

By STEVE KADEL Western News Reporter

An 1,800-acre addition to the Bull River Wildlife Management Area contains critical spawning and rearing habitat for the threatened bull trout while protecting a key wildlife migratory corridor linking the east and west Cabinet Mountains.

Representatives of The Conservation Fund; Avista Corp.; Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks; Plum Creek Timber Co.; and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gathered at the management area just off state Highway 56 on Wednesday for dedication ceremonies.

The coalition of public and private groups spent the past four years in negotiations leading to the deal. Land acquisition cost $7 million, said Gates Watson, Montana director for The Conservation Fund.

The fund's president, Larry Selzer, called the protected land "some of the West's most spectacular wildlife habitat."

Mark Ellsbree, the fund's regional vice president from Ketchum, Idaho, gave Jerry Wolcott of Plum Creek's Libby office a plaque signifying the timber company's part in the transaction. Wolcott said it was gratifying to see so many groups work together to reach a common goal.

The deal negotiated by The Conservation Fund uses protection, mitigation and enhancement money from Avista's Clark Fork Settlement Agreement. A $4.6 million Habitat Conservation Plan grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provided the bulk of funding.

The Bull River flows 18 miles from the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area to the Clark Fork River. The Bull River Watershed Protection Project, which began four years ago, is one of the projects being done in the lower Clark Fork watershed through Avista's settlement, developed as part of Avista's relicensing of two dams.

"Avista went so much further than what was required of them that it's just amazing," Ellsbree said.

Jenna Thompson, spokeswoman from The Conservation Fund's Washington, D.C., office, said the project was a perfect fit for the organization's efforts.

"It's got to be a public and private partnership, and it's got to have an economic component," she said. "It doesn't get much better than this."

Preserving prime habitat to bolster wildlife translates into revenue for the area through recreation and tourism, Thompson noted.

Chris Smith of Fish, Wildlife and Parks agreed, saying, "protecting this land is important to our future economy and the growth of the state."

Bald eagles, waterfowl and neo-tropical songbirds as well as deer, elk, black bear, grizzlies and moose are among the area's inhabitants, according to The Conservation Fund.

Cal Ryder of the Noxon-based Cabinet Birders said club members have counted 90 species in the area during 21 years of surveys.

"It is one of the most important birding areas in the Clark Fork system," he said.

Wetlands adjacent to the river are one of the land acquisition's key features, according to state and federal agency representatives.