Perry Backus Photo
With the Bitterroot Range as backdrop, Jake Yoder takes a walk by his Black Angus cattle that graze on the 150 acres he and his family recently placed in a conservation easement. The land is one of the few intact larger agricultural parcels in the area.
Forever preserved: Yoder family decision keeps agricultural land intact Perry Backus Ravalli Republic
This article orignally appeared in the Ravalli Republic on Nov. 26, 2021. Jake Yoder grew up hearing his father say: “When everyone is running, you need to walk and when they’re walking, you need to run.” And so now, when Yoder walks over the 150 acres on Illinois Bench that his family recently placed under a conservation easement, he can’t help but remember his father’s advice. Everywhere he looks from that island of green, there are houses on parcels of land that have been subdivided over the years. Yoder had heard from developers anxious to do the same thing on the land he owned.
“My dad was telling me to be different,” he said. “It’s how I decided we needed to do something for this piece of land.” The Yoder family relocated to the Bitterroot Valley from the St. Ignatius area, where they ran a cow-calf operation for years. Yoder operates a gravel pit in the growing commercial complex owned by Amish-Mennonite families just north of Stevensville. The family wanted to continue its ranching operation. They started with 80 acres on Illinois Bench about 3.5 miles northeast of Stevensville in an area that has been heavily developed over the years. “I remember when I first drove back here and I saw all these houses,” Yoder said. “I wasn’t so sure but then I popped
up over the top and I saw this land. It was like ‘whoa, maybe I will do this.’” Right after he purchased that first 80 acres, he went to his neighbor to ask about the potential of buying the adjoining 70 acres of undeveloped farmland. The seed was planted and when the time was right, Yoder purchased the other half of the ranch and placed both properties under a conservation easement. “I never dreamt that in five years we would have been able to put this farm back together,” Yoder said. “I think about that every day when I come over the top of the hill and look around. I know this is the way it will stay now. There’s no threat. If I die tomorrow, there’s no threat that it will be sold and developed.”
