The Northern Rockies THERE IS SO MUCH TO BE PROUD OF IN 2023 AND MORE TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN THE YEAR AHEAD
Celebrating 50 Years of Impact, Thanks to You!
Story Mill Community Park, Bozeman, MT. © ADRIÁN SÁNCHE Z GONZ ÁLE Z Since the beginning, TPL’s vision has been rooted in a singular belief: that access to the outdoors is essential to people’s well-being. What started as a bold idea in a small San Francisco office fifty years ago has blossomed into a nationwide movement to ensure everyone, no matter where they live, can experience nature’s countless gifts. At this special milestone, we celebrate the incredible network of TPL advocates who make our work possible and catalyze our future efforts. With your support, we have preserved iconic landscapes that stand as a testament to the enduring impact of TPL’s work across the country, including Story Mill Community Park in Bozeman. These green spaces are now some of the best-known and most-visited places in the Northern 2 |
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Rockies—places that are bringing neighbors together and fostering a love for the outdoors, while uplifting local economies and delivering critical, nature-based solutions in the face of climate change. By the end of 2023, we will have protected over one million acres in Montana alone. And we are just getting started! It is an exciting time to be a part of the TPL community, as we look to new opportunities to connect to nature, our histories, and each other. With your enduring support, we will continue to build parks and protect land, making the Northern Rockies a healthier and more equitable place for everyone. Thank you!
Tribal Community Schoolyards™ TPL is working to make vibrant Community Schoolyards standard practice across the country. As a national leader in the green schoolyard movement, TPL has created nearly 300 Community Schoolyards with families. Nowhere is this work more important than in tribal and Indigenous communities, where empty school grounds exacerbate health and environmental disparities and fail to reflect Native culture. We recently formed a groundbreaking program with the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) to remake schoolyards with Indigenous communities. Working alongside Native people, we will transform conventional schoolyards into culturally relevant green spaces that redress disparities in education, health, and representation. By transforming BIE- and tribally-operated schoolyards into vibrant parks, TPL can fill a vital need for tribal members, ensuring they have access to quality, naturefilled places where they can be physically active, mentally supported, and socially engaged. Due to centuries of colonial practices, Native Americans face some of the highest rates of poverty, depression, chronic health conditions, suicide, and school dropout. The transformed schoolyards will include opportunities for exercise and play, helping reduce risks of heart disease and diabetes. The schoolyards will help improve the mood and concentration of Indigenous students, many of whom suffer from chronic depression and high dropout rates. Arts and culture in the schoolyards will deepen knowledge of Native languages and customs. Indigenous communities will design the schoolyards through TPL’s inclusive, culturally sensitive participatory
Chiloquin Elementary School in Oregon serves students from the Klamath Tribes. It is a model schoolyard for this effort. © SPAY NE M ARTINE Z
design process. A hallmark of our work, this collective approach ensures that the campuses reflect local needs and cultural values. After conducting quantitative research and community outreach, the BIE and TPL chose nine pilot schools based on their potential health, educational, and environmental benefits, including the Coeur d’Alene Tribal School in De Smet, Idaho, and the Northern Cheyenne Tribal School in Busby, Montana. These pilot schools will nurture communities and demonstrate an equitable model for renewing tribal schools nationwide.
These schoolyards, which will take shape in tribal communities in states including Idaho, South Dakota, and Montana, will serve as culturally informed outdoor educational and recreational spaces that will benefit kids and their communities.”
— Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland at the January 2023 White House Tribal Nations Summit. TRUST FOR PUBLIC L AND IN THE NORTHERN ROCKIES
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Yellowstone Heritage Trail Thirty miles north of Yellowstone National Park, the quaint town of Emigrant, Montana, sits nestled between stunning mountain ranges and the majestic Yellowstone River. Yet residents and visitors are dependent on cars to travel around town and to nearby recreation opportunities. Walkers, bicyclists, and parents with strollers must use the highway—alongside vehicles traveling 55 mph—to connect to local establishments. The area is especially busy in the summer, with river users, people attending local community events, and residents crossing the highway to access the retail and entertainment. That is why a longtime resident and landowner is partnering with TPL to protect an abandoned 23-acre linear railroad parcel to create three new miles of multiuse trail. The conversion of the town’s rusting rail line into a walking and biking trail will anchor this growing community with social and recreational opportunities and good sustainable jobs. The proposed 23 acres of open space in Emigrant will serve as a key catalyst for the Yellowstone Heritage © DANIEL ANDERSON
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Trail—a project that will eventually link 49 miles of trail from Livingston to Arch Park in Gardiner, the northern entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The Yellowstone Heritage Trail will uplift the local economy and neighboring communities of the Paradise Valley. By transforming an old rail line to a linear trail corridor, this trail will serve to build momentum and community support for the national Rails-to-Trails Conservancy’s Great American Rail-Trail initiative to create a coast-tocoast multiuse trail. The entire route is over 54 percent complete with more than 2,030 miles completed on the ground. The trail is just 24 percent complete in Montana, but when all 427 miles passing through the state are complete, the Great American Rail-Trail could generate more than $16 million in visitor spending, 210 new jobs with $7 million in labor income, and $800,000 in new tax revenue. With your help, we can unlock this community’s potential to build a well-loved and well-used trail for everyone to enjoy.
Harrell Forest Community Trails in Bigfork, MT This September, TPL and the Flathead Land Trust hosted the grand opening of the Harrell Forest Community Trails. Located on Swan Hill just a short distance from downtown Bigfork, the now publicly accessible land was once slated for residential development. Instead, thanks to the forwardthinking generosity of the Horn family, the 236-acre parcel will offer new access to extraordinary recreational opportunities, with unfettered views of Flathead Lake and the Swan Mountain Range. Accessibility is at the heart of Harrell Forest, and the trails are designed to be familyfriendly, with safety at the forefront. The trails are wide and accommodate adaptive cyclists, with gentle grades that allow adaptive use for three-wheeled mountain bikes. There is also a convenient trailhead with a 23-space gravel parking lot, vault toilet, and kiosk with a trail map. The frontcountry location will help distribute trail users across overcrowded trails, while simultaneously limiting the impacts of increased public lands use. The new trail system features non-motorized trails that provide users with a variety of enjoyable experiences.
A SPECIAL CELEBRATION The opening of Harrell Forest Community Trails coincided with TPL’s 50th Anniversary celebration. To mark both occasions, we hosted a special reception to thank partners and donors who make projects like this possible. We recognized Chuck Roady and Paul McKenzie of F.H. Stoltze Land & Lumber Company with the 50th Anniversary Groundbreaker Award, recognizing their role as key partners furthering TPL’s mission.
In addition to new trail access, Harrell Forest Community Trails will reduce risk of wildfires through forest health management and provide habitat protection and landscape connectivity for wildlife species, such as whitetail deer, turkeys, and black bear.
BOTH: © REBECCA ST UMPF
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Forever Wild: Preserving Montana and Idaho’s Last Best Places
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We are connected by our love of the outdoors. But these cherished lands, vast forests, and watersheds that provide us with sanctuary, good jobs, and clean air and water are under increasing threat from real estate development. Today we stand at a crossroads: protect these special places now or risk losing them forever. The Forever Wild campaign will deliver sweeping benefits for Northern Rockies communities. The power of this campaign lies in strategically tackling individual projects together to make large, combined conservation impacts at landscape scale. TPL currently has more than 440,000 acres in the pipeline for protection, stretching across western Montana, the Idaho Panhandle, and eastern Washington. And thanks to our reputation as skilled land protectors, public fund assemblers, and community partners, landowners come to us to find conservation solutions that meet everyone’s goals.
Stimson Timberlands Legacy Project The most successful conservation efforts involve collaboration. That is why the Stimson Lumber Company reached out to TPL to protect the timber company’s entire inland land base in Montana, Idaho, and Washington. We are seizing this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to conserve 230,000 acres of privately owned forestlands, ensure the sustainable timber economy continues, and provide permanent public access. With 50 years of extensive experience and partnerships, TPL is uniquely positioned to tackle complex land conservation efforts such as this. Our extensive conservation and real estate expertise, data-driven mapping, and ability to navigate public funds allow us to strategically quilt together large, connected landscapes for recreationists and wildlife alike. This exciting project builds on our effective partnership with Stimson Lumber Company. Together, we have protected nearly 125,000 acres over the last 15 years.
CURRENT FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES Our work in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming is made possible thanks to the generosity of foundations, companies, and individuals like you. Yellowstone Heritage Trail: Develop the first section of the Yellowstone Heritage Trail and transform the old railroad into a trail to Yellowstone National Park. Tribal Community Schoolyards: Transform barren schoolyards into vibrant green spaces for learning and play in tribal communities. Forever Wild: Conserve our region’s most iconic and imperiled landscapes. Leave a Legacy: Create an even bigger impact by demonstrating your commitment to outdoor connections and making a gift through your will, trust, charitable gift annuity, charitable remainder trust, beneficiary designation, or appreciated assets.
OPPOSITE PAGE, L ARGE: © BR ANDON MCM AHON; BOT TOM: © CHRISTOPHER BOYER /K ESTREL AERIAL; THIS PAGE: © REBECCA ST UMPF
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NORTHERN ROCKIES ADVISORY BOARD THANK YOU TO OUR ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS IDAHO Suzanne Orb, Chair Paul Hill MONTANA David Barclay, Vice-chair Larry Garlick Dick Harding Robert Stephens Ed Wetherbee WYOMING Agnes Bourne Beedee Ladd Christopher Lea
THANK YOU for helping improve the health, equity, and climate outcomes for communities in Northern Rockies and beyond. We could not do this without you.
Dick Dolan Associate Vice President, Northern Rockies Northern Rockies Director dick.dolan@tpl.org 406.582.6246
Join us Help ensure everyone has access to the outdoors. Every park we create, schoolyard we transform, trail we extend, and landscape we protect is thanks to supporters like you. tpl.org/donate
Melissa Dulin Director of Philanthropy, Northern Rockies melissa.dulin@tpl.org 406.582.6250 1007 East Main St. Suite 300 Bozeman, MT 59715
COV ER , TOP: © BR ANDON MCM AHON; © E ARTHSCAPE /L AUR A SIMMONS PHOTOGR APH Y; © TOM ROBERTSON; L A RG E: © BR ANDON MCM AHON; THIS PAGE: © BR ANDON MCM AHON