Get 'em while they're legal

While the Senate debates whether conservation easements should still be part of the land use arsenal, at least one government agency is trying to make hay while the sun shines, so to speak. According to the prosaically named Hungry Horse News the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service wants to buy easements on about 170,000 acres south of Glacier National Park.
The plan calls for "willing buyer and willing seller," agreements only and would allow for traditional uses of the land, such as ranching and farming. What it aims to do is stop or curtail subdivision of the land.
In short, it wants to stop housing sprawl on the scale that has happened here in Western Montana.
"The Front remains biologically intact and has not been significantly impacted by residential and commercial development," The USFWS says in its environmental assessment of the plan. The project area extends from the South Fork of the Dearborn River north to Birch Creek. It is home to nearly every species that was here when Lewis and Clark first explored the area 200 years ago.
The only species not still around is the free ranging Bison. And we all know what happened to that one. The assessment can be read at Bentonlake.fws.gov