Montana Land Reliance

Description

The Montana Land Reliance is a nonprofit land trust that partners with private landowners to permanently protect agricultural lands, fish and wildlife habitat, and open space in Montana.

It works through voluntary conservation easements, legal agreements in which a landowner keeps title to the property but the land trust limits future uses to protect its conservation values. The easement runs with the title, so protection continues even if ownership changes. The organization holds hundreds of easements covering over a million acres of private property, making it the largest land trust in Montana and the largest state-based land trust in the United States.

Its work spans rangeland, forests, elk habitat, wetlands and stream frontage, and it is accredited by the Land Trust Alliance. The Ruby Habitat Foundation, founded in 2002, is a supporting organization that manages a ranch in Sheridan, Montana, for fishing, hunting and agricultural research.

Founded in 1978, the organization is headquartered in Helena, Montana.