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Written by: Jessica Alvarez, Communications & Content Manager

Founded in 1965, the Bitter Root RC&D was the first Resource, Conservation, and Development nonprofit organization in the state of Montana. Its mission is to provide leadership and support on natural and community resource issues and projects in its service area–Missoula, Mineral, and Ravalli counties–and beyond by facilitating the planning, coordination, and implementation of initiatives which promote a sustainable rural lifestyle for current and future generations.

“Originally founded to institute local decision-making from the bottom up,” as Bitter Root RC&D Executive Director, Pam Gouse, explained, “all the councils are volunteers and have been for 60 years.” Over the past 20 years, the organization has expanded its focus from water and natural resources to community economic development including helping and mentoring various start-up nonprofits across the three counties where they work.

Currently, its major program is the hazardous fuels reduction program which is led by Byron Bonnie. “The program was first started after the landmark 2000 wildfire season in the United States and received its first hazardous fuels grant in 2001 to treat and protect private land from wildland wildfires,” according to Bonnie. Since then, they have treated more than 13,000 acres in Montana and helped over 1,700 landowners reduce fire risk on their properties.

Today, the organization works with various partners including the U.S. Forest Service, the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (NRCS), the Montana Department of Natural Resources & Conservation (DNRC), Pheasants Forever, local fire departments, and many others to institute their programs on private lands.

As was announced last month, Pheasants Forever, the U.S. Forest Service, and Blue Forest signed a Memorandum of Understanding to advance meaningful conservation work and explore conservation finance across Montana’s Bitterroot Valley through 2028. The Bitterroot National Forest is working with several partners including, Pheasants Forever, DNRC, the Bitter Root RC&D and others, to begin implementation in the Nez/Mud area of the Mud Creek Project later this year. The Bitter Root RC&D will lead planning and implementation of the 16,933-acre restoration plan with goals of improving forest health, reducing fuel loads, and contributing to watershed and habitat improvement in southwest Montana.

While this type of work has been funded mostly through government sources through the DNRC in the past, conservation finance is much-needed and welcomed, according to Gouse. “With the need we are seeing now, you have to believe that more work has to be done,” she said. “There are people now that are finally passionately interested in conservation work and safety and we welcome the addition of the private sector coming in to support this work that needs to be done.”

When it comes to leading this work on the ground, Bonnie’s priority is always community safety. The way to do that, he says, is through forest management. “If we don’t manage the forest, the forest is going to manage us, [so] that’s what we’re here to do,” he concluded.

Blue Forest is excited to be working with new partners like Bitter Root RC&D, the Bitterroot National Forest and others in this landscape and to be developing conservation finance projects on public and private lands in the Bitterroot Valley in the coming months.