Ravalli County officials approve Open Lands Bond funds for Chesebro Ranch conservation easement

Ravalli County Commissioners approved phase four of the Chesebro Ranch LLC to preserve 251.94-acres of their 263-acre property with a conservation easement at a public hearing on Thursday, March 5, in Hamilton.

Commissioners approved the use of $315,000 from the Ravalli County Open Lands Bond Program (OLBP) to be used for the easement. More than 20 people were in attendance to support the conservation easement funding being approved.

A conservation easement is legally binding agreement that places restrictions on development by the owners and future owners of the land permanently to help preserve its natural and historic attributes. Property owners work with a land trust organization to establish terms of the easement, in this case Chesebro Ranch partnered with Bitter Root Land Trust. Bitter Root Land Trust will be responsible for monitoring and making sure the terms are followed for the property.

The Chesebro Ranch spans six parcels and is located about a mile and a half outside the center of Corvallis on Willow Creek Road. Bruce and Joan Chesebro have lived on the property since 1974 and have several structures on the property including a house, a bunkhouse, and a barn among others.

If the Chesebro family sells the land in the future, the 251.94 acres cannot be split up or subdivided, the property will be sold as one tract of land. There is a parcel being designated for a building envelope where two additional houses can be built within the farmstead area for farm help or extended family.

The land is primarily used for agricultural purposes, producing hay and grain as well grazing areas for livestock.

Several varieties of animals have been seen frequently on the property like elk, sandhill cranes, evening grosbeaks, and western toads. Fish and Wildlife Parks has designated parts of the property as elk and mule deer winter range areas.

The property has already gone through several phases to make sure it fits the criteria to get funding from the OLBP. County officials evaluate the property’s value as agricultural land, the value it provides as scenic open space, its importance as wildlife habitat and the impact it has on the water quality of streams. Then, the property is visited by an Open Lands Advisory Board which is appointed by the County Commissioners.

During the Chesebro Ranch site visit the board scored the property according to the different criteria needed before making a recommendation to the commissioners at a public meeting. The commissioners also went to the ranch to do their own site visit before approving the funding during the March 5 hearing. The fifth phase involves preparing legal documents which once finalized will be signed off by the commissioners.

The Ravalli County Open Lands Bond was voted on by taxpayers in 2006 and passed with 58% of the vote for a bond amount of $10 million. The bond was renewed by voters for another $10 million in 2022 after the funds from the first bond had been nearly used in full for land conservation projects under the OLBP.

All privately-owned property under a conservation easement is still required to pay property taxes. Similar programs sometimes called Open Space Programs exist in Missoula, Gallatin, and Lewis and Clark counties.

As of February 2026, the OLBP in Ravalli County has funded 51 projects conserving 13,317 acres of land in the Bitterroot Valley. Some of the projects the county has used program funds for include recreational sites for the community like parks and fishing access sites. This helped to create places like the C. Ben White Fishing Access Site on the West Fork (owned and managed by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks), Groff Family Park in Victor (owned and managed by Bitter Root Land Trust), and Steve Powell and Skalkaho Bend Parks (owned and managed by the City of Hamilton).

During the public comment section of the hearing, Bitter Root Land Trust Executive Director Lauren Rennaker said she is thankful to the voters for passing the bond and for the Ravalli County planners and commissioners as well as those in attendance.

"This is one of the fullest I've seen a phase four hearing, so I just want to say again thank you all for showing up," Rennaker said. "Looking forward to working through this process with the Chesebros, they have been an amazing family and just preserving such an amazing agricultural legacy clearly making a difference for our community here in the Bitterroot."