Wisherd-Blackfoot Canyon: Proposed Conservation Easement on 297-acres of Bonner Bighorn Sheep Habitat along Highway 200
Year Completed: 2015 | Project Cost: $25,000
Project Summary
The historic 297-acre Wisherd property is located approximately 5 miles east of Bonner along Highway 200 and the Blackfoot River (Fig’s. 1 & 2). The property is in the eastern portion of the Bonner bighorn sheep’s home range in hunting district 283. It abuts U.S. Forest Service lands on the southwest corner and Nature Conservancy lands on the northeast and eastern boundaries (Fig. 1). The steep, extensive rock outcroppings on the north side of the property provide important year-round and lambing habitat. The property incorporates 5,700 feet of Wisherd Gulch and a portion of the Blackfoot River, allowing bighorn sheep and other wildlife to naturally filter along the ridge and the gulch towards the Blackfoot River. The Wisherd property is an integral wildlife movement area for the Bonner bighorn sheep population and other wildlife moving east and west, but also north and south across Highway 200 to the Blackfoot River. Undisturbed riparian corridors on the property provides high water quality and wildlife habitat and connectivity values. At a broader landscape, the property connects to larger blocks of protected habitat leading north into the Rattlesnake and Mission Mountain Wilderness areas, and south into Bear Creek and the Clark Fork River face (Fig. 1).
As described in the Montana Bighorn Sheep Conservation Strategy (2010), management challenges to the Bonner bighorn sheep population include maintaining separation of domestic sheep and goats from bighorns to reduce the opportunity for disease transmission to wild sheep. Habitat management strategies of the Plan include working with private landowners to limit the use of domestic sheep and goats within this management unit. A Five Valley’s Land Trust conservation easement on the property would protect the Bonner bighorn sheep herd by providing continued habitat connectivity, as well as eliminating the opportunity for current and future property owners to have domestic sheep and goats on the property for any purpose.
