Montana Land Reliance - Friends of Conservation

Senator Max Baucus - 2006 Conservation Award Recipient

“The greatest gift I have ever been given,” says Montana’s Senior Senator Max Baucus, “is a connection to the land. That is something I never have taken for granted, and never will take for granted.”

Growing up on the Sieben Ranch outside Helena, a ranch built by his great-grandfather, Senator Baucus came to understand the hard work that successful ranching requires. He also learned the conservation values that he says are part of Montana’s ranching ethic.

“It wasn't’t just learning about haying and fencing and long days working with livestock,” he says.  “It was the understanding that we were stewards—although nobody used that word back then. It was the understanding that we had an almost sacred responsibility to take care of the land the best way we knew how.”

“It is not only individual land-owners who have that responsibility,” says Senator Baucus.  “It is something that is shared by all of us,” he says. “There is so much of Montana that is so beautiful, that it’s easy to be complacent about our state. But that would be a mistake. We’re in a race against unplanned growth and unchecked development, and the consequences will be dire if we lose that race. When you talk about things like conservation values, you’re not talking about what you do in your spare time. You’re talking about an urgent choice that is confronting us about what direction we are going to go in the coming years.”

Senator Baucus has taken those conservation values and that sense of urgency with him to Washington, D.C. He has worked tirelessly there on issues that keep Montana’s ranches and farms intact and viable, and that maintain valuable open space for all Montanans. He took the lead in passing crucial legislation that allows 100% deductibility for conservation easements. For his hard work and dedication the Montana Land Reliance has named him as the recipient of its 2006 Conservation Award. “I am so pleased to be recognized by the Land Reliance,” he says.  “It’s such a terrific outfit, and has been for a long time, and I think people are just starting to understand the magnitude of what they are doing,” he says. “When you look at their record over the years it’s just amazing what they’ve accomplished. And they’re doing it without a lot of fanfare, piece by piece, watershed by watershed.  And you look back and say, 'Look at that beautiful piece of ground; it’s still intact.’ And 'look at that beautiful ranch; it’s still being worked, and it’s going to be passed on to great-grandchildren, and it’s not going to be subdivided.’ And 'look at that beautiful stream, it’s going to be protected forever.’ And 'look at this community, it’s still vibrant, and people aren’t leaving.’

“And as I look at these things around our state I see the hand of the Montana Land Reliance in much of it, and I can’t tell you how proud I am to feel that I’ve been able to help them in a small way to carry out their mission. Because at the end of the day, their mission should be everybody’s mission, and what they’re trying to do is something that benefits everybody in the great state of Montana.”