In his book on happiness, Arthur Brooks suggests that fulfillment in life often comes from doing meaningful work that aligns with personal values and internal sources of joy. Linda Brander mused on the source of true happiness as we walked up the gentle slopes on her property, pausing occasionally to admire the view of the open valley below us. More than most, Linda seems completely in touch with her values and her vision.
“I’m very tuned in to what’s in my heart and soul, and I follow my intuition,” she said. “When I run into roadblock after roadblock, I change the road. My mom instilled that in me, and it’s how I run my entire life.”
Linda grew up just outside of the small town of Avon, on a one-acre lot her parents purchased at auction when she was young. During the same bidding session, the 40-acre property surrounding their piece was also up for sale. “I can visualize myself sitting on my dad’s shoulders as they were bidding,” she recalled. “I said ‘Daddy, please buy that.’ I don’t remember what he said, but I probably figured out that we couldn’t afford it.”
Despite her early interest in owning land, it wasn’t a yearning Linda had her entire life. She spent years doing short-term contract work and traveling the world, spending time in Tonga, New Zealand, and Australia. She’d always had a desire to work in a big city, so she moved to San Francisco when she returned from her travels abroad.
“I was happy when I was traveling and loved the unpredictability of it all,” Linda said. “I never booked ahead and often didn’t know where I would be staying, but I landed on the right pathway and things worked out.”
Linda knew her road would lead back to Montana eventually. She ended up getting a position at the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, even though she didn’t have a background in natural resources. “In my interview, I said that I had the passion, vision, and creativity to take something from scratch and turn it into a functioning product,” she remembered.
And that she did. During her time at DNRC, Linda was a key driver behind the publication of ‘Montana Women: From the Ground Up,’ a book celebrating the resilience, strength, and contributions of women in agriculture who shaped the history and culture of Montana. “I ran into plenty of obstacles, but I knew from the beginning that the book would work out,” she said. Thanks in large part to her efforts, the stories of these women are now part of recorded history, forever preserving their contributions to Montana’s identity.
Owning land had been on the back burner, but when Linda returned to Montana it became a very strong desire. “I didn’t want just any piece of land, so I waited for the right one” she said. Then, in 1996, the property next to her childhood home went up for sale again. Linda knew that was her chance.
She was offered the opportunity to buy a full section of land and immediately started doing some calculations. Linda’s desire was to buy as much as she could afford so she could look out at the view and never see another house on it. 60 acres was the magic number. “I have this sense of trust that things will work out,” she said. “If it came to me like it did, it was meant to be.” Although buying the property meant Linda had to wait to retire, making the final payment on the land was an incredible moment.
“When I climb the hill and look out over the valley at the mountains, I get this sense of awe that it’s mine,” she said. “This is where I grew up and raised every animal we ever had. It’s the history of my family and the essence of everything, and I could never live anywhere else.”
For someone like Linda, putting a conservation easement on the property just made sense, so in 2020 she partnered with MLR to permanently protect her land. “I’ve always been interested in easements for protecting the wildlife habitat and the viewshed,” she said. “And I also want the people who live in this town and this valley after me to enjoy the same views and open space and the elk and deer grazing on that hillside, because I had the opportunity to enjoy that my entire life.”
Linda knows that her story easily could have gone in a different direction, and that against all odds it worked out for her. “When I read about the large properties that have easements, I feel so proud being a little guy in a big picture, to be part of a statewide effort to conserve land for the future.”
Brooks wrote that happiness is an equation involving a sense of purpose, meaning in your life, and satisfaction. “Being the steward of this land gives me all of these things, and makes me truly happy,” reflected Linda as she gazed over the snow-dusted hills on her property, with her goats and horses by her side. “I’ve worked for this land for over twenty years because it was important to me, and I now own a place that can be a sanctuary for wild and domestic animals.”
“That was always in my vision, and I did it.”
