Plum Creek Timber Company, Inc. Expects Early Closing of Phase II of Montana Conservation Project

Plum Creek Timber Company, Inc. http://www.plumcreek.com/ , announced that the company and its conservation partners, The Nature Conservancy http://www.nature.org/ and The Trust for Public Land http://www.tpl.org/ , expect to complete the second phase of their conservation transaction during February of 2009.

Phase II of the Montana Legacy Project http://www.themontanalegacyproject.org/ was originally scheduled to close during December of 2009. Plum Creek expects to receive $250 million in cash for approximately 112,000 acres of western Montana forestlands in this second phase of the transaction.

Full Story: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Plum-Creek-Timber-Company-Inc-bw-14063237.html

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Preserving the Bitterroot Valley land

by JOHN CRAMER – Ravalli Republic

More than a century ago, the Wood family started farming and ranching in the fertile bottomland of the Bitterroot Valley.

That was long before sprawl started to gobble up the landscape, turning open spaces into subdivisions, blacktop and shopping strips.

On Monday, two descendents of the original Wood settlers ensured that the remaining 265 acres of the family’s homestead would remain undeveloped forever.

“We’re very pleased,” said Laurie Wood-Gundlach, who along with her sister, Janet Wood Farley, became the first landowners to sign a conservation easement under Ravalli County’s Open Lands bond program.

Wood-Gundlach, who lives in California, returned to Hamilton to witness the county commission’s unanimous vote to approve the easement.

Full Story: http://www.ravallirepublic.com/articles/2009/01/15/news/news59.txt