Earlier this month, an 80-acre subdivision in Corvallis was voted down by Ravalli County’s Board of County Commissioners after holding three public hearings packed full of neighbors and valley conservationists offering hours of oppositional public testimony.

The Calf Creek subdivision was the second attempt by land owners, Robert, James and Stephen Foley to turn their historically agricultural land into residential developments, a move seen by farmers as one of the biggest threats to Ravalli County’s shrinking agricultural acreage.