Stories
Montana Couple Transforms 20 Acres into 655-Acre Wildlife Refuge for Bears, Wolves, Elk
- •Doug and Carolyn Kohrs expanded their initial 20-acre purchase to 655 acres along Montana's Stillwater River, creating a permanent wildlife refuge.
- •The property, now under a conservation easement, protects farmland, riverfront forest, and habitat for grizzly bears, wolves, elk, and nearly 100 bird species.
- •Game cameras revealed diverse wildlife, including large predators like grizzly bears and mountain lions, and elk using the land for birthing.
- •The conservation effort connects with larger protected areas, providing crucial movement corridors for wildlife and preserving 1.7 miles of the Stillwater River.
- •The land remains a working farm, demonstrating how agricultural production can coexist with significant wildlife conservation.
Key Questions Answered
Doug and Carolyn Kohrs began by purchasing 20 acres beside Montana’s Stillwater River in 2005 after visiting the Flathead Valley from Minnesota. Over the following 17 years, they gradually acquired neighbouring and nearby parcels until they had assembled a 655-acre landscape.
In 2022, the Kohrses placed all 655 acres under a permanent conservation easement, which is a legal agreement that restricts certain future uses of private land to protect its conservation values. While the land remains privately owned and continues to be farmed, development rights are limited so that its wildlife habitat and scenic character remain protected permanently.
Game cameras and family observations have documented grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, foxes, elk, deer, and nearly 100 bird species including great gray owls and trumpeter swans, with elk even using a remote part of the land to give birth. Additionally, the property features 1.7 miles of riverfront forest along the Stillwater River and connects directly to the 1,557-acre Kuhns Wildlife Management Area and other public lands.
