Saving the Big Sky

“The essential purpose of Saving the Big Sky is to inspire the reader to help conserve even more of Montana,” write Bruce Bugbee, Robert Kiesling, and John Wright in this compelling study of how six million acres of biodiverse land were conserved in Montana over the past fifty years. Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledge about land stewardship has evolved and since the 1970s tribes, nonprofit organizations, land trusts, and government agencies have conserved land in many creative ways. Beautifully illustrated with more than ninety color photographs and thirty detailed maps, Saving the Big Sky showcases land conservation achievements across eight regions of the state: the Rocky Mountain Front, the Blackfoot Valley, the Greater Yellowstone, the Missoula Region, the Helena Region, Northwest Montana, the Flathead Indian Reservation, and the American Prairie.

Land protection is shown to work best when large, intact, connected landscapes can be conserved, rather than small, fragmented, isolated parcels. Conservationists have found that landowners in Montana more widely accept conservation easements and other voluntary, financially compensating tools that respect private property rights. The brilliant images and striking before-and-after maps featured here celebrate the ranches, farms, wildlife habitats, and scenic open spaces that are forever safeguarded.

In documenting conservation accomplishments and suggesting what more can be done, Saving the Big Sky invites readers to participate in conserving Montana—or whatever cherished landscape they call home.

“There are no secrets to conservation, no complex methods or hidden formulas. It is, as our Native American forefathers and mothers taught us, a simple matter of will and human determination to preserve the forces and sacred lands that keep living things alive. This powerful and inspiring book is about retaining and protecting those forces and landscapes for generations of life to come.” —Mark Dowie, author of Conservation Refugees: The Hundred-Year Conflict between Global Conservation and Native Peoples

“Montana is robust and precious. Hereabouts we treasure what’s natural and wild. At a time when so many Americans get their notions of the state from a cheesy horse opera titled Yellowstone, it couldn’t be more important to present certain realities—about what’s worth conserving, and how best to conserve that—in a tapestry made vivid not by fantasy but by fact. Bugbee, Kiesling, and Wright do that superbly (with a bit of crucial help from Shane Doyle) in this deeply informed, loving book.” —David Quammen, New York Times bestselling author of The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions

“Saving the Big Sky is a fine blend of history, culture, and land conservation success stories. The beautiful illustrations complement the authors’ inspiring accounts of how a mix of private landowners, tribes, land trusts, and funders have conserved more than six million acres of Montana’s landscapes.” —Tom Daniels, author of The Environmental Planning Handbook: For Sustainable Communities and Regions

“This is an extraordinarily well researched, in-depth history of what led to the creation of the many conservation easements now in place around the state of Montana, and I know it will be referred to for many decades. I found it to be an absolutely fascinating read.” —Land M. Lindbergh, rancher and conservationist