Description
Montana’s Pine Butte Preserve is home to the largest wetland complex along the Rocky Mountain Front and is an important stronghold for grizzly bears. The area is part of the larger Crown of the Continent, a 10-million-acre region of the Northern Rockies that includes Glacier National Park and straddles the Montana-Canada border.
A botanical treasury
In addition to the surface water flowing through the preserve, Pine Butte encompasses an extensive fen peatland—a wetland fed by mineral-rich groundwater. The fen is an unusual and significant feature in this dry landscape where flat prairie and steep mountains meet in a geologic sweep ranging from 4,500 to 8,500 feet in elevation. The result is a remarkably diverse flora supporting a third of the plant species in Montana. Rare wetland plants such as tufted club-rush, Macoun’s gentian and autumn willow flourish in proximity to common upland prairie plants such as rough fescue, prairie junegrass and bluebunch wheatgrass (Montana’s state grass). Limber pine savanna marks the transition between prairie grasslands and montane forests.
A wildlife bonanza
The preserve is home to an equally diverse range of wildlife. Each spring, grizzly bears come down from their mountain retreats, while snow still blankets the high country. They follow the streams on the Rocky Mountain Front, to the prairie lowlands where they feed and rear their young. The robust wetland, streamside and grassland environments provide both food and security, so the bears can replenish their depleted energy reserves.
Besides grizzlies, dozens of other wildlife species roam the preserve, among them beaver, muskrat, mink, elk, moose, mountain lion, bobcat, mule deer and bighorn sheep. The preserve is also a paradise for birds, with some 200 species providing a glorious natural soundtrack with their birdsong. It’s a stunning variety, from warblers, waterfowl and waders to soaring raptors—with 150 species nesting here. Sharp-tailed grouse use meadows on the wetlands’ periphery for their “dancing grounds,” and a rare hybrid minnow resides in the waters here.
Traces of history
TNC began acquiring land west of Choteau in 1979, assembling portions of several cattle ranches and a dude ranch to create the 13,000-acre Pine Butte Preserve.
The Blackfeet people have called this region home for countless generations. The Old North Trail, used by Native Americans for thousands of years, cuts through the preserve. Tipi rings, a buffalo jump and associated drive lanes testify to the long history of people here. The location of a Metis settlement from the late 1800s and early 1900s along the South Fork of the Teton River now serves as our management headquarters. Scant remains of homestead structures dot the preserve, while ranching activities continue as they have for the past century.
The Circle 8 Guest Ranch also operated along the South Fork of the Teton River for a half century. For many years after TNC purchased the Circle 8, we maintained it as a recreation destination where people could experience a western-style guest ranch while learning about our ever-growing conservation work. We have since evolved toward an integrated facility that provides a base for our science and land management activities along with our work with partners. The ranch is also used as an educational space for Tribal partners and local communities, with TNC staff hosting hikes and other experiences around the preserve. TNC is committed to the long-term protection of the critical and unique habitat found at Pine Butte as well as the larger Rocky Mountain Front region.
