Choteau Acantha News | Jan. 21, 2026
MISSOULA, MO – Nearly 4,500 acres of working agricultural land and rich wildlife habitat in Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front region will be protected from subdivision and new development after The Vital Ground Foundation partnered with the Fellows family and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to complete a conservation easement for the Fellows Ranch outside Choteau in late December.
According to a news release from The Vital Ground Foundation, the ranch includes more than five miles of frontage along the Teton River as well as two miles along a tributary, Spring Creek. Lined with cottonwoods, these lush bottomlands provide important range for numerous wildlife species, including grizzly bears that follow waterways to move between mountain habitat in the nearby Bob Marshall Wilderness and the lower-elevation grasslands of the Rocky Mountain Front.
Through years of careful management, the ranch has avoided conflicts between bears and livestock, but has long faced pressure to subdivide and sell portions of the acreage for residential and commercial development.