Gallatin Valley Land Trust secures funding for 902-acre easement on Trail Creek

Gallatin Valley Land Trust, with support through the Keep It Connected program, has successfully completed the permanent protection of the 902-acre Trail Creek conservation easement—a win for wildlife, working lands, and one of the most intact ecosystems in North America.

Just north of Yellowstone National Park, Paradise Valley is a landscape where wildlife migrations unfold across open valleys and rugged mountains. Elk, pronghorn, mule deer, bighorn sheep, and even bison continue to travel these seasonal pathways, while native carnivores like grizzly bears, wolves, black bears, and mountain lions thrive in an agricultural mosaic that has remained remarkably wild.

The Trail Creek project safeguards one of the most threatened corridors in the region. As property values soar and development creeps up the valley, this easement protects 1.5 miles of meandering Trail Creek—home to critical riparian habitat, native rangelands, and irrigated pasture that supports a small family ranch. The ranch itself sits in the eastern foothills of the Gallatin Mountains, providing a patchwork of sagebrush, forest, grassland, and streamside habitat where countless species depend on healthy, connected landscapes.

Importantly, Trail Creek is part of a vital pathway for grizzly bear movement between the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the Northern Continental Divide population. Without conservation efforts like this, these pathways risk becoming constricted or lost entirely.

The parcels contain native grasslands, irrigated hay ground, mixed conifer and deciduous forest, and lower-elevation wetlands and stream corridors. The Nature Conservancy has designated the land as resilient and highly valuable for long-term climate adaptation, meaning that even as conditions shift, wildlife will be able to persist here.

In a region facing intense development pressure, this project gives wildlife room to move, protects family ranching heritage, and preserves a corridor that might otherwise be lost to subdivision.

The Trail Creek easement is a clear example of how collaboration and targeted investment can secure irreplaceable migration routes and habitat before they disappear. Thanks to funders who support the Keep It Connected program, projects like this are permanently protecting some of the West’s most iconic landscapes—and ensuring that future generations will inherit a world where wild herds can still run and native predators still roam.

“The [funding] award from Keep It Connected was instrumental in closing a large funding gap in the [Trail Creek] project. Leveraging the grant funding from Keep It Connected, Gallatin Valley Land Trust was able to permanently protect this multi-generational family ranch that protects critical wildlife habitat for resident and migratory wildlife in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.” – Kelsie Huyser, Northern Yellowstone Open Lands Program Manager, Gallatin Valley Land Trust