kelly_ranch

Kathryn (Kelly) Judd Says No to Developers.

Kathryn Judd organized a celebration at the Kelly Ranch near Bozeman, Montana, on September 25th, 2008. The celebration involved the 10th anniversary of the Open Space Bond program in Gallatin County that provides funds to help local ranchers and landowners protect their land.

The Kelly family completed their conservation easement on the ranch at the end of last year. Now all of their ranch, with two miles of the Galatin River running through it, will remain open space and agricultural etc., etc. The historic ranch buildings are also permanently protected. Kathryn says the easement is the best, most important, lasting work she has ever done. If you want to know more about, or would like help with a conservation easement, Kathryn's email is kkcowgirl@sbcglobal.net

The celebration took place at the Kelly Ranch barnyard which was restored just in time for the event.

A view of the Kelly Ranch from the top of the buffalo jump.
The Rockies in the background and the Gallatin River not quite in view.

The buffalo jump - Indians would chase the buffalo over the edge then feast.

The restored, hand-hewn log barn now looks the same as when it was built 130 years ago. The bales were seats for the re-dedication.
Bruce & Abby LePage, Bob Judd, and Bigs & Judy Smith attended. Judy took the photo

Kathryn delivers her speech...

Forty years ago, when I was a little girl, my parents bought the ranch and we lived here “out in the country” and Town was a long way away. Now, Town is just on the other side of the River. Who could have imagined how fast and how far the spoiling of the country has gone and not just here, but all across the west. The paving over of paradise is destroying family farms and ranches and the ability to produce food here locally for our own citizens and jeopardizing food security. We are losing the open space and wild life habitat; water quality and quantity is dropping and we're losing our local heritage and culture to subdivisions, strip malls, gas stations, golf courses and developers. We’re also losing something else, much more intangible and unable to be quantified. We’re losing the sense of bigness outside of ourselves, of space to breathe and to think and wonder in the natural world. The sense of the big sky and the open pasture and the vistas that catch your breath and leave you awestruck. All that we love of Montana and all the open places and have a hunger in the soul for. Our connection with the earth gives us strength. This is our version of what the great western writer and conservationist, Wallace Stegner called “The Geography of Hope”.
So, here, now, on this land, and thanks to the Gallatin County Open Space Program, there will be NO Jiffy Lubes, NO Taco Bell Casinos, NO fast food joints, and NO monster houses behind locked gates on the river for the private pleasure of the super rich.
NO, not on this side of the River and for the nearly two miles the Kelly ranch stretches along the Gallatin . Because we have protected this land for all time and it shall remain as you see it now; beautiful agricultural land and open space and the river corridor. And, we’ve preserved an important part of our Native American and pioneer history as the buffalo jump, old Cherry Creek Indian trail and the historic structures are all protected too

A view of the Kelly Ranch from the top of the buffalo jump. The Rockies in the background and the Gallatin River not quite in view.	The buffalo jump - Indians would chase the buffalo over the edge then feast.
The restored, hand-hewn log barn now looks the same as when it was built 130 years ago. The bales were seats for the re-dedication.	Bruce & Abby LePage, Bob Judd, and Bigs & Judy Smith attended. Judy took the photo
Kathryn delivers her speech... Forty years ago, when I was a little girl, my parents bought the ranch and we lived here “out in the country” and Town was a long way away. Now, Town is just on the other side of the River. Who could have imagined how fast and how far the spoiling of the country has gone and not just here, but all across the west. The paving over of paradise is destroying family farms and ranches and the ability to produce food here locally for our own citizens and jeopardizing food security. We are losing the open space and wild life habitat; water quality and quantity is dropping and we're losing our local heritage and culture to subdivisions, strip malls, gas stations, golf courses and developers.	We’re also losing something else, much more intangible and unable to be quantified. We’re losing the sense of bigness outside of ourselves, of space to breathe and to think and wonder in the natural world. The sense of the big sky and the open pasture and the vistas that catch your breath and leave you awestruck. All that we love of Montana and all the open places and have a hunger in the soul for. Our connection with the earth gives us strength. This is our version of what the great western writer and conservationist, Wallace Stegner called “The Geography of Hope”. So, here, now, on this land, and thanks to the Gallatin County Open Space Program, there will be NO Jiffy Lubes, NO Taco Bell Casinos, NO fast food joints, and NO monster houses behind locked gates on the river for the private pleasure of the super rich. NO, not on this side of the River and for the nearly two miles the Kelly ranch stretches along the Gallatin . Because we have protected this land for all time and it shall remain as you see it now; beautiful agricultural land and open space and the river corridor. And, we’ve preserved an important part of our Native American and pioneer history as the buffalo jump, old Cherry Creek Indian trail and the historic structures are all protected too