If Idaho were a person, a human being, its heart would be right here in Valley County in the West Central Mountains. Recognizing this, Craig Utter, Executive Director of the Payette Land Trust (PLT), and his team created the “Conserving the Heart of Idaho” program. Each year, this program centers around the Big Heart, designed to generate conversations around conservation through art. The year concludes with the SweetHEART Party and Auction, which takes place the Saturday before Valentine’s Day and features a live auction of the BIG HEART.
If you’ve been around town for a minute, you’ve likely seen this giant, heart sculpture—a wonderful piece of art—gracing the sidewalks and patios of businesses around town as it travels, building awareness for PLT’s mission to conserve the rural landscapes of West Central Idaho for future generations.
The BIG HEART and its companion pieces, smaller hearts created and decorated by local high school students, serve as a reminder that, without a plan and action, our wonderful rural spaces will be lost.
Since its inception in 1993, PLT has created 21 (and growing) conservation easements in four different west central counties. It has saved a popular take-out on the Payette River on Moon Ridge Drive and is working to build a river corridor from the inlet above Payette Lake all the way to Cascade. It’s also working to build a 1,000-foot buffer along Highway 55 from McCall to Cascade, in hopes of preserving the wonderful views of Jug Mountain to the east and West Mountain to the west.
“If you’ve ever been to some place like Hamilton, Mont.,” says Utter, “you’ll see how not having a buffer along Highway 93 eliminates the view. There are frontage roads and parking lots, then big buildings blocking this beautiful landscape. We don’t want that to happen here.”
There are several ways PLT conserves our rural landscapes. One is by accepting donations of property to manage in perpetuity. The other is to create conservation easements where the landowner retains the title to the land but carves out a section for a conservation easement where he or she transfers the right to build/develop to the land trust. PLT manages this easement, so as landowners change over time, the easement remains intact and undeveloped.
According to Utter, this doesn’t mean the landowner can’t build on their property. It just means they decide where they’re going to build and where they’re going to let nature take charge.
“For instance,” says Utter, “say you own 100 acres and want to have a cabin on it in the northwest corner for you and one in the southeast corner for your kids. That’s no problem. We collectively put the remaining land in the easement. Both parties get what they want.”
As PLT has been successful, it has found that conservation begets conservation, much like development begets development. The land trust’s goal is to provide the opportunity for balance in a growing and maturing Idaho.
If you or your family are interested in helping Utter and his team protect our rural areas, visit www.payettelandtrust.org to sign up for their email, donate, or start the process of creating an easement or land trust for your property.
