Collaboration for community is worthy of us all
2/22/2017 Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Guest Column by Penelope Pierce
Our Valley of the Flowers is growing, which brings both opportunities and challenges. So how do we ensure the Gallatin Valley doesn’t lose the very qualities that make it such a special and desirable place to live, for those who have been here for generations and those who arrived only recently? How do we hold and protect a common value of place; our place, our home?
Collaboration, creative thinking, partnerships and dialogue, are how; working together to solve complicated and complex problems.
Last year, the Gallatin Valley Land Trust (GVLT) had the good fortune to work with two remarkable, generous and visionary families, to complete a project with far reaching benefits for our community. We call it Hudson Creek and in it there truly is something for everyone, and a success upon which we can all agree. Long story short, Jerry and Jeri Lynn Miller and family owned a beautiful piece of land that they loved, but needed to sell. They didn’t, howeve,r want to see it subdivided, as it is home to abundant wildlife and three streams that are the headwaters to the East Gallatin River. Looking for a solution, they contacted GVLT. Because GVLT has partnered with so many people in and around the valley over the past 27 years, we had some ideas about who might be interested in this property and the Miller’s desire to protect it.