In 2003, Sean and Melodye Rooney bought Montana land beside the Stillwater River; 23 years later, their 57-acre property with nearly a mile of river frontage became permanently protected from development
A piece of Montana land that the Rooney family has called home for more than two decades will remain undeveloped for generations to come. Sean and Melodye Rooney have placed a conservation easement on their 57-acre property west of Whitefish, permanently preventing subdivision and development across the land. According to the Flathead Beacon, the family worked with the Flathead Land Trust to protect nearly a mile of Stillwater River frontage. The property includes wetlands, riparian forest and more than 20 acres of hay ground, while its location alongside other protected and public lands makes it part of a larger stretch of conserved habitat.
A family connection to the land
The Rooneys’ relationship with the Flathead Valley goes back well before they purchased the Stillwater River property. Sean Rooney’s grandfather homesteaded near Cut Bank before eventually working for the Great Northern Railway in Whitefish. His father later returned to the Flathead Valley after years of travelling internationally and taught English and geology at Flathead Valley Community College. Sean and Melodye bought the property with Sean’s parents in 2003. They eventually became the sole owners and now live there year-round.Over the years, the land became more than simply a place for the family to live. They spent time observing the wildlife that moved through the property and working to maintain its natural features. That connection helped shape the decision to place the land under a conservation easement.
Nearly a mile of river frontage will stay intact
The 57-acre property contains nearly a mile of frontage along the Stillwater River. Its landscape includes riparian forest, shrubland and wetlands, alongside more than 20 acres of land that remains in hay production. Those different habitats make the property useful to a wide range of species. Camera traps on the land have recorded grizzly and black bears, mountain lions, gray wolves, moose, river otters and bald eagles. The property’s importance also extends beyond the animals that pass through it. Its river frontage and wetlands help support the health of the Stillwater River, which provides habitat for bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout.In 2025, the family began a habitat enhancement project focused on restoring a ponded area and the wetland habitat around it, adding another layer to their efforts to maintain the property’s ecological value.
Wildlife has been documented on the property
The Rooneys have been able to see just how much wildlife uses the land through their involvement in Snapshot USA, a nationwide mammal survey coordinated annually by the Smithsonian Institution. The property serves as an official study site for the programme, with camera traps recording animals moving through the area. One particularly striking example came when the family’s daughter, Brigit Rooney, checked a camera memory card and found a photograph of herself walking along the property. Only eight minutes later, the same trail was captured with a mountain lion passing through.For Flathead Land Trust, the wildlife value of the property was apparent from its first visit. The organisation’s Ryan Hunter saw a bear swimming across the Stillwater River below the family’s house. These observations helped reinforce the importance of keeping the property intact as part of the river corridor.
What the conservation easement changes
The agreement with Flathead Land Trust does not mean the Rooneys have given up ownership of their property. Instead, the conservation easement permanently limits what can happen to the land in the future. Subdivision and development are barred, while the family can continue to own and manage the property. That distinction is important because the land can remain a working property while its natural features are protected. Hay production can continue, and the family can continue living on and caring for the land.Flathead Land Trust describes conservation easements as voluntary legal agreements that allow landowners to retain ownership while protecting wildlife habitat, wetlands, riparian areas and open space in perpetuity. The organisation monitors properties under its easements and is responsible for ensuring that the terms of each agreement are followed.
One more piece of a larger protected corridor
The Rooney property also sits in an unusually connected setting. It borders two existing Flathead Land Trust conservation easements and is near land managed by the U.S. Forest Service and Stillwater State Forest. Protecting the 57 acres therefore adds another privately owned piece to an already connected landscape of conserved and public land. Flathead Land Trust said the new easement strengthens an interconnected corridor along the Stillwater River and Highway 93, helping keep both wildlife habitat and agricultural land intact.For the Rooneys, the decision means the land they purchased in 2003 will not eventually be divided into smaller properties or replaced by development. Instead, the river frontage, wetlands, hay fields and wildlife habitat will remain part of the landscape. More than two decades after the family first bought the property, its future has now been secured in a very different way: not through development, but by ensuring development cannot take place there.
