Nonprofit raised $50,000 in donations to unlock additional funding from BSRAD
By Jen Clancey STAFF WRITER
Grow Wild, the nonprofit that works to conserve Big Sky’s native species, is one step closer to hiring a caretaker for the firs, pines and aspens of Big Sky.
In October 2025, Resort Tax challenged Grow Wild to raise $50,000 in donations for a forestry project to unlock Resort Tax funding. Big Sky Resort Area District had just granted $56,246 to the nonprofit for its operations and Alpenscapes, and gave Grow Wild a deadline to fundraise and present a forest stewardship plan. Five months later in an April 15 Resort Tax meeting, Grow Wild Executive Director Jen Mohler announced that the matching funds of $50,000 had been secured.
The accomplishment puts Grow Wild on track to complete a forestry plan guided by experts, and eventually hire a community forester in Big Sky, potentially within the next year. A community forester would manage forest stewardship, wildfire risk, wildlife habitat, landowner support, and education and community coordination. The need for a forester has become more urgent as Big Sky and surrounding areas experience wildfire risk and drought, Mohler said.
“The urgency, the alarms are going off in terms of drought and wildfire risk,” Mohler told EBS. She said that the East Side wildfire in Red Lodge last week was a glaring siren: “It’s not if, but when it happens in Big Sky.”
A forester is key to proactive management of the threats to Big Sky’s outdoors, Mohler said. According to Mohler and Jon Trapp, Big Sky Fire Department’s wildland fire chief and partner on the project, a forester’s expertise can guide approaches to a stressed Gallatin River, improving water quality and quantity, and could also address the irony of a landscape without wildfire.
“To just leave it, quote, ‘natural’ is … a false understanding,” Moehler said. “We have prevented wildfires in our forests that are designed and were evolved under fire conditions. We’ve prevented that for so long that we have an unnatural state.”
The lack of wildfires has caused forests to miss out on a burn’s benefits, like new growth and improved habitat for wildlife.
“So when we realize where we are with an overstocked and overgrown forest, we need to have a plan that helps return that species diversity and age class diversity and mosaics on the landscape,” Trapp said in the Resort Tax meeting.
Mohler, with guidance from Lone Mountain Land Company forester Jeff Cadry, the Grow Wild board and Trapp, drafted a plan which will soon be reviewed by contracted professionals covered by the fundraised dollars and BSRAD grant.
Cadry, BSFD, Gallatin County forestry experts, Madison County’s forester Darrell Schulte and contractor Richard Stem, and Grow Wild board members will organize a request for proposals to source bids from qualified candidates who will shape the forestry plan.
“I’m really keen on doing this right and getting the best work out of these folks as possible,” Mohler said of the effort put into the forestry plan. The end product will include an in-depth description of the role of community forester in Big Sky, addressing both community and environmental needs.
A community forester isn’t a cure-all for environmental troubles in Big Sky, Mohler clarified, but they are a missing piece in proactive forest management. She hopes that when experts finalize the forest stewardship plan, community members will continue to step up to fund the position. For her, it’s a long-term commitment to solving issues that could impact community wellbeing, the environment, wildlife and even the local economy.
To reach the $50,000 community donation goal, Grow Wild had conversations and answered questions about a forest stewardship plan and the push for hiring community foresters. Insurance agencies, real estate companies, a developer, an HOA and private donors contributed to fundraising.
Community engagement will be key in forming a final forest stewardship plan, incorporating residents’ questions and needs into the document, which aims to provide a durable, community-supported program that addresses unique aspects of the Big Sky landscape. Grow Wild will share community input opportunities as it makes progress on the forestry plan.
