The Montana Natural Resource Damage Program (NRDP) and the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announce an exciting new addition to public land on the Yellowstone River adjacent to the BLM Sundance Lodge Recreation Area (Sundance Lodge). Located on the south bank of the Yellowstone at river mile 385, immediately downstream of Laurel, at the confluence of the Yellowstone and the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone rivers. NRDP acquired this parcel using funds from the ExxonMobil July 1, 2011 oil spill settlement, and donated it to BLM. This project partially implements the Final Programmatic Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan and Final Programmatic Environmental Assessment for the ExxonMobil Pipeline Company July 1, 2011 Yellowstone River Oil Spill, January 2017.

One significant aspect of this acquisition is that it combines this relatively small 25.341-acre parcel with the 380 acres of BLM-owned river bottomland at Sundance Lodge. BLM’s long-term management of this property will protect and preserve the remarkable scenic, recreational, geological, fish and wildlife, historic, cultural, and other values along the longest free-flowing river in the lower 48. BLM’s commitment to ownership, maintenance, and monitoring ensures the restoration plan goals will be met and maintained. Since taking over management in February 2020, BLM is making traffic, parking and trail improvements, trimming trees, cleaning up litter, and removing some of the Russian olive and other invasive plant species.