PPLT Goes to Washington for Community Partnership Award

Just last week, Prickly Pear Land Trust Executive Director Mary Hollow accompanied Montana’s Adjutant General Quinn and Colonel Hesterberg to the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes to receive a 2019 Army Community Partnership Award. The award, only given to a handful of partnerships nationwide, is designed to highlight examples of exceptional cooperation and diligence between Army facilities and community programs. The awardees represent partnerships that have improved readiness, driven modernization and contributed to reform initiatives throughout the Army, and, in PPLT’s case, improved soldier, family, and community life.

The Montana Army National Guard (MTARNG) and PPLT were recognized for our “Peaks to Creeks” initiative, which allowed MTARNG to reduce encroachment threats to Fort Harrison while creating public access for veterans and civilians alike to 558 acres along the banks of the Tenmile Creek and Sevenmile Creek waterways. The partnership has also resulted in the addition of 90 acres of open space to the Mount Helena City Park, creating new public access to recreational opportunities along the LeGrande Cannon Trail.

The collaboration between the MTARNG and PPLT has served to integrate the people of Fort Harrison and the Montana VA Hospital as an important part of the Helena community. The cooperation that arose from practical considerations about land use has blossomed into a program that creates genuine benefits for everyone in our combined communities–from children to soldiers in training, from the developmentally challenged to VA doctors commuting to work, from the dog-walking elderly and wheelchair-bound to veterans still recovering from wars long ago. This achievement would not be possible without the backing and trust of this community.