State officials said a $14 million transaction between Montana's Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the Nature Conservancy for most of the Fish Creek drainage could be completed by March.
The property comprises about 41,000 acres, stretching from Alberton Gorge south to Lolo Hot Springs.
Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks regional supervisor Mack Long said a project this size usually takes up to two years, but this could be completed in six months.
His agency plans to spend $2.5 million to $3 million in state park funds and another $11 million in federal wildlife conservation dollars to buy the land from the Nature Conservancy, which bought it from Plum Creek Timber Co. last year.
Long said the area's location and long-term potential are rich, even though the land has been heavily logged and much of it burned in a 2003 forest fire.
The land also forms an animal travel corridor between the Mission Mountains and Bob Marshall wilderness areas to the east and the proposed Great Burn Wilderness to the west. Rare critters, such as the wolverine, live in the woods, and resident Fish Creek is a spawning site for bull and westslope cutthroat trout.
The big project calls for a 6,864-acre state park with links to Alberton Gorge and a sizable public campground a few miles south of Interstate 90.
If completed, it would be the second-largest state park in Montana after Makoshika State Park near Glendive.
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