More than $28 million included in an interior appropriations bill in the U.S. Senate would help secure key landscapes, recreational corridors, and conservation easements across Montana if approved in the coming weeks.

The bill includes $3.7 million to preserve 30,000 acres along the Rocky Mountain Front, and $8.4 million to help protect the Blackfoot River. There's $8.5 million to renovate Many Glacier Hotel and $1.5 million to improve public access to Meeteetse Spires.

"This is an investment in Montana's clean water, our fish and wildlife habitat, and access to our public land," said Sen. Jon Tester, who helped request the funding. "These are smart, worthwhile projects that are important to Montana, the people who live here, and to future generations."

Tester, along with Sen. Max Baucus, pushed to get the money into in the bill, which would include $3.7 million to purchase 30,000 acres along the Rocky Mountain Front.

Dusty Crary, a rancher along the Front and a member of the Nature Conservancy, supported the move. He noted the money comes from the Land Water Conservation Trust and not from the taxpayer's general fund.

"It was intended to fund projects exactly like this," Crary said of the Conservation Trust. "There's strong interest among many ranch families along the Front to place easements on their property with several only waiting for funding."

A little west and just across the Continental Divide begin the headwaters of the Blackfoot River. The proposed bill also includes $8.4 million to help complete the Blackfoot Challenge in preserving land along the river corridor.

Of that money, around $4.5 million would go to the Bureau of Land Management to buy 4,400 acres in the Blackfoot River Special Recreation Management Area near the Garnet Mountains.

Another $2.9 million would help purchase easements on nearly 10,000 acres of land along the river. Such conservation easements help protect land from development.

Supporters, who include Hank Goetz, the lands director of the Blackfoot Challenge, say the money will also help boost rural economies that benefit from the river, its fish and wildlife, and surrounding habitat.

"At numerous public meetings over the past five years, folks have wholeheartedly supported federal acquisition of the land to protect traditional public access and a range of public uses," Goetz said.

The bill includes money for the following projects:

- $8.5 million to create jobs by renovating Many Glacier Hotel in Glacier National Park.

- $8.4 million to protect hunting and fishing along the Blackfoot River

- $3.7 million to purchase conservation easements along the Rocky Mountain Front

- $2 million for the Gallatin National Forest to purchase abandoned mine sites near Cook City and Yellowstone National Park.

- $2 million for the Lewis and Clark National Forest to purchase 8,200 acres along Tenderfoot Creek in central Montana.

- $1.5 million for BLM to purchase habitat and access to Meeteetse Spires.

- $500,000 for Fish and Wildlife to buy land near the Red Rock Lake National Wildlife Refuge