Bitterroot Valley - Preserving Diverse Wildlife and Western History

A New York-based hedge fund manager, Steven Saslow holds a consultancy role with Blackstone Group and focuses on advising hedge fund investments and mentoring young professionals. In addition to his work with Blackstone Group, Steven Saslow has a passion for the outdoors and regularly vacations in locales such as Sun Valley, Idaho. He frequently travels north from that community toward the Continental Divide and the Bitterroot Valley on the Montana border.

Known for its exceptional fishing and wildlife, the Bitterroot Valley stretches south from Missoula and is along the route of explorers Lewis and Clark, who traversed the United States in the early 19th century. The valley was inhabited early on by fur traders from the Hudson’s Bay Company, and in the 1840s, Jesuit missionaries settled the area. The valley was one of the last strongholds of Native Americans in the Rocky Mountains, and Salish tribe members still lived in traditional ways there until the 1890s. 

Today, the Bitterroot Valley has a vital role as a grassland and wetland preserve of diverse wildlife, including amphibians, reptiles, and dragonflies. Common mammals include whitetail deer, raccoons, beaver, meadow vole, and yellow-bellied marmot.