Ranchers wary of Montana wildlife reserve

MALTA, Mont. — When the new West is won, will there be cowboys? In light of what her neighbors are up to, Double O Ranch owner Vicki Olson isn’t so sure.

“I guess the point that I keep hammering at is that if they succeed, that means all of us third- and fourth-generation ranchers are gone,” Olson said. She is a fairly typical Montana rancher, working a spread gouged from the pebbly soil by her grandparents 100 years ago.

Her neighbor, the nonprofit American Prairie Foundation, is methodically acquiring ranches and crafting a 3.5-million-acre wildlife reserve out of private property and adjoining federal land.

The Prairie Project could be the largest privately funded conservation land venture on the planet and the biggest free-roaming bison range in the United States. Yellowstone Park, at 2.21 million acres, would be a distant second.

You could watch a horse and rider traverse these treeless plains and lose sight of them only when they’re finally eclipsed by the curve of the Earth. Yet conflict here always seems to center on there not being enough room for everyone.

“If we’re completely successful, more than 90 percent of northeast Montana will still be in livestock production,” said Sean Garrity, president of the foundation.

What Garrity and others see in this endless expanse is one of the last sustainable native grassland areas in the country, complete with 12 endemic bird species that, while not extinct, are rarely found inhabiting the same place. There are curlews and burrowing owls, sage grouse and mountain plovers. At least 180 bird species have been found here, 285 plants, 40 mammals, 15 reptiles and amphibians.

The government has already made a substantial contribution to conservation in the Charles M. Russell Wildlife Refuge, a 1.1-million-acre spread that stretches 125 miles from west to east.

The American Prairie Foundation envisions a Serengeti of the Northern Plains, an expanse with wildlife abundance unseen since the Corps of Discovery two centuries ago. With the return of the wildlife, the group sees conservation research and tourism resuscitating the economies of Hi-Line towns of northern Montana that have been shrinking for years.

Already, the APF entertains donors at a yurt village created for seasonal backcountry camps, though Garrity said only a small percentage of the foundation’s supporters will ever come here.

Biologists come and go to study grassland birds. National Geographic is producing a feature film shot on site. The foundation plans to open a full-service campground complete with a nature path and mountain bike course in June.

For now, block management hunting still occurs here.

Interest in the grasslands is growing, said Jeff Hagener, a former director of the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks who now works for APF. He’s one of three former state or federal land management workers now working for the foundation.

“If you read about the Lewis and Clark journals, where did they talk about wildlife?” Hagener said. “They don’t talk of the mountains. They nearly starved to death in the mountains. They talk about the plains.”

Allied with the World Wildlife Fund, the American Prairie Foundation is offering tempting bargains to willing Northern Plains ranchers. It has spent roughly $8 million so far buying 11 ranches. The group not only offers appraised value for the land but also sweetens the deal by allowing the sellers to stay on the property raising cattle under favorable leasing terms until the APF needs the land.

Olson said resentment is rising among locals who say they can’t compete for property with the APF’s well-funded supporters. Its national council membership includes candy heir John Mars, the 19th-richest man in America, according to Forbes, and Roger A. Enrico, board chairman of DreamWorks Animation and former CEO of Pepsi-Cola USA. Texan Bill Lively, known for raising big donations for nonprofits and big events like Super Bowls, sits on the APF’s board of directors.

“We would love to have young ranchers on these ranches. They’re interested,” Olson said. “We just can’t support the price that they’re (the APF) willing to pay.”

The ranchers’ clout will be felt when they start to disappear as the APF begins using the land it has bought for raising bison. The group currently runs 102 bison on 14,000 acres, but it will tap the other 86,000 acres it owns or leases as needed. APF also leases more than 45,000 acres of federal grazing land, which it has returned to the Charles M. Russell Wildlife Refuge.

Livestock sales in south Phillips County total $19 million. When those sales are gone, Olson said, it’s going to hurt.

Olson doesn’t expect conservation tourism to take the place of ranching. The same promises were made by government biologists reintroducing black-footed ferrets and by promoters of the region’s extensive dinosaur museum.

To reach the refuge, tourists are going to have to travel down 50 miles or more of gravel roads that turn to impassible gumbo in wet weather. Even if the road were paved, there are still a lot of miles between this part of Montana and everywhere else. A Washington Post reporter on assignment covering the American Prairie Foundation in 2006 wrote about this land: “The soil is bad, the weather worse and the landscape achingly dull. … The population peaked a century ago and remaining ranchers cannot stop their children from running off to a less lonesome life.”

It wasn’t wildlife that brought people to this arid expanse. It was free land, cheap train tickets and even discounted sea passage for immigrants willing to settle the Northern Plains.

Dale Veseth, a third-generation rancher whose grandparents worked chuck wagons and sheared sheep before acquiring enough money to buy the property where Veseth now runs cattle, says the original rush of homesteaders was detrimental to wildlife.

Confronted with an increasing focus on conservation, Veseth and neighbors formed the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance of South Phillips County, a group focused on changing land practices to benefit wildlife and keep ranchers in the mix.

“The first priority is to provide quality wildlife habitat,” Veseth said. “Second, in my mind, is to prove that ranching is compatible with good wildlife conservation.”

Alliance members have adopted practices that leave ground cover intact for wildlife.

The ranchers also have gone barbless on their bottom fence wire and raised it from 4 inches above ground to 18 inches to accommodate pronghorn passage. They’ve attached reflective material to high fence wire to warn birds. They’ve added bird boards to stock tanks to accommodate winged wildlife. And they’ve worked closely with groups like The Nature Conservancy, which has also bought ranchland locally but chosen to work closely with its cattle-raising neighbors.

With little cost, the Conservancy said it has created 250,000 acres of habitat for birds and other animals. Ranchers even helped the Conservancy tag long-billed curlews to determine where they migrated. Turned out it was Mexico, a 1,250-mile trip the birds made in 27 hours.