The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation’s Rangeland Resources Program (RRP) promotes and advocates for healthy, sustainable rangelands that support people, wildlife, recreation, clean water, and the natural scenic beauty of Montana. The program fosters understanding by creating collaborative partnerships to sustain healthy rangelands.
NEWS
Managing Cattle Distributions: It's not as simple as it sounds
USDA 4/
By: Maribel Alonso
Grazing is an agricultural term to describe the natural behavior of cattle moving across pastures and rangelands as they consume different plants. Surprisingly, grazing cattle are selective about where and which plants they will eat, and land managers consider grazing distribution an essential factor in deciding how to manage their herds, including how to prevent overgrazing for conserving biodiversity of the land.
Through a cross-site collaborative study, researchers at The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) worked with various universities and the Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) network to determine how factors like landscape topography and water availability affect cattle grazing distribution to inform land managers in the selection of efficient grazing strategies.
Register for Nicole Masters North-Central Montana Soil Health Tour! World-renown soil health expert and agroecologist Nicole Masters will facilitate five in-person events this summer in Winnett, Malta, Glasgow and Circle. Each location will have unique, in-depth, site-specific topic focuses and targeted key take-aways, but all locations will cover an introduction to soil health principles. You may choose to attend one or as many of these events as you can.
This Soil Health Tour is brought to you by a partnership between the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance, Winnett ACES, and the Garfield, McCone and Petroleum County Conservation Districts.
Find registration details including dates, times, costs and topics here!
2021 Montana
Range Tour
September 8th & 9th, 2021 Malta
The Montana Range Tour September 8th & 9th will not disappoint. The Phillips Conservation District and partners have put together an amazing agenda, which includes E-Collars-Virtual grazing, dung beetles, drones, conservation projects, and keynote speaker, Dr. Dave Naugle. The 2021 Leopold Conservation Award Winner will also be announced the evening of the 8th. Cost is $70 for the 2 days and details can be found at 2021 Montana Range Tour.
New Stream and Gage Explorer App
DNRC’s Water Management Bureau is pleased to introduce a new Web Application called StAGE (Stream and Gage Explorer). This mobile-friendly interactive web app allows you to access real-time streamflow data collected by DNRC stream gages, along with seasonal gage data, historic data from prior watershed studies, DNRC State Water Projects stream and canal data, as well as links to USGS data across Montana. You can check it out at this link.
CONSERVATION & PARTNERSHIPS
Working Lands Intern
This is the 1st of four "in their own words" articles submitted by the class of 2021 interns.
Caitlyn Wade- May 21, 2021
I am Caitlyn Wade, a Resource Conservation student at the University of Montana. I am interested in the way natural resource policies affect people’s lives, people’s relationship with the land, and in water rights, policies, and usage. I also love getting to be outside, getting to learn practical skills, and broadening my view on ranching and land use. This internship is important for me being able to understand life from the perspective of ranchers—people who work hard on and with the land daily. It is powerful to see the ways in which collaboration and relationships within the community are important in both day to day ranching operations and in county decision making. It’s truly a privilege to be invited into ranchers’ homes and communities to learn from all of you. I anticipate continuing to learn a lot, work hard, and hope to be a sponge for all that my host ranchers and their communities have to teach.
Virtual Fence? Is it possible?
“Ranching for a resilient future: virtual fencing for land, livestock and landscape health,” featuring Montana rancher Leo Barthelmess and Vence engineer Todd Parker
Virtual fences represent an exciting new technology at the forefront of future range management. The collars use solar power and satellite positioning technology to contain livestock without the need for a physical barrier. The distribution of the collared livestock can be carefully and precisely controlled via software interface: grazing cells can be adaptively moved or modified according to conditions and vegetation growth. What does this mean for land management, wildlife movement, and the future of ranching?
The DNRC Rangeland Resources Program and the Gallatin Conservation District welcome Gillian Rowe to the team as a conservation fellow sponsored by the Montana Conservation Corps. Gillian recently graduated from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign with a major in Natural Resources and Environmental Science. While her degree program was diverse, she found particular interest in understanding peoples' relationship with the environment. She joined our team as a way to branch out of the Midwest and learn more about social and environmental issues in a new region of the country. She is excited to learn more about rangelands from a local perspective while assisting in workshops, education and outreach.
AGENCY UPDATES
Custer Gallatin Forest Plan Revision 2021
What is the status of Custer Gallatin Forest planning?
Fall 2020 - the Custer Gallatin National Forest requested objection and resolution submissions as part of the four + year Forest Plan Revision process.
November 2020 - Qualifying objectors and interested persons attended Objection Resolution Public Meetings virtually with Leanne Marten, Regional Forester, Northern Region and Reviewing Official from the Washington Office, Jennifer Eberlien, along with Responsible Official and Forest Supervisor, Mary Erickson.
Winter 2021 - Reviewing Officer Review of Objections.
Spring 2021 - Regional Forester, Leanne Marten issues formal Objection Resolution letter to Objectors, response document posted here.
Now - The Responsible Official addresses instructions from reviewing officer and determines any further changes in response to objections prior to decision.
Late summer / early fall 2021 - Anticipated Decision to be signed by Responsible Official Mary Erickson.
Fall 2021 - Implementation Custer Gallatin Revised Plan.
Fish and Wildlife Commission to meet June 24
The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission will meet June 24 via Zoom. Details on how to access the meeting will be posted on fwp.mt.gov closer to the meeting date. The meeting will also be audio streamed online at fwp.mt.gov. The meeting begins at 8:30 a.m.
If you get online prior to 8:30 or the start of the meeting, you may need to refresh your web browser when the meeting begins.
The commission will make final decisions on the following:
Madison River recreation committee appointees
Extending implementation date of Madison commercial use cap
2021 fish removal projects
Buffalo Creek fishing regulation change
TNC recreational access agreements
Avista recreational access agreements
Stimson recreational access agreements
North Shore WMA farming lease
Calf Creek forestry habitat project
Administrative rule repeal regarding classification of black bear
Chronic wasting disease work plan
Nonresident hound handler permits
2021 mountain lion quotas
Elk guiding principles and timeline
The commission will hear the following proposals:
Kootenai Falls and Bull River WMAs blowdown salvage project
Nongame check-off annual work plan
Jordan urban wildlife plan
2021 muzzleloader deer and elk season
2021 furbearer season regulations and quotas
2021 wolf season regulations
2021 elk shoulder season
2021 HB 454 agreements
The commission will look at endorsing:
Stuart Mill Bay FAS partial sale
Brown’s Lake FAS peninsula acquisition
26 Mile MDT FAS lease
Montana Rail Link Clark Fork River temporary closure
2021 pheasant translocations – UGBEP and youth pheasant
FWP ensures its meetings are fully accessible to those with special needs. To request arrangements, call FWP at 406-444-3186. For the full agenda and background on the scheduled topics, go to the FWP click “Commission.”
FWP's website offers live streamed audio of each Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting.
WEBINARS & PODCASTS
Got Time for a Quick Tour?
The Rejuvra Herbicide virtual plot tour comes to you!
Now you can take a stand against devastating, invasive annual grasses.With their virtual tour, you can access industry experts and test plots directly from your smartphone or computer. See how the next-generation herbicide stops invasive annual grasses and transforms rangelands back to a healthy and productive state. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h78hQ34DAS8
Eating less meat won't save the environment. Here's why.
Watch this video to learn more about the relationship between livestock and the environment. You can learn more about this topics from other experts such as Sara Keough, an eco-nutritionist. Sara is currently a full-time clinical nutritionist in Maryland supporting a wide variety of patients. She advocates for sourcing local foods as she believes regenerative farmers are the real healers of the planet.
