Prickly Pear Land Trust recently completed a fifth conservation project in Broadwater County that protects ranching, wildlife, and national security. Four prior conservation easements in the county protected the critical shorelines of Crow Creek, Deep Creek, and the Missouri River. They included a healthy portion of cropland plus mallard, moose, wigeon, and whitetail habitat. Our newest project rounds out the habitat mix with the sagebrush steppe typical of the Elkhorn foothills.
The landowners asked Prickly Pear to help them safeguard this nearly 1,000-acre block of their ranch. Our partnership created a lasting agreement that ensures the property remains a cattle ranch with abundant wildlife. This arrangement suits the Army National Guard and Fort Harrison, who supported the project financially because of its proximity to the Limestone Hills training area. The Fort notes that private land conservation ensures critical training can continue while the lands around the Fort stay private and productive.
The family will continue to ranch this land for summer pasture, with three generations helping to herd the cows back and forth by horseback. The rolling grasslands east of the Elkhorns are adapted to periodic grazing, but it doesn’t happen without effort. Each year, the family and a handful of neighbors get on horseback to drive their cows to the foothills. They’re almost giddy with the success of their weed treatment efforts, and they’re continually thinking of creative ways to care for the grass, vegetation, and timber on the property.
Wildlife thrives in this landscape. The Elkhorn’s cherished elk herd grazes on these native grasslands every winter. Pronghorn are frequent visitors, and even bighorn sheep sometimes stray from their nearby crags to visit the property’s seasonal streams and shady aspen groves. While surveying the property, biologist Pete Christensen discovered a nighthawk nest. He also observed a juvenile Cooper’s hawk trying to figure out what to do with a hare it had dispatched but couldn’t quite carry. Fortunately, we’re confident this easement will carry our ranching heritage and healthy wildlife habitat into the future.
Travis Vincent is the lands director at Prickly Pear Land Trust.
