Montana Outdoors Magazine | “Ranching the Best Hope for Grassland Songbirds”
by Catherine Wightman | Ranchers manage their land to sustain grass production, which benefits bovines and birds on Montana’s agricultural Hi-Line.
Growing Spirit of Collaboration, Partnership & Innovation is “The West at its Best”
March 15, 2016Seeding Techniques for Sagebrush Community Restoration After Fire
March 22, 2016
Ranchers manage their land to sustain grass production, which benefits bovines and birds.
We wholeheartedly agree with this “Cow or Plow” article by Catherine Wightman, which appeared in the March/April 2016 edition of Montana Outdoors. The Sage Grouse Initiative partners with agricultural landowners by planning, implementing, and funding practices and projects that conserve native range for the hundreds of wildlife species that depend on it.
The lessons learned from this article about grazing management practices that preserve grasslands on Montana’s Hi-Line echo findings from two of our Science to Solutions reports. Sagebrush Songbirds Benefit from Sage Grouse Habitat Restoration demonstrates how restoring sagebrush ecosystems by removing encroaching conifers to retain shrub cover benefits ranching, songbirds, sage grouse, and a host of other wildlife. Reducing Cultivation of Grazing Lands Conserves Sage Grouse shows that in the northeast part of sage grouse range, 70% of the best habitat is privately owned, and the single greatest threat in this region is cultivation of native sagebrush grazing lands … the same grasslands discussed in the story below.
Click here to read the Montana Outdoors story or click the images below.
