Photo: Jeremy Roberts, Conservation Media
Thank You!
It was great to connect at the 2025 Montana Stockgrowers Association's Convention and Trade Show. Please scroll through this page for mapping and visualization tools and other conifer encroachment resources. While you're here, please consider signing up to our monthly newsletter and requesting a copy of the Reducing Conifer Encroachment in Western Rangelands Pocket Guide.
We work with producers, landowners, and partners across Montana, and the West, to tackle the biggest threats facing Montana's working lands:
Resources for Managing Montana's Rangelands
Working Lands for Wildlife has a variety of resources for managing Montana's rangelands, especially geared for producers and land managers. See the list to the left and simply click on the product name to access it.
- ConiferEncroachment.com - A solutions-focused, science-informed site dedicated to providing education and solutions for conifer encroachment in the West.
- LandscapeExplorer.org/Montana - An online mapping application that allows users to swipe between historical aerial imagery and modern aerial imagery to see how conifers have encroached on Montana's rangelands.
- Yield Gap - An online mapping application that allows users to estimate forage production losses to encroaching conifers from the pasture to biome scale.
- Reduction Conifer Encroachment in Western Rangelands Technical Guide - This technical guide provides science-based tools needed to recognize early-stage conifer encroachment—an emerging threat in the Northern Great Plains—and offers proactive, region-specific detection, prioritization, and treatment approaches before ecosystem losses become costly or irreversible.
- All Trees, No Cattle - A two-pager that details the economic costs of waiting to tackle conifer encroachment; includes a Montana-specific, real-world ranch case study.
- Conifer Encroachment Vulnerability Map of Montana - Pretty much what it sounds like! A map showing where conifer encroachment has already happened in the Big Sky state and where it's likely to happen in the future without proactive conifer management.
Removing conifers improves vegetation production and water availability, boosting forage and producer's bottom lines. Photo of conifer cut in Montana by Dan Durham.
SIGN UP for WLFW's Newsletter and Science Alerts, Request a "Reducing Conifer Encroachment In Western Rangelands Pocket Guide"
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