Iconic South Dakota Ranch Removes Trees To Restore Waving Grass

The Mule Head Ranch Fosters Healthy Grasslands To Grow Healthy Cows

Tim Steil, owner of the Mule Head Ranch near Bonesteel, South Dakota, doesn’t mince words when describing how crucial conservation is to the grasslands of the Great Plains. “The backbone here is ranchers,” Steil says. “If ranching goes away, the backbone of the community falls apart.”

Steil has always been a conservationist and saw the Mule Head as a good investment. The ranch is prestigious in South Dakota because of its size, heritage, and the prevalence of wildlife and water. “It’s one of my favorite places on the planet,” Steil says. 

But he needed a partner to manage the Mule Head to achieve his plans for restoring the ranch to its full glory. Steil had to battle woody encroachment and remove invading eastern redcedar trees to return the land to waving grass. 

Enter Justin and Sarah Bailey, who lease Mule Head Ranch from Steil. The Baileys are just as committed to conserving and restoring grazing lands as Steil. “There’s nothing prettier than seeing grass—beautiful grass without weeds and without all the trees,” Justin says.

Tackling Trees With Fire, Cutting, And Grazing

Scattered woody plants may look harmless, but the expansion of trees like redcedar makes rangelands less productive for ranchers and wildlife. Invading trees outcompete and displace grasses and forbs, reducing rangeland production by up to 75%.

Emily Helms, NRCS state rangeland specialist in South Dakota, says multiple agencies have been working together to combat woody encroachment across the state. According to scientists with Working Lands for Wildlife, a collaborative effort led by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, every state in the Great Plains lost out on valuable forage production due to woody encroachment in 2019. The total loss of grass forage to encroaching trees was 22.4 million tons. 

A production loss of that size makes a significant impact on stocking density, which translates to a smaller return on investment on grazing land. 

“We need a multitude of practices working in concert in order to really hit the issue head-on,” said Helms. “I would call it tactical brush management, where they’re doing some tree cutting followed up with prescribed burns.”

Fire and grazing go hand-in-hand, according to Helms. Without those two things on the prairie landscape, issues pop up that harm the ecosystem, such as invasive woody species.

Steil, who dedicates his monthly visits to the Mule Head to brush and tree control, cites fire as the main tool in his toolbox. “The only way for me to control woody encroachment is by fire, and by selectively cutting where I can produce the heat to control those woody species,” he explains. 

Teamwork Keeps The Great Plains Intact And Productive

Justin Bailey believes that teamwork between local, state and federal agencies is important for making headway on battling back the trees and other brush. Gaining support and buy-in from neighboring ranchers is also crucial. Two examples of groups catalyzing landowner-led teamwork are the NRCS’s Great Plains Grassland Initiative and local burn associations.

“If there are neighbors that border each other, they could plan to have a burn at the same time. Helping each other is huge that way,” Justin explains.

Teamwork is also the name of the game on the Mule Head Ranch. Steil’s trust in the Bailey’s land management approach has empowered Justin and Sarah to clear out trees. This has made a huge difference for boosting both grass and cattle production. “He wants to make the place better. He wants the habitat better, and I do, too,” Justin says. 

As the landowner, Steil attests that the Baileys take care of the Mule Head as if it were their own. Both parties want to see the prairie remain unspoiled, wide open and natural, which makes them great partners for conservation. “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” Steil says. 

Helms agrees, particularly when the ‘whole’ refers to an intact Great Plains ecosystem. “It’s not just about more grass,” says Helms. “Our real big goal is to get back to having healthy grasslands so we can have healthy cows, healthy habitat and healthy birds.”