Photos by Rick Northrup
AS THE DEMAND FOR CLEAN ENERGY SOURCES grows worldwide, demands on Montana’s agricultural land to produce biofuels grows with it. This in turn fuels the short-term economic gains derived from converting prairies and grasslands into cropland. In some cases, pothole wetlands that are a natural part of these prairies and grasslands will also be converted to cropland if possible. Once native prairie is broken, carbon stored in ancient prairie soils becomes oxidized which increases carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.
AT ITS MOST BASIC LEVEL, the conversion of prairies and wetlands to crop production makes conservation of prairie wildlife more challenging. For example, grassland birds like the Sprague's pipit and Baird's sparrow as well as mammals like the northern swift fox cannot survive without large blocks of native prairie. Declining wetland birds such as northern pintail, lesser scaup, black tern, and others are losing ground in the prairies in part due to fewer wetlands in which to breed and rear their young.
SOME MONTANA PRODUCERS continue to hold the line on conversion of their lands from grazing land to cropland. The Gordon Cattle Company, a fourth-generation cattle ranch in northern Blaine County, is one of these strongholds of prairie conservation. With a conservation easement completed between the ranch and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks in 2003, Gordon Cattle Company’s owners set a path of working to conserve their property as a working cattle ranch while exploring programs and funding to help them keep the ranch viable and profitable for the future. Their commitment to preserving their ranch as a cattle operation is vital to conservation of the area’s wetlands and wildlife especially when viewed in light of the conversion of native prairie to cropland that is occurring all around them on Montana’s Hi-Line. While the Ranch’s 2003 conservation easement conserves a 15,000-acre complex of glaciated wetlands and mixed grass prairie, the Ranch continues to pursue their desire to put even more of their land into conservation easement. At the same time, they are working to complete additional wetland restoration and enhancement projects to help maintain the overall productivity of the land.
BY CONTINUING THEIR TRADITIONAL cattle operation, the Gordon family is not only maintaining their proud ranching tradition but they’re also protecting the wildlife they have long regarded as an integral part of their ranch. This will be the legacy of the Gordon family, one that they’re continuing to work to hand down to future generations.
