Collaboratively Enhancing and Expanding Resilient, Working Grassland Landscapes
Our Geography
Montana Grassland Partnership (MGP) aims to accomplish community-based conservation at a landscape scale. To do this, it requires thoughtful collaboration across the Missouri River Plains and allows us to strategically target threats at scale not previously possible alone.
The Montana Grassland Partnership utilizes five collaborative teams to tackle the biggest threats to our grassland ecosystem
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The goal of the Grassland Retention Team is to prevent the conversion of rangeland to cropland or other land uses that are less compatible with wildlife. The team is made up of 35 conservation professionals representing 16 private and public organizations.
Chair Contact: Jacquie Evans
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The Big Game Team works with interested partners on a variety of things related to big game habitat in and around the MGP focus area. Much of the team’s work centers around ensuring suitable habitat and connectivity for migrating big game species. A majority of on the ground projects focus on improving fences to allow for better wildlife passage all while improving the quality and lifespan of ranch infrastructure. Other focus areas the team looks to dive into include big game habitat quality concerns, specialty habitats, and continued efforts to improve restrictive fencing at scale
Chair Contact: Martin Townsend (mtownsend@ranchstewards.org)
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The Conifer Team is focused on restoring and enhancing grassland and sagebrush rangelands that are experiencing woody encroachment and infill into areas that historically did not have trees present. In eastern Montana, conifer encroachment is still largely in its early phases, making this the optimal time for early intervention as it is more cost effective and efficient. The team is working to identify priority areas to work collaboratively across state, federal and private lands to better stop the spread of woody invasives across the landscape.
Chair Contact: Tayler Scherr (tscherr@ducks.org)
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The Mesic Team’s primary objective is to foster enhanced communication and coordination among organizations and agencies to enhance the success of ongoing and future mesic restoration projects within these critically important ecosystems.
Chair Contact: Autumn Holzgen (autumn@mtcorps.org)
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The Restoration Team is focused on improving and maintaining the native plant species composition of intact and restored grasslands and sagebrush rangelands in north-central Montana. The team specifically works to: 1) address the threat of invasive annual grasses in our landscape, 2) address the threat of invasive perennial grasses in our landscape, and 3) improve the technical ability of land managers to reestablish a stable native plant community when that is a desired outcome of restoration
Chair Contact: Marisa Sather (marisa_sather@fws.gov)
How it started:
The Montana Grassland Partnership was established in August 2023 when forty members of the Rancher’s Stewardship Alliance (RSA) and Winnett ACES Conservation committees met under the hot August sun at the Matador Ranch near Malta, Montana. Here, they discussed improving collaboration across the Montana Northern Great Plains Landscape and improving focused execution on conservation goals
The faces of the Partnership
Below is a list of partners currently involved in the Montana Grassland Partnership
