A featured story on 60 Minutes this past Sunday “American Prairie: Creating a huge new nature reserve in Montana," highlighted land conservation efforts in Montana. American Prairie (AP) is a freestanding Montana-based nonprofit whose main focus is to purchase and permanently hold title to private properties as well as lease public lands consisting of approximately 3.2 million acres so that the region is managed thoughtfully and collaboratively for wildlife conservation and public access. Their goal is to create the largest wildlife reserve in the lower 48 states.

Of course, this means that AP will be buying cattle ranches as well as leasing public lands and converting both to their system of land conservation management. However, some cattle ranchers are distrustful of AP and its motives and will need to be convinced of the value of what AP is promoting.

When 60 Minutes interviewed one of those distrustful cattle ranchers, she implied that AP was trying to tell cattle ranchers how to “properly” manage their ranches from a sustainability or regenerative perspective. I have found that nothing raises a ranchers’ hackles quicker. They feel that they know what is best for the land they manage and to be told by “outsiders” how to do it is disingenuous at best and disrespectful and unknowledgeable at worst.

There must be an economic incentive to the systems AP wants to institute. Simply touting the altruism of sustainable land management via raising bison is not enough of a reason for co-located or adjacent ranchers to accept.

Another one of the interviewed ranchers who is collaborating with AP through their “Wild Sky” program is getting paid for things like modifying fences to make them easier for wildlife to get over or through, while still keeping cattle contained, or getting paid to install cameras to record wildlife movements. This rancher’s sole cattle ranching goal, however, was clear, which was to provide a working sustainable ranch for his daughters to inherit—AP or not.

When ranchers see improved monetary returns, distrust will be abated. When they view AP’s ends as less antithetical and more of an incentive to achieving the ranchers’ visceral goals of owning land to be distributed to heirs, there will be a “peace agreement.”

There is also a Native American (NA) factor impacting AP’s efforts. Currently, the NAs are working in concert with AP in acquiring and managing reservation lands in central Montana. However, it is my experience that NAs have traditionally viewed such land as theirs to be managed by them to do with what they want and not let others, such as AP, tell them what to do. Right now, all is hunky dory between AP and NAs, but I view that relationship as fragile and the NA's goal is much more long term than AP’s.

AP is using bison as a key part of achieving their sustainability goals. As we all know, these animals must eventually be harvested. This “harvesting” function will be a critical factor in AP’s future as they will have to rely on traditional and/or conventional processing plants and companies to also market the bison meat. I heard or saw nothing in the 60 Minutes piece regarding what or how this was to be accomplished. Doing so will require cooperation, collaboration and compromise between and among meat companies, collaborating cattle ranchers, NAs and AP.

Spoiler alert: My youngest son told me some three years ago that he and his wife were quitting their jobs, selling their Erie, Colo., house and moving to Sheridan, Wyo., where they intended to buy land, build a home and prepare it to become a working buffalo (bison) ranch, which they did. After thinking about their bold and gutsy move, I couldn’t have been prouder. But, that’s another story for another blog.

The 60 Minutes correspondent, Bill Whitaker, concluded that, “The debate over American Prairie is often framed as an ‘either-or.’ What we found across these wide expanses of grass were much more subtle shades of green.”

It seems to me that AP’s effort can be a positive one for all who embrace it. But, as with all such amalgamations of disparate entities, success for all will be dependent on management skill rather than an altruistic hope for the future.

American Prairie: A sustainable plan for the future?

Join for free* to continue reading.