Re-restoring the Animas after a post-fire flood
When erosion-control solutions designed and funded by the NRCS washed away in a flood, Dave Koeberle stepped in with $60,000 of his own money to rebuild and improve the structure. In
The Idahoans Who Care for Rangelands: Celebrating the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists
This year, that reality is being recognized on a broader stage. Idaho has joined more than 100 countries and 400 organizations in recognizing the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists,
Pondering Artificial Beaver Dams
Among the nine young adults who showed up to work on the author's place was Regan Ware, shown here plotting out locations for beaver dam analogues in the creekbed. MCC crew
Stream Restoration on the Knight Ranch to Improve San Juan Cutthroat Trout Habitat
The article and photographs below were created by Ed MacKerrow between August and October of 2025. Ed tragically passed away shortly afterward. It has been lightly edited to update the
Cade Rensink: Fire is an investment in healthy prairie
Marty Robbins’s “Prairie Fire,” a rollicking, anxious country ballad, describes the fear these huge blazes struck into the hearts of cowboys: fires so big they went from horizon to horizon.
Thomas Herefords takes home 2025 Montana Leopold Conservation Award
Thomas Herefords of Gold Creek accepted the 2025 Montana Leopold Conservation Award® during the 106th Montana Fam Bureau Annual Convention. The award honors ranchers, farmers, and forestland owners who go
A beetle biological control success story
The tamarisk is a gritty survivor, a tenacious shrub that evolved in the steppes of central Asia in dry conditions much like those of the American West. Introduced to the
Landowners want to save ranching in the most threatened ecosystem in the world – grasslands
Landscape fragmentation and development can be combatted with private conservation The Lesser Prairie-Chicken Landowner Alliance (LPCLA) acknowledged today that America is losing up to two million acres of prairie grasslands in the American
Indigenous leaders urge California to rethink its relationship with fire
It's a hot day in mid-August in Northern California, not too far from the Oregon border. Smoke rises gently from the fire pit, curling into the late-summer sky as children
In Defense of Real Working Lands and Effective Stewardship
The recent Vox piece “The brutal trade-off that will decide the future of food” highlights alarming trade-offs in global food systems—between protecting ecosystems like the Amazon, and tolerating the moral
Lead-Free by Choice: Ranchers and Hunters Take Aim at Conservation
As Congress pushes to prohibit lead-free requirements on public land, private landowners are leading the way on conservation through bullet selection. “You can walk your boots off on the public land—and
From Ashes to Innovation: How Virtual Fence is Changing Post-fire Ranching
The Moose Fire burned thousands of acres of the Smith family’s federal grazing allotment to ash. But thanks to an experiment with virtual fencing, they were able to graze the