Montana Matador Grass Bank

Allie Winans talks to her daughter Aubrey as she organizes some of the 50+ medications she must take every week for her medical problems in Missoula, Montana. Life is stressful for the mother of two daughters who are both deaf . Her eldest daughter has had 13 open heart surgeries and suffers from anxiety, OCD, and depression. Their youngest , 10, has been diagnosed with Juvenile Parkinson’s Syndrome; hearing loss and anxiety disorder, HDHD. They just filed for foreclosure because of terrible debt, 95% due to healthcare costs. And Allie herself was just diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.Bud Walsh in brown jacket, Denver Baker in pink short and Jacob Folk modify fence along the Matador ranch in East Montana, May 2013. Modifying fences to make wildlife movement easier is part of the “grass bank,” an innovative way to leverage conservation gains, in which ranchers can graze their cattle at discounted rates on The Nature Conservancy's Matador ranch in exchange for improving conservation practices on their own “home” ranches. In 2002, the Conservancy began leasing parts of the ranch to neighboring ranchers who were suffering from several years of severe drought – essentially offering the Matador’s grass to neighboring ranches in exchange for their participation in conservation efforts. Today, 13 ranchers graze their cattle on the Matador, and the grassbank has enabled TNC to leverage conservation on more than 225,000 additional acres of private land without the cost of purchase of the land or of easements. The grassbank has helped keep ranchers from “busting sod,” or plowing up native grassland to farm it; helped remove obstacles to pronghorn antelope migration; improved habitat and for the Greater sage-grouse and reduced the risk of sage-grouse colliding with fences; preserved prairie dog towns (thereby preserving an important food source for the endangered black-footed ferret); and prevented the spread of noxious weeds. (Photo By Ami Vitale)

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Filename: MON_0322.JPG
Copyright: Ami Vitale
Image Size: 4928x3280 / 10.7MB; www.amivitale.com; Montana ranching ranchers herding cows environment landscape land west western prairie horses conservation graze grass bank conservancy
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Allie Winans talks to her daughter Aubrey as she organizes some of the 50+ medications she must take every week for her medical problems in Missoula, Montana. Life is stressful for the mother of two daughters who are both deaf . Her eldest daughter has had 13 open heart surgeries and suffers from anxiety, OCD, and depression. Their youngest , 10, has been diagnosed with Juvenile Parkinson’s Syndrome; hearing loss and anxiety disorder, HDHD. They just filed for foreclosure because of terrible debt, 95% due to healthcare costs. And Allie herself was just diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.Bud Walsh in brown jacket, Denver Baker in pink short and Jacob Folk modify fence along the Matador ranch in East Montana, May 2013. Modifying fences to make wildlife movement easier is part of the “grass bank,” an innovative way to leverage conservation gains, in which ranchers can graze their cattle at discounted rates on The Nature Conservancy's Matador ranch in exchange for improving conservation practices on their own “home” ranches. In 2002, the Conservancy began leasing parts of the ranch to neighboring ranchers who were suffering from several years of severe drought – essentially offering the Matador’s grass to neighboring ranches in exchange for their participation in conservation efforts. Today, 13 ranchers graze their cattle on the Matador, and the grassbank has enabled TNC to leverage conservation on more than 225,000 additional acres of private land without the cost of purchase of the land or of easements. The grassbank has helped keep ranchers from “busting sod,” or plowing up native grassland to farm it; helped remove obstacles to pronghorn antelope migration; improved habitat and for the Greater sage-grouse and reduced the risk of sage-grouse colliding with fences; preserved prairie dog towns (thereby preserving an important food source for the endangered black-footed ferret); and prevented the spread of noxious weeds. (Photo By Ami Vitale)