Landowners in the Knowlton-Pine Hills of Southeast Montana Improve and Protect Rangelands
Staci Ketchum and Erik Peterson are just two of the landowners in Custer County working to reduce conifer encroachment into rangelands through a locally-led Targeted Implementation Plan.
Watch their story on YouTube: Conservation for the Future: Protecting Rangelands in the Knowlton-Pine Hills
In 2021, siblings Staci Ketchum and Erik Peterson embarked on a mission to improve the health of their rangelands and decrease the risk of catastrophic wildlife on their properties. Having lived through two wildfires as children has made their work on their family’s land even more meaningful.
“We have been dealing with this since the early ‘80s,” says Ketchum. She recalls several wildfires that have affected the land over the years in an area where fire suppression techniques have allowed the trees to be overgrown.
Ketchum and Peterson's work in Custer and Carter counties, known as the Knowlton-Pine Hills Targeted Implementation Plan (TIP), has significant community support. Guided by a locally-led process that set conservation priorities in Custer County, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is making a resounding impact through assistance directly to landowners funded by the Environmental Quality Incentives Program.
With NRCS’s help, they are simultaneously addressing two critical goals: reducing the risk of devastating wildfires and enhancing the overall health of grazinglands in the area. Additional agencies like the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC), and the Custer County Conservation District are also helping the siblings manage their land effectively.
“It’s really good to see the different agencies cooperating with each other and cooperating with the landowners,” says Peterson. He notes how a wildfire doesn’t care if it's burning through public or private property lines.
Early Encounters with Wildfires Left a Lasting Impression
When Ketchum and Peterson were children, they witnessed the destructive power of wildfires firsthand. A massive fire swept through their family ranch in fall of 1984. A second fire came through in 1989, causing more damage to their family’s land and the surrounding community. The memories of those early catastrophic fires stayed with them, driving them to take action to prevent such tragedies in the future.
Over three decades later, the siblings have divided the ranch, but they continue to apply consistent management techniques. They are combatting Ponderosa pine and juniper tree encroachment, with the goal of improving rangeland health, reducing fire risks, supporting local ecosystems, and ensuring long-term sustainability and community safety.
Reflecting on the fires from his childhood, Peterson now sees the benefits that came after them. The fires led to flora and fauna regrowth, benefiting both wildlife and livestock. He explains, "The potential on the ground was exponentially higher; sunlight and rainwater were no longer being robbed by inedible vegetation for cattle."
A Plan in Motion on Private Land that Meets Public Land
Both Ketchum and Peterson have utilized NRCS and DNRC assistance to thin encroaching conifer trees. This work reduces fire risk and improves forage for livestock and wildlife.
Parts of the active cattle ranches butt up to a subdivision, a Bureau of Land Management recreational area, and a Custer County public park. Those areas are higher priority acres for treatment due to the risks to homes and public lands. Doing landscape level fuels reduction work, by bringing together multiple landowners and public land management agencies, helps to mitigate risks to both private and public lands at a much larger scale than could be accomplished by everyone working separately.
What makes their efforts unique is the idea of locally led conservation. Kaci Anderson, an NRCS Soil Conservationist, emphasizes how necessary it is for people like Ketchum and Peterson to take the lead in projects like these.
“Montana Focused Conservation is very important," says Anderson. "Local input is crucial for on-the-ground conservation in priority areas, addressing specific resource concerns, forging partnerships, and boosting funding for local producers. Landowners possess an intimate knowledge of the land, its history, and its potential, making their involvement indispensable for project success."
“It’s been great working with Erik and Staci and other producers in this area because they bring so much knowledge and excitement into the process,” Anderson says.
Andy Miller, DNRC forester, emphasizes the importance of responsible tree management, especially in southeastern Montana, where encroaching trees pose a significant challenge.
“In doing these projects we’re trying to switch our fire regimes to low intensity high frequency vs. high intensity low frequency so that fires are better able to be managed,” he says.
Collaboration with various agencies, including NRCS, the county, and the state, as well as private landowners and producers, has driven the success of the Knowlton-Pine HIlls TIP. Producers' prior experience and willingness to implement plans has been instrumental, according to Miller.
“Working with Erik and Staci is relatively simple because they already know the process of fuels mitigation, but they also know the process of working with government agencies,” he says. By thinning and clearing encroaching conifers, Ketchum and Peterson are fostering safety and sustainability, raising the water table, reviving springs, and increasing forage.
Creating a Landscape for a Safer Tomorrow
“Our land—they’re not making any more of it,” Anderson says. “As we move on, we want to see improvement in our land, improvement in our cattle, improvement of our wildlife species; we want to see improvement across the board.”
The Knowlton-Pine Hills TIP is a great example showing that the power to create change through conservation efforts begins at home.
“It makes such a difference to be able to do these programs, share them, and have multiple people get on board—and not just family, but our neighbors and the whole community,” Ketchum says, adding, “It makes a difference come fire season when you have to fight a 10-acre fire instead of a 10,000-acre fire.”
Through partnerships, knowledge, and hard work, Peterson, Ketchum, and other landowners in the area are taking this opportunity to make a difference on their land that not only helps the community but improves the condition of their land for the future.
“The ability to have projects on your ground that you wouldn’t be able to fund yourself—it’s incredible the amount that you can get done when you’ve got outside resources to help fund it,” says Peterson of their partnership with NRCS and DNRC.
Ketchum adds: “With the fuels reduction we’ve been able to do, we’re able to return the land to what it was before when Mother Nature did things on her own and before we stopped her from clearing things out.”
