By Roger Zentzis, MRW Technical Coordinator

Council Member Dana Darlington from the Big Sandy Conservation District recently took time out of his ever-busy schedule to plan and host a day of ranch tours in the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument (Monument) for the Bureau of Land Management’s Lewistown Field Office Manager, June Bailey. The group toured four ranches on the north side of the Missouri River, highlighting the history of ranching in the area, landowners’ conservation efforts, and local concerns.

Two successful and innovative grazing programs were presented to the Council, agency representatives, and Petroleum County residents on June 7th in Winnett. Fred King with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks highlighted the successful use of cattle grazing to enhance elk habitat at the Wall Creek Wildlife Management Area in southwest Montana. When the state purchased the WMA in 1960, domestic cattle grazing was eliminated and the area supported only 200-250 wintering elk.

The Council was recently awarded a $1,355 grant through the Department of Environmental Quality’s Education Mini-Grant program. The grant will pay for a brochure that highlights the water quality improvement projects completed along the Missouri River and its major tributaries. The brochure will complement the Council’s public outreach efforts, which include a display in each of the four river reach areas and one large interactive display that will travel to events and education workshops throughout the corridor.

To enable the endangered interior least tern and the threatened Northern Great Plains piping plover to more easily nest along the Missouri River, the U.S. Corps of Engineers plans to mechanically create sandbars in the river between Fort Peck, Montana and Sioux City, Iowa. Both the least tern and the piping plover use sandbars with little or no vegetation to nest and raise their chicks. The Corps plans to create and improve sandbars with dredges, bulldozers, and/or excavators.

With three successful land use planning workshops completed throughout the river corridor, the Council is planning a fourth workshop, this one tailored for Broadwater County. County officials recently asked the Council to provide more information on riparian area protection and floodplain regulations. More education = better decisions.