How donations drive data collection
Can wildlife-friendly ranching mean more than just tolerance? Honoring the PN’s history
the SENTINEL
Not Yet Yellowstone: Restoring animals on the brink
Our mission is to create the largest nature reserve in the continental United States, a spectacular refuge for people and wildlife preserved forever as part of America’s heritage.
CONTRIBUTORS
Katy Teson, Editor
Lars Anderson
Damien Austin
Sean Gerrity
Betty Holder
Kyran Kunkel, PhD
Hilary Parker
Michael Wainwright
Keri Thorpe, Graphic Designer
The Sentinel is American Prairie Reserve’s biannual publication for members.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
George E. Matelich, Chair
Gib Myers, Vice Chair
Keith T. Anderson, Treasurer
Charles J. Abbe
Clyde Aspevig
Sean Gerrity
Helga Haub
Liliane A. Haub
Tim Kelly
Bill Lively
Jacqueline B. Mars
Susan Matelich
Jeff Miller
Nancy Mueller
Susan Myers
P.O. Box 908
Bozeman, MT 59771
Tel: (877) 273-1123 mail@americanprairie.org americanprairie.org
More Fun, Fewer Fences
Field Note
Tracking progress in tons, miles, and acres shows that 2016 could be a record-breaking year.
Looking at all that we accomplished in 2015, I’m happy to report that American Prairie Reserve’s progress on the ground is picking up speed. Your support means measurable impacts when it comes to restoring the land:
• Acquiring properties can mean a lot of clean up to integrate new lands with the rest of the Reserve and get them ready for safe public access. Most of the work is removing and recycling scrap iron. Over all of last year, we took in 23 tons of scrap iron to be recycled. This year, we’ve already recycled 37 tons since January!
• The Reserve continues to replace old fence with wildlife-friendly fence when necessary for bison management. In 2015, 34 miles of fence were modified throughout the year, primarily at Sun Prairie North (see below). Since January, we’ve already replaced 10 miles and completely removed more than 8 miles thanks in part to volunteer power (page 2).
• As the bison herd continues to grow, there’s a corresponding need for more land. This year, we’ve already opened up 4,000 new acres for bison at Sun Prairie North, where a sub-set of the herd now lives. This means 35,000 acres of land for bison when combined with the nearby 31,000acre Sun Prairie unit.
• And lastly, we continue the long process of restoring plowed ground. In 2015, the Reserve acquired 700 acres of previously farmed ground. I’m excited to tell you that all of those 700 acres have been replanted back to native grass this spring. While it’s likely to be a 2-3 year wait before the grasses really get established and are ready for bison, the precipitation we’ve already had this year is sure to help.
I couldn’t be more proud of our team that lives and works up on the Reserve. It can be difficult to see progress when you’re in the thick of it from day to day, but the sum of all of our collective efforts makes a real difference.
- Damien Austin, Reserve Operations Manager
Volunteers calling themselves the Prairie Restoration Outfit (PRO) returned for the third year to improve wildlife habitat.
“The hardest thing we had to do was try to rein them in,” reports Lars Anderson, a Reserve Assistant who worked alongside the hardworking volunteers that call themselves the Prairie Restoration Outfit, or PRO. The group of 13 represented British Columbia, Oregon, Florida, Washington, Colorado, and Montana and ranged in age from 17 to 76. They traveled to the Reserve this June to help tear down old fences, the third year in a row that the group made a commitment to restoring prairie habitat.
While the PRO volunteers change slightly from year to year, the group leader and organizer, John Rundberg, is a constant, energetic presence. After learning about the near extinction of plains bison as a teenager, and then later teaching the history of the West, John is a natural fit for the Reserve’s mission. And when he decided that he had to act, his friends were more than ready to join him.
“I was surprised that so many of my friends said yes when I asked if they wanted to volunteer on the Reserve. And even more surprised when they came back year after year. They live all over the country and didn’t know each other before coming here, and now they are connected by the prairie and doing something worthwhile.”
This year, the group spent four days in the sun removing five miles of fence on the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge on the way to Indian Lake. The project was not only a meaningful way to collaborate with the Refuge; it will also help the Reserve’s ratings according to the Freese Scale (page 5 ) by reducing habitat fragmentation that negatively affects wildlife.
And for visitors, this work means that there will be fewer fence lines obstructing their view when visiting the nearby buffalo jump.
Looking ahead, the Refuge has identified at least 53 more miles of fence that should be removed in the UL Bend area. Thanks to dedicated volunteers like these, we plan to assist with those efforts along with the Mule Deer Foundation, which has also stepped up to do similar fence removal work.
According to Lars, volunteers like the PRO are more than up for this task – and our staff will probably have to draw straws to see who has the privilege of joining them. “It’s one of the things that we enjoy most about our jobs – working with people who are excited about the prairie and use their vacations days to move the project forward. We hope that we’ll all be that cool when we’re in our 70s!”
For John, volunteering is equally meaningful and a chance for extraordinary shared experiences.
“My favorite memory is from this year, when Lars and Ellen took us to Sun Prairie North to see the bison. I didn’t take my camera because I just wanted to watch my friends as they saw newborn bison calves for the first time. We watched as a calf stood and took its first steps and then as it was welcomed by the surrounding herd. You can’t buy moments like these; you just have to be lucky.”
PRO volunteers prepare for a day of fence removal on the prairie. Photo by Michael Soeby
July 2016
Overcoming Barriers
Building Up – Elk
Not Yet Yellowstone: Restoring animals on the brink
With wildlife populations at historic lows, your support tackles one of the Reserve’s biggest challenges.
American Prairie Reserve is a conservation project, but to a large extent it’s also about restoration – a small but important distinction to someone like Lead Scientist Kyran Kunkel, who is working on wildlife. It comes down to a simple question: how can you conserve something that isn’t here in big enough numbers?
By becoming a member of the Reserve, you’ve shown that you value the idea of setting aside land so that animals can roam and rebound in number. And at 353,000 acres and growing, the Reserve has spent more than a decade assembling habitat thanks to supporters like you. For Kyran, this means we’re entering a new era in the project’s history: time to start building wildlife.
“We’ll be buying land for many years to come, but wildlife restoration is critical. The more time that I spend out here, it’s obvious what’s missing and how much potential there is for change.”
Predator control programs and overhunting by rapidly expanding western settlements are largely to blame for the decimation of large mammals in the American Prairie Reserve region and across the northern plains.
Wolves, bears, cougars, bison, elk, and pronghorn faded away over a few decades. Smaller mammals like swift fox followed suit as collateral damage. Prairie dog towns were wiped off the landscape with governmentsponsored poisoning programs, and associated species like the Mountain plover suffered the consequences.
“The Reserve isn’t just saving what’s here now. This isn’t like the rich wildlife experience of Yellowstone National Park. We have to return animals to the landscape in great numbers, and much of that isn’t within our control.”
Fortunately, the region’s wildlife has had a partner in Montana’s Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP). The agency has worked
to bring back native species in small numbers, as documented in a 2006 film titled Back from the Brink –Montana’s Wildlife Legacy. But the work is not done, and American Prairie Reserve has a collaborative role to play.
Other than bison, there are few other species that a private organization like the Reserve can reintroduce or relocate on its own. FWP makes most decisions about wildlife in the state, and the agency sets population targets for animals based largely on social tolerance, not on how much wildlife the land can support. When wildlife populations grow and people call to complain about negative impacts, such as mangled fences or elk feeding in haystacks, additional hunting tags are released to bring wildlife levels back down.
This is why restoration must prioritize the biggest limiting factor: low social tolerance for living with a large amount wildlife.
“When it comes to wildlife, the public has the power to control supply and demand,” Kyran explains. “For supply, we need more animals to survive each year and in key corridors. That means ranchers getting the extra help and tools they need to live with wildlife.” At the same time, we need people across the country asking for more animals. Some species are threatened with extinction or are no longer present at all. “Public support for increasing populations of wildlife, combined with a growing supply of animals, is going to be the way we see measurable results.”
NEXT STEPS
Optimism and innovation are not in short supply for Kyran, who remarks that “Growing wildlife is do-able. It comes down to finding the real limiting factors and figuring out the right formula.” One such formula is the Reserve’s people-centric Wild Sky ranching program (page 7). For species like swift fox and prairie dogs, the hurdles are less about today’s social tolerance and more about biology, education, and data. And then there are large mammals like elk, which require new and different tools that are still evolving (see sidebar).
“We’re entering a phase that I’ve been dreaming about and that our supporters are yearning for: the building of a functioning prairie ecosystem for wildlife. It’s the right time, and it’s for all Americans and our heritage.” - Kyran Kunkel
After becoming locally extinct, elk were reintroduced to the C. M. R. National Wildlife Refuge in 1951. Historical research estimates that this region once held 30-50,000 elk. Current population targets set by the State allow for less than 2,000 animals in the region north of the Missouri River, where most of the Reserve’s landholdings are located. To help grow elk numbers, the Reserve hopes to work with neighbors through Wild Sky (page 7) to reduce conflicts. This is in addition to continued efforts to purchase high-quality habitat as well as the decision to reduce elk hunting on our private lands in the short term. There’s also an education piece that’s important. “People no longer remember the time when these animals roamed in large numbers across the prairie, shaping it along with bison and providing food for predators and scavengers. The Reserve can help share that story again,” says Kyran.
Spreading Out – Prairie Dogs
The Reserve is proactive when it comes to growing prairie dog towns. Nearly eradicated due to social intolerance, prairie dogs are now threatened by plague and limited by small and scattered populations. Your support means that Kyran is working with collaborators like the C. M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Humane Society’s Prairie Dog Coalition to reduce risk of disease and expand prairie dog habitat through activities like the installation of artificial burrows in new areas. Restoring prairie dogs is also good news for the dozens of other prairie animals that rely on them and their towns, including the endangered black-footed ferrets right next door at the refuge.
Welcoming Back – Swift Fox
Like elk, the swift fox is an example of a species that was eradicated from the region and was returned thanks to multiple efforts. The animals have been reintroduced to Canada and the nearby Fort Peck Reservation, but natural barriers like the Milk River north of the Reserve are likely keeping them from expanding back into their historic range. Landmark adventure scientists (page 10) have been helping assess the opportunity for reintroduction by gathering habitat suitability data, and we hope to work with Fish, Wildlife and Parks on swift fox reintroduction in the future.
Photo © Gib Myers
FREESE SCALE HIGHLIGHT:
Native Prairie Hydrology
Restoring a prairie landscape takes many forms, from assembling habitat and reestablishing fire to rebuilding natural water flows. To help guide Reserve management, we rely on the Freese Scale developed by conservation biologist Dr. Curt Freese with Dr. Kyran Kunkel and Dr. Sam Fuhlendorf. The Freese Scale looks at the prairie through ten different lenses that help determine if a grassland ecosystem is fully functioning.
One of these lenses focuses on natural stream flows and healthy riparian areas. Prairie streams once supported a wide array of plants and wildlife, including nearly half of all prairie birds. However, much of this habitat has been lost over the last century.
Today, the Reserve is home to several intact riparian sites with impressive biodiversity, especially when migratory shorebirds arrive each spring. Collaborators like World Wildlife Fund and the Montana Conservation Corps have helped restore sites in the Sun Prairie region along Box Elder and Telegraph Creeks, and last year’s PRO volunteers (page 2) planted trees and shrubs along Third Creek. We also continue to assess opportunities for diversion dam removal that would help restore connectivity across the Reserve, greatly improving our Freese Scale ratings.
HOW DOES THE FREESE SCALE WORK?
Each year, our land managers and range specialists rate the regions of the Reserve according to the Freese Scale, taking into account additional data from experts, partners, and the Landmark program. The total score for a particular area is recorded and retained, allowing for annual comparisons. Armed with this information, we decide what approaches in management could lead to improved score. This measurable yet flexible structure is part of our adaptive management approach to all Reserve lands. Learn more and see current ratings in the Reserve Management section of our website.
American Avocet, Recurvirostra americana
Breeding habitats include marshes, beaches, lake shallows and prairie ponds.
Photo © Dennis Lingohr
Can wildlife-friendly ranching mean more than just tolerance?
Thanks to supporters like you, the Wild Sky program is rebuilding and reconnecting wildlife habitat outside of our boundaries.
Say cheese! That’s the message that ranchers are sending to the region’s wildlife as part of the Reserve’s Wild Sky program. Ranchers that enroll in Wild Sky receive financial incentives to implement wildlife-friendly practices. Some families are also choosing to install motion-activated camera traps that provide data about wildlife populations.
Reserve staff and Wild Sky ranchers are on the lookout for predators like black bears, cougars, bobcats, river otters, and badgers. For ranchers, images showing predators on their lands demonstrate that wildlife is welcome and also means that they’ll receive a cash bonus. For American Prairie Reserve, these pictures translate into data that help us measure baseline populations of predators and then trends over time.
As explained in the wildlife article (page 3), the path to increasing wildlife populations takes two tracks: public demand for more wildlife and a growing supply of wildlife that can survive over time. With Wild Sky, we’re able to work with landowners around the Reserve’s edges to tolerate wildlife in greater numbers. But what about animals that have been completely removed, like grizzly bears and wolves?
By expanding the Wild Sky program along key corridors to the Rocky Mountain Front and Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, we can improve connectivity and resilience as well as tolerance. According to Kyran Kunkel, our expert wildlife biologist, Montana’s
predators have been expanding their ranges for the last thirty years:
“Wild Sky is a way to create stepping stones for bears and wolves to reach the Reserve on their own. Rather than compensating ranchers for dead livestock, our approach is to proactively incentivize landowners to have more wildife around.”
Based on experiences so far, it’s working. Photo payments have already been made to Wild Sky ranchers for black bears and cougars on lands where their presence has been suspected but not confirmed. And although the management of ranches and American Prairie Reserve will never be the same, we’re seeing that Wild Sky is helping to soften the boundaries between us for the benefit of wildlife.
COMING SOON TO YOUR SCREEN!
Volunteers with the Landmark adventure science program (page 10) install and monitor all camera traps on Wild Sky ranches. Later this summer, you’ll also have access to this footage thanks to a new collaboration with eMammal, a system that Smithsonian created for collecting, storing, and sharing camera trap data. Stay tuned for more details!
Dear friends,
We are moving quickly this year. Our Land of Legacy campaign is accelerating land purchases and helping us embrace a growing number of visitors. Wildlife restoration is another exciting area. We’ve always known that we need to think even bigger and connect American Prairie Reserve with other vital conservation areas.
This fall, I’ll be working with staff and collaborators to look at Montana’s wildlife corridors and learn more about how they affect the resiliency of the ecosystem and the wildlife populations you’re helping to build out here. I’ve always hoped that the success of the Wild Sky model would mean it grows in scale, so look forward to exploring these next steps beyond our boundaries. Onward!
Sean Gerrity, President
Honoring the PN’s history through preservation, restoration
Members can look forward to learning about our upcoming preservation and restoration efforts on the organization’s 25th land purchase, the iconic PN Ranch. This 50,000-acre property not only offers critical habitat for wildlife, it also has been the setting for an enormous and varied amount of human history.
Over the last century, the PN has served as an epicenter of tribal life, a thoroughfare for westward expansion, a military hub, and the historic heart of a ranching era. Native Americans heavily used the area and burial grounds are rumored to exist. In 1805, the land was a campsite for Lewis and Clark as they traveled along the Missouri River. Two treaties were also signed here, and by 1866, Camp Cooke was built to serve as the first military outpost in Montana Territory, a basecamp for fur traders and riverboats. By the late 1800s, settlers transitioned the land to cattle and started what is now called the PN, one of the state’s oldest ranches.
When the Reserve purchased the property, we heard from community members and people around Montana who were overjoyed that the PN would be opened to the public and that its history could be kept in tact. One neighbor told us “It’s so nice to know that someone is going to keep it forever.” For the people we heard
by
post office, schoolhouse and the 3,000-square foot ranch “mansion.”
from, the preservation of the PN would be a celebration of rural identity, state pride, and national significance B ecause of the land’s role in the lives of Native Americans, early explorers, Montana Territory, and ranchers.
But even though the ground is permanently conserved, the history is not. The original homestead has been lost and buildings from the 1800s are crumbling. As the PN is opened to visitors, urgent work is required to ensure that structures are inventoried and survive along with memories that are held by a small, aging population.
By taking action for the PN, we can help keep its past alive and ensure that these parts of America’s heritage are accessible forever. Watch for updates, including opportunities to get involved in public access and historic preservation efforts.
HOW TO VISIT
The Reserve has heard from people around the country eager to visit! We are working to develop a PN-specific visitor map and travel information that will help keep the public safe while also protecting vulnerable historic sites. Check our website in August for travel tools.
Modern day travelers can view buildings that remain from Camp Cooke and the early ranching days, such as a stone warehouse,
Photos
Liz Juers
Cougar documented on Wild Sky camera trap.
American Prairie Reserve members are heroes of 21st century conservation. Members receive an exclusive member sticker and small perks at growing levels of support as well as special updates and insights about our goals and challenges. To become a member today, simply use the enclosed response envelope. We would also like to learn more about you! Submit your member story by contacting michael@americanprairie.org.
FOCUS focus
Member Profile: Rick Shepherd
I grew up on a 400-acre cattle and timber ranch in western Oregon in a small rural community surrounded by large ranches. Since college, I have worked in the timber industry as a forester. In addition to managing land for work, I help manage my parents’ ranch and my own 75-acre spread, with current efforts focused heavily on habitat restoration.
An avid hunter and lifetime member of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and Boone and Crockett Club, I enjoy spending time outdoors with friends and family. During my travels, I have spent much time in America’s great National Parks, but often felt even larger landscapes were needed for wildlife. After viewing National Geographic’s American Serengeti, was surprised by the magnitude of APR’s efforts.
When I saw that it was about recreating a section of land that will be a fully functioning ecosystem, I was overcome with joy. I have dreamed of something like this for many years, but felt it could not be feasible due to the loss of land and resistance by some to having animals back in such abundance. Realizing it is not only feasible, but already taking place, is what makes me so enthusiastic and passionate about this effort.
Member Profile: Annie Simonian Totah
I’m impressed with the goals of American Prairie Reserve. As a mother of four and grandmother of seven, I want to do my part to help the future of our environment. I’m reassured by American Prairie’s success stories that they are taking the necessary steps to ensure that nature for humans and other species will be around for future generations to enjoy.
I have always tried to live according to my mother’s sage advice: always do my best and give back to make this world a better place. I firmly believe that it is important to help others and to bring about brighter tomorrows to many causes that believe in. After all, to me this is what charity is all about.
I hope one day to visit the Reserve together with my family.
Photo © Tony Powell
MORE WAYS TO HELP
Financial incentives paid to Wild Sky ranches for their wildlife are funded in part by the sale of high quality, grass-fed beef sold under the Wild Sky brand. Wild Sky beef is already sold in stores from coast to coast, with more retailers being added all the time. Wild Sky jerky is also on Amazon! See store locations at wildskybeef.com and help support this program by purchasing Wild Sky products. Steaks, hamburgers and hotdogs are perfect for your summer cookouts!
Exploring for good: How donations drive data collection
“Adventure scientists” explore with a purpose, collecting information about wildlife species that is otherwise out of reach.
Howmany? Where? When? These are some of the questions about wildlife that Landmark volunteers have been helping to answer year-round since this adventure science program started in 2014. Now in our third year of the collaboration with Adventurers & Scientists for Conservation Landmark volunteers from across North America and countries
around the world are working on new answers for the region’s wildlife.
This spring, Landmark crews worked with Kyran Kunkel, our Lead Scientist, to assess habitat for swift fox, a species that we are hoping to reintroduce in the future in collaboration with state wildlife officials.
One step in the right direction is gathering scientific data about current conditions on the ground, making sure that swift fox are indeed absent and that the land could support a new population. Thanks to Landmark volunteer service, this data can now be compiled, analyzed, and shared.
Landmark volunteers have also been keeping count of bird populations on the Greater Sage-grouse leks that are spread across Reserve lands, and summer crews are now getting ready to map prairie dog towns and track the imperiled species that depend on them. But the impact of these adventure scientists doesn’t stop at our boundaries – Landmark also monitors the wildlife camera traps on nearby Wild Sky ranches (page 7).
As American Prairie Reserve grows its land base, innovative programs like Landmark are an important part of habitat management and improving conditions for wildlife in cost-effective ways. The ability of volunteers to gather information on a landscape-scale shows the real power of people working together for science and conservation, and we are grateful for your membership gifts that make this program possible.
Photo © Larry Orr
books to fuel your wanderlust
The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks by
Terry Tempest Williams
“From the Grand Tetons in Wyoming to Acadia in Maine to Big Bend in Texas and more, Williams creates a series of lyrical portraits that illuminate the unique grandeur of each place while delving into what it means to shape a landscape with its own evolutionary history into something of our own making. Part memoir, part natural history, and part social critique, The Hour of Land is a meditation and a manifesto on why wild lands matter to the soul of America.”
– Macmillan Publishers
Whether you’re hitting the road this year or looking for inspiration from the comfort of your front porch, these new books will motivate you to start planning your next adventure. To find more great nature reads, check out one of our favorite sites, The Well-Read Naturalist (wellreadnaturalist.org).
Fifty-Six Counties: A Montana Journey by Russell Rowland
“A native Montanan and an applauded novelist, Rowland spent the better part of a year studying and traveling around his beloved home state, from the mines of Butte to the pine forests of the Northwest, from the stark, wind-scrubbed badlands of the East to the tourist-driven economies of the West. Along the way, he considered our state’s essential character, where we came from, and, most of all, what we might be in the process of becoming.”
– Bangtail Press
Order Your American Prairie Reserve T-shirt!
Show your support with new, special edition t-shirts! To design and make the shirts, we partnered with Parks Project, a company dedicated to making high quality, made-in-America goods with the goal to fund and promote projects that restore our parks. To order your shirt and help spread the word about American Prairie Reserve, visit the Parks Project website: parksproject.us .
Listening to a Continent Sing: Birdsong by Bicycle from the Atlantic to the Pacific by Donald Kroodsma
“Join birdsong expert Donald Kroodsma on a ten-week, ten-state bicycle journey as he travels with his son from the Atlantic to the Pacific, lingering and listening to our continent sing as no one has before. On remote country roads, over terrain vast and spectacular, from dawn to dusk and sometimes through the night, you will gain a deep appreciation for the natural symphony of birdsong many of us take for granted.”
– Princeton University Press
