Partners for Protection

On-the-ground report should improve economic development and environment for Fort Peck tribes. By Lisa Schmidt

The Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation have the information they need to solve rangeland management challenges on almost 400,000 acres of the reservation, thanks to an inventory completed with the assistance of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

The inventory maps types of vegetation, including dominant grasses and noxious weeds such as sulfur cinquefoil and Canada thistle; water sources and developments; fences and range health.

“This inventory provides baseline knowledge to manage tribal property properly,” said Bruce Knight, Chief of the NRCS, during a Bozeman, Mont., ceremony highlighting the inventory completion. “It is a baseline for grazing management to improve the soils, water quality and wildlife habitat because the tribes believe in multiple use on their lands.”

Besides providing information for better management, the inventory represents a unique partnership between the tribes and the NRCS.

“In our culture, with our way of doing things and our philosophy toward the land, we need collaboration. This inventory represents raising the quality of life for our people,” said Tom Christian, a member of the Fort Peck Tribal Executive Council.

“It’s the love of conservation that brings us together,” Knight said.

NRCS Chief Bruce Knight presents the Fort Peck Range Inventory and Assessment to Tom Christian, a member of the Fort Peck Tribal Executive Council.

More than a map

An inventory on such a vast area – the reservation covers approximately 4,400 square miles, which is larger than Rhode Island (1,212 square miles) and Delaware (2,057 square miles) added together – took unprecedented cooperation and physical effort.

The Fort Peck Tribes identified the need for a new inventory in the late 90s because the information they were using to manage their rangelands was dated 1988.

“To a layperson, you drive by and assume information from the 80s should be adequate, but the land has changed and we have learned a great deal about how to farm and about conservation management since then,” Knight said.

The Tribal Executive Board’s Land Committee wanted the inventory to identify ways for members to increase income from each of 92 range units, improve livestock distribution across the units, identify critical areas that need conservation improvements, develop conservation plans and seek financial assistance from various agency programs.

Teams of Montana NRCS range experts took two-week blocks of time to run exhaustive vegetation monitoring tests on each range unit throughout the 2001 and 2002 field seasons. Then the Rocky Mountain Regional Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs developed GIS maps for the final report. The result is three notebooks full of detailed maps, suggested stocking rates for grazing, the current condition of fences and water improvements, recommendations for noxious weed control, an evaluation of each unit’s range health and the apparent trend -- up, down or steady – of that condition.

“This inventory is truly amazing. As a rancher myself, I was salivating,” Knight said. “This report details where the utilization is, where a little change would do wonders and how to maximize stocking rates.”

For example, the inventory identified club moss as a problem across much of the reservation. On Unit 1, club moss covered 50 percent to 70 percent of the ground. “Dense club moss is not easy or cheap to control,” said Tom Beck, NRCS tribal liaison at the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. “Chiseling roughs up the landscape pretty well, but you need two trips across thousands of acres. You can kill it (other ways). But if you leave it in place, it will intercept an inch of rain, either using the moisture itself or causing the rainfall to run off the landscape.”

Instead, Beck advocates small changes in management in most cases.

“More than fencing, more than water development, management costs nothing but a little time. The return on management in phenomenal,” he said.

As a trained range scientist, Beck promotes deferred grazing systems and the North Dakota Twice Over grazing system to improve vegetation persistence and provide income from each acre of the reservation.

“The North Dakota Twice Over system is a time control system. When the grass is growing fast, you rotate the cattle through quickly. The second time, you slow down the rotation until it is time to go home. The first time through is a light clip that stimulates tillering,” he said. The second grazing rotation uses hoof action to break up club moss.

Tom Beck, NRCS tribal liaison at the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, explains a map showing the similarity index/trend across the Reservation. The map was developed as part of the Fort Peck inventory.

One of many

While Knight celebrated the NRCS partnership with the Fort Peck Tribes, he also took the opportunity to explain several other programs that could benefit American Indians.

The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) offers cost-shared funds to improve land conservation.

“Ten percent of Montana’s allocation (of EQIP funding) is dedicated for work with Native Americans so far this year. That’s $1.8 million for 79 contracts. That’s 100 percent of the contracts that were submitted,” Knight said.

Within EQIP, money is specifically allocated for animal feeding operations and ground and surface water conservation. Montana’s farmers and ranchers will receive $3.9 million to cost-share 59 projects.

Knight’s newest mission is to reward farmers and ranchers who already implement the best conservation practices with the Conservation Security Program.

“My objective is to target those conservation leaders to reward them and copy them,” he said. “We want to reward the truly leading-edge conservationists for pushing the envelope on conservation management.”

So many programs demand huge time commitments for NRCS specialists. In an effort to improve service, Knight asked his employees to make as much of the paperwork as possible on the internet.

“Many farmers and ranchers use the internet at 10 at night. For example, people who are interested in the Conservation Security Program can use the self-assessment workbook on-line, determine their eligibility, and then bring it into the office. When they come in to the office, they can get straight into their goals and objectives (with NRCS personnel) instead of spending hours pouring over things they could have done at home,” he said.

Knight trekked to Montana to highlight the completion of the Fort Peck range inventory and also underscore Montana’s leadership in conservation and innovation.

“I am often pulling from NRCS in Montana examples that can be used nationwide,” Knight said.

The inventory provided one example for Knight. “This range inventory is desirable around the country, but this is the only example of work with tribes that I know of in the nation.”

The state’s seven-year drought provided another example.

“Montana has been a leader in prioritizing EQIP projects with long-term conservation and immediate needs. That leadership has spread like wildfire through out the states,” he said.

Last Modified: 05/20/2004