What's New at the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance?

2006 and 2007 saw the successful launching of our community-led conservation group, where multi-generational ranch families spearhead stewardship of rich biodiversity through sustaining our strong ranching heritage and family values. Thanks to support from generous donors, we and our partners are creating resilient communities, both human and natural. The proof of the value of this approach is in the health of our working landscape, as well as in outside acclaim. We congratulate RSA leaders... read more...

Our Mission

The mission of the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance is to promote the ecological, social and economic conditions that will sustain the biodiversity and integrity of America’s northern mixed-grass prairie for present and future generations.

We support cost-effective, sustainable conservation that features private and public cooperation in a working landscape stewarded by profitable family ranches and thriving rural communities. We employ collaboration, education, innovation and sound science to conserve and enhance the natural resources and pastoral heritage of the northern Great Plains.

Compared to the rest of the lower US, the vast prairies of northern Montana have been little changed over the last millennium. Much as chronicled by Lewis and Clark 200 years ago, this immensity of grass and sky is a stronghold for pronghorn, mule deer, elk, prairie dogs, burrowing owls, ferruginous hawks, mountain plovers and a dozen more grassland bird species that are disappearing elsewhere.

Photo © Anne Sherwood

For over a hundred years, ranching has been the foundation of our local economy, culture and conservation. Today, third, fourth and fifth generation ranchers care for the land with ethics and skills that would delight Aldo Leopold.

In 2003, about 30 ranching families in northern Montana came together to resolve problems they faced. Since then, the group – the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance (RSA) – has improved communication and relationships with government agencies and conservation groups while protecting ranching traditions.

Photo © Linda Poole

RSA members worry that economic instability and the continued loss of young people from our area threaten the long-term viability of agriculture here. Because both our rural communities and the abundant wildlife of the area are sustained in large part by ranching, our challenge is to create a vibrant, profitable and sustainable future for this region.