American Prairie Reserve

The American Prairie Reserve is a massive nature reserve in northeastern Montana, United States, being developed as a private project of the American Prairie Foundation. This independent non-profit organization is creating a wildlife conservation area of over 3 million contiguous acres (12,000 km2) through a combination of both private and public lands.

American Prairie Reserve
Overlooking the Missouri River from the American Prairie Reserve
Governing bodyAmerican Prairie Foundation
Websitehttps://www.americanprairie.org/

History

Eastern Montana's population has been falling since the 1930s.[1] Land is for sale as ranchers find that family members are not interested in taking over their spreads.[2] The Nature Conservancy determined in 1999 that the northern Great Plains were the most viable for restoring the region's habitats and conserving existing diversity of plants and animals.[3] Bison are a keystone species for the native shortgrass prairie habitat as their grazing pressure alters the food web and landscapes in ways that improve biodiversity.[4] The American Prairie Foundation developed a 7-point scale to evaluate land based on ten ecological conditions including plant diversity, grazing, fire, hydrology and predators to measure the impact of reserve management activities.[5] As of January 2020, 30 ranches have been purchased from willing sellers and the organization wants to buy about 20 more.[1] As of April 2018 the Reserve area consisted of 399,000 acres (161,000 ha) in northeastern Montana, about one-fourth owned and the remainder leased.

Controversies

The majority of the opposition to the American Prairie Reserve stems from ranchers in the area that intend to continue grazing cattle.[6] Ranchers in the region have been invited to adhere to certain wildlife-friendly standards and market cattle as “Wild Sky Beef" at a premium.[7] They have also formed the organization, Ranchers Stewardship Alliance of South Phillips County.[8]

Organization
Main article: American Prairie Foundation

The American Prairie Foundation (doing business as American Prairie Reserve) believes that, "By purchasing a relatively small number of acres from willing sellers in northeastern Montana, we hope to link together the millions of acres of public land already set aside for wildlife and visitor access in the region, thereby creating a seamless landscape reminiscent of that seen by Lewis and Clark."[9]

Approximately ten percent of the funding comes from private foundations supporting land conservation and the remaining ninety percent comes from individuals living in 46 different states and eight different countries. Approximately 20% of its donors reside in the state of Montana.[10] As of December 2013, they had raised $67.3 million in cash and pledges since 2002.[11]

Major donors include Forrest Mars, Jr. and John Mars of the Mars family, Hansjoerg Wyss, and Susan Packard Orr.[12] Current board members, Erivan and Helga Haub, Gib and Susan Myers and George and Susan Matelich, are also major donors.[13]

See also

References
  1. Lotus, Jean (January 31, 2020). "Montana ranchers, conservationists lock horns over free-ranging bison". UPI. Retrieved 2020-02-02.
  2. Hegyi, Nate (December 8, 2019). "Big Money Is Building A New Kind Of National Park In The Great Plains". WAMU. Retrieved 2020-02-02.
  3. Jazynka, Kitson (May 20, 2019). "Bison help prairie get back to nature". The Spokesman-Review. Retrieved 2020-01-29.
  4. Saboe, Beth (September 24, 2018). "The American Prairie Reserve Revisited". Distinctly Montana Magazine. Retrieved 2020-02-02.
  5. " American Prairie Reserve: 2013 Fall Gathering", American Prairie Reserve, p5, 2013
  6. Matthew Brown (2012-08-22). "For Sale: A Way of Life". The Durango Herald. Retrieved 2013-10-15.
  7. Kibblewhite, Courtney (September 25, 2013). "Market Your Cattle with American Prairie Reserve?". Northern AG Network. Retrieved 2020-01-29.
  8. Lutey, Tom (2009-12-20). "Ranchers wary of group's effort to create wildlife reserve bigger than Yellowstone". Billings Gazette. Retrieved 2013-05-05.
  9. "Expanding the Reserve". Americanprairie.org. 2013. Retrieved 2013-10-15.
  10. "FAQs". Americanprairie.org. 2013. Retrieved 2013-10-15.
  11. "Financials". Americanprairie.org. 2016. Retrieved 2018-04-11.
  12. Lubove, Seth (2013-05-21). "Bison-Loving Billionaires Rile Ranchers With Land Grab in American West". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2013-10-15.
  13. American Prairie Reserve, IRS Form 990, 2011 Archived 2013-10-20 at the Wayback Machine (pdf)
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