Posted by Ariel Overstreet
Tuesday, August 02, 2011 1:29:00 PM
This winter during the legislative session, I worked on a bill that aimed to put more teeth into our noxious weed laws in the state of Montana. During the hearings I heard several times that the real problem wasn’t the large landowners, but the small landowners with 10 or 20-acre “ranchettes” with too many horses and not enough care. Well, I happen to own a 10-acre “ranchette” north of Helena. I try to be a good steward of the land, even with my small acreage. But it is hard work! This weekend while I spent hours irrigating (that's me moving handline in my alfalfa field in the picture), loading hay, feeding my animals, and managing weeds, I thought a lot about environmental stewardship. I coordinate the
Montana Environmental Stewardship Award Program through MSGA. This program honors one Montana cattle ranch each year for their efforts to protect the environment and natural resources on their ranch and leased land. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the 18 previous winners of this award and the future winners. A lot of these folks are doing this work on a very large landscape. When I think of the hours I spend on my micro-ranch trying to kill weeds before they can seed and spread, watching my grazing distribution to make sure no area of the property is over grazed, and trying grow grasses and plants that will provide my horses with the nutrition they need, I can’t begin to fathom the hard work and dedication that our Montana Environmental Stewardship Award winners have put into keeping Montana a place we can all enjoy.