Farm406

farm406 36 When he stopped into the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) office in Ekalaka that spring, Bret Lesh had no doubt heard the talk around Carter County about the greater sage-grouse. e big prairie birds that held dramatic courtship rites and flushed in coveys – the moled grayish-brown-and-white birds everyone in Carter County saw most any normal day and scarcely considered, except when they fed along the roads and posed a threat to collide with passing vehicles – were declining across much of their historic range. Wildlife biologists were in southern Carter County studying the birds. State and federal agencies were huddling to discuss conservation strategies. It was entirely possible in 2012 that the Greater Sage-Grouse could be listed as a federally threatened or endangered species. e sage- grouse scientists had given southern Carter County a new name: Core Area 13. "Core" referred to the relative quality and importance of the habitat for Sage-Grouse in Montana; it meant the healthiest, most intact habitat, with a stable population of birds. Rebecca Knapp, the NRCS district conservationist in Ekalaka, welcomed Bret Lesh into her office for their meeting. In response to the growing concern over sage grouse, her agency, a year earlier, had launched the National Sage Grouse Initiative, a cost-share program for private landowners who commied to making improvements on their land or changes in their management regimes to benefit sage grouse, an umbrella species for 350 other sagebrush-dependent birds, mammals and other wildlife. In Carter County, Knapp says, agency staff and local leaders had decided on a low-key approach to the initiative. Sage-grouse were plentiful, which meant they were successfully coexisting with local ranching practices. e talk of a federal listing for the bird already had some landowners worried. "We decided to proceed slowly and limit local publicity," Knapp says. "We wanted to see how it went in some other areas first." e water problem Bret Lesh hoped to solve was as old as the history of ranching in southern Carter County, where a dependable source of clean, healthful water is hard to come by for people and livestock alike. e county sits atop the Pierre Shale geologic formation, which contains water of poor quality and limited quantity. Beneath the Pierre Shale there's ample water of good quality in the Lakota formation, but a well has to go 1,700 to 3,000 feet to reach it. Early ranchers found a solution in digging shallow pits to capture snowmelt and rain for their animals. "It's not as easy as it sounds," Knapp says of the practice. "You have to find the right type of soil and you need a drainage that's large enough to supply each pit." With several pits developed across his property, a rancher could usually acquire enough water to get his herd through the summer. Ranchers in the county still Recently-hatched sage-grouse chicks. Photo, Nappadol Paothong, Columbus, MO.

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