Life in the Bitterroot Valley asks a lot from the people who work this land, so it can be extra rewarding for the farmers and ranchers who are able to adapt and thrive here. And even in a changing and challenging environment, Bolin Ranch is doing just that.
Watch the Bolin Ranch story on YouTube: Conservation for the Future: Partnerships for Conservation at the Bolin Ranch, Ravalli County, MT.
“I grew up right here,” says Don Nelson, current forestry manager at Bolin Ranch, whose family used to own the property. “I’m really happy to see what we’ve been doing.”
Nelson’s aunt and uncle originally purchased the ranch nearly a century ago from Anaconda, the then-active mining company working in the region. The 3,000-acre landscape features marks of the history, with old homesteads dotting parts of the property and surrounding area.
Nelson’s life on this land started early, and he gained experience that he would carry with him into the present. “My uncle and I, when I was in high school, he’d get some DNRC contracts, and we’d do a little bit of thinning.” The DNRC is the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, but that is not the only agency that has collaborated to aid the stewardship of Bolin Ranch.
A Ranch Full of Life
Following the passing of Nelson’s uncle in 2007 and aunt in 2011, Bolin Ranch was sold to its current owner, Paraic Neibergs. But the sale of his family’s ranch didn’t mean the end of Nelson’s time there. In fact, working together with Neibergs, Nelson is helping to ensure that his family’s ranch maintains a notable and sustainable legacy.
“Don’s shared a lot of the history and the different places and all the unique landmarks of the crooked tree and all that kind of stuff,” says Neibergs. “I look at him not just as a resource, but as a friend. Don has a deep appreciation for this ground as well as I do, and you don’t get that until you’ve been on the property for a while.”
Neibergs bought Bolin ranch several years ago. He says part of what drew him to the property was the active management work done by Nelson. That, and the diversity of plant and animal life that calls the ranch and surrounding area home.
“It’s just fun seeing the animals on here,” Neibergs says.
Nelson lists off some of the animals he’s encountered. “I’ve seen deer, elk, bear, coyotes, wolves, pretty much everything up here.”
Neibergs jokes that Nelson, “has lots of hunting stories but I think they’re all made up.”
Maintaining such a rich ecosystem in this area takes active, attentive management. Individuals—even ones as committed as Neibergs and Nelson—rely on technical and financial assistance from outside agencies to get it done.
Building a More Resilient Forest
Wildflowers bloom in an area where trees have been thinned on the Bolin Ranch.
Among the agencies partnering in the work on the ranch is the local office of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). NRCS District Conservationist, Stacy Welling says both Neibergs and Nelson have been great to work with, and that partnerships like this make it easier to address one of the dangers of living and ranching here.
“It’s hard to find an assessment of forest health and wildfire risk that does not put Ravalli County and the Bitterroot Valey at the top of the list,” says Welling. “We just have a lot of high-priority areas in this valley that were identified through the Montana Forest Action Plan. All of the partners that work in forestry…we all are cooperating together to try to get the biggest effect in those high-priority areas.”
The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) from NRCS has helped Nelson and Neibergs with technical and financial assistance which has made managing the forest on the Bolin Ranch much easier and, in turn, made the area safer.
“Stacy’s really great, if I ever have questions, she’s always available,” says Nelson.
The stocked woodlands on the Bolin Ranch require the sort of attentive management that Nelson brings to the table, along with Neiberg’s land management experience, and the knowledge and resources of Welling and the NRCS.
“All these little trees that are growing, they call it ladder fuel,” Nelson explains. “When you have a fire and you do have the ladder fuels, what happens is it comes into the low stuff and starts burning up. Then it gets into your midrange, and then once it hits that it’ll start crowning on your big stuff, so you’ll lose your whole forest.”
A large part of Nelson’s work at Bolin Ranch is focused on minimizing this threat through well-planned mitigation practices.
One of the major practices employed on Bolin Ranch is known as “lop and scatter,” and it’s basically what it sounds like. Nelson goes in with a chainsaw to cut down trees and remove gathered ladder fuels. There’s no need to bring in heavy equipment, and it allows Nelson more flexibility when planning his next move.
“When I’m thinning, I’m looking ahead of myself, so I know exactly which tree I’m gonna take,” he says. “I look for healthy trees, spacing, and diversity. Instead of having just one species out here, I try to keep a little pine with the fir and spruce. You don’t want to keep just one species out here just in case a bug comes through here and just wipes it all out.”
The plant and animal diversity on Bolin Ranch is not only the product of Nelson’s planning. They’ve seen diverse native grasses, wildflowers, and animal life come back to reoccupy the niches created by thinning the encroaching trees.
The unique features of the landscape at Bolin Ranch—part of what attracted Neibergs to the land in the first place—make it especially important that care is taken to ensure that the ecosystem is as resilient as possible in the face of potential disasters.
“This property has the headwaters of multiple creeks,” says Neibergs. “That watershed and the tributaries of the Bitterroot, we’re protecting within these targeted areas and we’re keeping that, hopefully, safe from fire.”
“Fire’s gonna happen sooner or later,” he says. But to Neibergs the big question is whether the severity of the fire is tempered through mitigation efforts like the ones they practice or left unchecked by neglect, which leads to a stressed, unhealthy, and overstocked forest and—in turn—a massive, uncontrolled blaze.
Changes in the Bitterroot Valley
It’s not just potential damage to Bolin Ranch that Nelson, Neibergs, and Welling are concerned about. The ranch sits in the hills overlooking Stevensville, Montana – a historic town with just over 2000 residents.
Welling notes that Ravalli County has, “experienced record development in the last couple years.” The risk of unchecked fire as residential areas encroach on woodland threatens property, infrastructure, and—most importantly—lives. The unique positioning of Bolin Ranch creates other stakeholders in their stewardship efforts.
“We adjoin the State of Montana Three-Mile Wildlife Management area,” says Neibergs. “And then the Forest Service on the eastern and southern boundaries as well. So they’re seamless neighbors, but they’re integral to the whole landscape of this property.”
That seamlessness is part of the beauty of Bolin Ranch, and a major impetus to forming partnerships with neighbors and agencies. Neibergs and Nelson recognize that what happens on Bolin Ranch affects the entire area, regardless of property lines or ownership. The Bolins agreed to a conservation easement with the state before selling the ranch, and Neibergs says their work to honor that fosters positive ties.
“It’s a great relationship with Fish, Wildlife, and Parks as well,” he says. “We’ve worked with their forester, and we’ve worked cooperatively across the border whether or not they need an easement through the road. We’ve worked on different improvements on streams and connectivity. Then there’s an element of public use, allowing the public on here mostly during hunting season.”
Additionally, Bolin Ranch has worked with Welling and NRCS to get funding through the Joint Chiefs Initiative and Targeted Implementation Plans (TIPs) that address local priorities to maintain forest health and help to mitigate fire risk in the wildland urban interface. Those TIPs concentrate the efforts of landowners in an identified area to implement similar projects that tackle the locally identified concern.
“The majority of landowners, at least in the Bitterroot, they’re really passionate about it,” says Welling. “They just need a little bit of help sometimes.”
That combination of passion and cooperation is allowing Bolin Ranch to ensure its unique history, landscape, and biodiversity have a place in the future of the Bitterroot Valley.
More Information
To learn more about NRCS conservation assistance, please visit your local field office or NRCS - Montana.
Original source can be found here
