Saturday, August 23, 2025 - Working alongside Billings BLM and hands from the Milton ranch, 6 BHA volunteers dismantled 1 mile of barbed wire fence and converted it to wildlife friendly spec. Although the this work was conducted on public land, the grazing lessee was heavily involved in supporting this fence conversion work.  Milton Ranch covers 15,000 acres within one of the world’s largest intact grassland ecosystems. The ranch hosts antelope, deer, elk, prairie dogs, and a variety of birds, including ducks, geese, white pelicans, cormorants, and the Sprague’s pipit. Most former farmland has been restored to native grasses, with ongoing efforts on remaining non-native fields. Over 400 cow-calf pairs graze the property, which is two-thirds deeded and one-third leased from the Bureau of Land Management and the State of Montana.

       

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The crew arrived around 8am at the edge of the Milton ranch, primarily driving in from the Billings, Roundup and Miles city radius. Volunteers started their morning with a quick safety brief while sipping on coffee before donning toolbelts filled with wire cutters and waterbottles then jumping right into the process of unclipping and rolling up the 4 strand barbed-wire. The crew made quick work of removal and by noon, re-grouped on a scenic cliff, overlooking the adjacent ranch land, for a boxed lunch of snacks, sandwiches and ice cold gatorades provided by the Montana chapter of BHA. With full bellies and a few minutes of reprieve from the prarie sun, volunteers worked on re-attaching smooth wire to the existing t-posts and under BLM supervision, Barbed wire, properly spaced to reduce the frequency of ungulate entrapment. 

MT chapter board member, Luke Assenmacher, was on site to not only lend a hand on the fence-line, but to capture photos and videos of the day. A video recap of the day can be found HERE

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