Missouri Break, overlooking the River from grazing lease #5 within the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge.
Many thanks for the Walker Foundation’s generous grant to the National Wildlife Federation to assist with grazing retirements on the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge (CMR). Since we started this work in 2009 we have retired nearly 65,000 acres. More importantly, through our market approach we have resolved longstanding conflicts between wildlife and livestock.
Since early 2011, we have developed agreements that restrict livestock grazing on two significant refuge habitat management units (HMUS): the 2,000-acre Bull and Bay Pastures in the Carpenter Creek HMU and the 1,300-acre Bay Pasture in the Bobcat Creek HMU. Total retirement cost for these two areas was $36,800, which your grant helped pay for. For a map that displays the location of these HMUS, please go to www.nwf-wcr.org and click on "maps".
The National Wildlife Federation continues to work in close partnership with the American Prairie Reserve (APR) to develop an ecologically-significant area of prairie habitat large enough to sustain a free-ranging bison population. While APR focuses on private lands, NWF takes the lead on creating more favorable wildlife habitat on the CMR itself. NWF has also taken the lead role in advocating for bison restoration through various state and federal planning documents.
The Walker Foundation has been a supporter of our efforts to reduce conflicts between wildlife and livestock from the very beginning, and we deeply appreciate your continued endorsement. Our grazing retirement successes have gained considerable notice in the northern Rockies and we believe this same method can be used to resolve wildlife/livestock conflicts in other regions of the country.
Again, we thank you for your support and look forward to continued partnership for years to come.
