The Conifer Conundrum

Pushing Back Problem Trees in Montana Grasslands and Rangelands

Article by Hannah Nikonow and Emily Downing, IWJV Communications Specialists

Forests are changing across the West. Fires are an integral part of the health of forested landscapes but humans are pretty good at putting them out to protect lives, economies, and infrastructure. In Montana’s Blackfoot Valley and in the Missouri headwaters of the state’s southwest corner, the resulting lack of natural fire cycles means that some trees, especially conifers such as douglas fir and juniper, have grown into places they aren’t historically found: the unique Intermountain grasslands of the Blackfoot valley, and sagebrush steppe of southwest Montana. Fortunately, there are conservation efforts and financial incentive programs to help rebalance these complex systems. 

There is an increasing understanding of the irreplaceable role fire plays in ecosystems as well as the catastrophic damage of fires that rage from fuels left to build for decades. At the same time, fire managers walk a thin line between balancing ecosystems and protecting personal property, livelihoods, and human lives. One of the results is that some trees have grown into other habitats because the forests have been unchecked by natural, historic fire regimes. This is known as conifer expansion and it is occurring in many of North America’s grasslands and rangelands. Other causes for conifer expansion can be linked to changes in climate patterns and some historic grazing practices.

Montana experiences this expansion in numerous ways and people and wildlife are feeling the fallout. Conifer expansion into Intermountain grasslands and rangelands happens in numerous ways but the two major impacts: 1) decreased forage of native grasses needed by deer, elk, birds, and livestock due to crowding of trees in new areas, reducing the amount of sunlight and soil nutrients available to native plants; and 2) trees alter how precipitation hits the ground and they directly reduce ground moisture available for native grasses, shrubs, and wildlife, leading to degraded hydrologic function across the landscape. Water is well known to dictate all forms of life in the arid West! 

To address this conifer challenge, Montana NRCS is working with local groups and landowners in two very different landscapes—Intermountain grasslands and sagebrush rangelands—through Targeted Implementation Plans (TIP). TIPs use 2018 Farm Bill Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) funds to carry out objectives identified in the county-level Long Range Plans collaboratively developed with local farmers, ranchers, and conservation partners. 

Blackfoot Valley, Montana

In the Blackfoot Valley, work is ongoing to remove trees on more than 6,300 acres to maintain Intermountain grassland habitat that supports a multitude of wildlife species and the historic ranching community in the valley. Ranchers are working with the NRCS, U.S. Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Mule Deer Foundation, Blackfoot Challenge, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove conifers on their land and restore forage and water for their livestock. 

The Blackfoot landscape is characterized by Intermountain grasslands and also pothole-type wetlands (similar to the Prairie Potholes in the Great Plains) that provide extensive habitat for migratory waterbirds, including Sandhill cranes. By removing the encroaching trees from the grasslands surrounding these wetlands, more water is kept in the potholes and the valley’s perennial streams. 

Conifer removal also helps maintain water flows that feed the renowned Blackfoot River, a major driver for the local recreation economy.  As conifers expand on the valley floor and suck up excess groundwater, less and less water feeds the Blackfoot River’s world-class fishery. Ryen Neudecker, who is the Restoration Coordinator for the Montana Big Blackfoot Chapter of Trout Unlimited (TU), said the conifer removal work compliments the extensive stream restoration projects in the watershed, on which landowners have worked with groups like TU and the Blackfoot Challenge.

“When you’re trying to recover native trout at a landscape scale, it takes all these people and all these projects, and the sum total is what we’re seeing—these fish doing well in the face of drought,” she said. “Work like this proves that agriculture and fisheries can go hand in hand.”

By removing these trees, managers and landowners are also restoring forage for ungulates like deer, elk, and livestock, and habitat for nesting birds native to these Intermountain grasslands, such as Savannah Sparrow, Vesper Sparrow, and Baird’s Sparrow. The primary tree species that is encroaching on the Blackfoot’s grasslands is douglas fir and, right now, these particular trees do not have significant financial value in the timber industry when they tend to be open-growth and limb-heavy in this setting. Removing the trees allows the grasses to grow back and restores forage quality for livestock.

“Conifer removal as a land management practice works really well because it makes so much sense when we get to sit down with a landowner and talk about how this type of project can benefit them,” said Josh Schrecengost, district conservationist for the NRCS. “When we can incentivize this by having financial support through the Farm Bill we can really make it feasible and valuable for all parties.”

Southwest Montana

In southwest Montana, landowners and land managers are turning to conifer removal for similar reasons, and their concerns also surround conserving priority sage grouse habitat. The sagebrush-steppe rangelands of Madison and Beaverhead Counties are also threatened by conifer expansion, said Sean Claffey, who works for The Nature Conservancy’s Southwest Montana Sagebrush Partnership. Because the sagebrush in southwestern Montana is so intermixed with other habitat types, like aspen forest and riparian wet meadows, conifer expansion has numerous negative impacts. Even a low number of encroaching trees can cause sage grouse to completely vacate an area as well as decrease the forage in critical winter range for big game and livestock.

“As conifers are expanding, we’re losing the biodiversity that makes southwest Montana so special,” he said. “As these habitats convert to woodlands, it threatens both the agriculture and recreational wildlife-focused tourism economies that support our communities and keep our open spaces connected and intact.”

Anecdotally, Claffey said, ranchers involved with the NRCS through programs like EQIP have observed that there were portions of their land they wouldn’t use because so many trees had grown into the pasture. They think this was resulting in the lack of water and the inability to grow consistent forage in these areas. 

“The landowners have recognized the issue for years and years but didn’t really know how to tackle the problem,” he said. “With the assistance of the NRCS, they were able to remove these trees at a scale they didn’t know was possible and see an increase in water available in those pastures and are able to use them again.”

Claffey also said the TIP programs have been important in recruiting new landowners to resource protection work like conifer removal. The simple nature of the work — and the massive benefits it provides to livestock and wildlife — make it easy for folks to see the implications, both economically and ecologically. The programs also provide an easy way to work with local public land managers like the Bureau of Land Management and the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, who are doing similar work on neighboring federal and state land, and thereby produce the cross-boundary benefits of removing the trees.

“This kind of partnership has really enhanced our ability to treat this challenge at a scale that actually makes a difference,” Claffey said, pointing to the landscape-scale threats posed by conifer expansion.

Despite the very different landscapes heralded by the Blackfoot’s Intermountain grasslands and southwest Montana’s sagebrush country, the practice of removing conifers that have expanded into the wrong places is beneficial to all parties involved. Schrecengost emphasized how this type of land management makes sense from an economic standpoint for landowners and also all of those who benefit from the enhanced water availability and wildlife habitat.

“The TIP marries together something that gives the landowner value and gives value to the American taxpayer from an ecological standpoint,” Schrecengost said.

Before TIP conifer removal project.

Restored rangeland after TIP conifer removal project.