On Rivers and Ranching
Bryce Andrews
A blog by a ranch hand working to unite conservation and ranching practices in the middle of the nation's largest Superfund complex -- the upper Clark Fork River
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In 2005, the Clark Fork Coalition, a non-profit river conservation group, bought a 2,300-acre cattle ranch in the heart of the Deer Lodge Valley. It's smack in the middle of the nation's largest Superfund complex -- the upper Clark Fork River from Butte to Missoula -- where the toxic remnants from a century of mining are about to be cleaned up in the largest "river fix" ever undertaken in the West.
The plan is to restore the river in a way that minimizes impacts to area ranchers, and further unite conservation and ranching practices. The goal is to deliver long-term ecologic, economic, and cultural assets for the people, the lands, and the waters of the Clark Fork.
But the first step is to put boots on the ground. Those boots are mine this summer, as the Coalition's ranch hand at Dry Cottonwood Creek. I'll be fixing fence, moving cattle, monitoring water use, and looking for opportunities to start restoration projects. In this blog, I'll record the way things are on the ranch, as well as my thoughts about work, ecology and life in the Deer Lodge valley. I hope you'll read along.
