WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Bureau of Land Management announced the winners of the 2024 Rangeland Stewardship and Rangeland Innovations awards Tuesday, which recognize exemplary management and outstanding accomplishments in restoring and maintaining the health of public rangelands.
The BLM and Public Lands Council have partnered for 19 years to honor BLM livestock grazing permittees and lessees who demonstrate exceptional management, collaboration, and communication that restores, conserves, or enhances our public lands, and to recognize their accomplishments at a gathering of their peers.
“These awards honor ranchers who promote healthy public lands for the benefit of current and future generations,” said BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning. “These award winners are leaders who innovate and collaborate, essential qualities given the challenges facing our public lands.”
“Federal lands ranchers represent the most efficient and most cost-effective way to maintain western rangeland, while still producing a wholesome product for consumers. Grazing permittees partner with BLM to protect and build vital wildlife habitat, improve native plant life, while reducing invasive grasses, and helping to prevent catastrophic wildfires,” said Public Lands Council President Mark Roeber. “This is a hard job, and it takes a tremendous amount of commitment to not only complete the work each day but also continuously work to get better. PLC congratulates the award recipients for their ranching and conservation excellence, showing the great tradition of environmental stewardship that our ancestors started over a century ago.”
The Rangeland Stewardship Awards recognize the demonstrated use of beneficial management practices to restore, protect, or enhance rangeland resources while working with the BLM and other partners.
- The 2024 Rangeland Stewardship Award – Permittee Category winner is the Fitzgerald family of Fitzgerald Ranch, Inc. of Plush, Ore., nominated by the Lakeview Field Office, BLM Oregon/Washington.
- This fifth-generation ranch in rural southern Oregon was one of eleven operations selected as a demonstration project in 2018 for the BLM’s outcome-based grazing initiative and the first to implement outcome-based terms and conditions on the landscape. The Fitzgerald’s goal is to improve the ecological condition of their allotments so that current and future generations can operate a thriving ranch in the face of dynamic environmental change. They continue to work with local BLM personnel and partners to tell their story and promote the knowledge gained from their participation in the outcome-based grazing initiative.
- The 2024 Rangeland Stewardship Award – Collaborative Team Category winner is Ranchers Stewardship Alliance (RSA) of Malta, Mont., nominated by the Malta and Glasgow field offices, BLM Montana/Dakotas.
- RSA has been working with the BLM since 2017 on conservation projects and recently hosted a Restoration Landscape coordinator to assist BLM in restoration and conservation activities in the Hi-Line Sagebrush Anchor Restoration Landscape in northeastern Montana. Through building connections, relationships, and trust between conservation organizations and the local ranching community, RSA has brought together over a hundred local ranchers to discuss conservation issues and implement projects throughout the region.
- RSA also acts as an information hub, using their strong relationships with more than 27 Federal, state, and non-government organizations, to connect and partner with interested landowners to help achieve conservation and restoration goals holistically across public and private lands.
The Rangeland Innovations Awards recognize outstanding examples of demonstrated creativity, willingness to embrace change, and a modified perspective or approach to persistent rangeland stewardship challenges in addition to the accomplishments meriting the Rangeland Stewardship Award.
- The 2024 Rangeland Innovations Award – Permittee Category winners are the families of Niels and John Hansen of PH Livestock in Rawlins, Wyo., nominated by the Rawlins Field Office, BLM Wyoming.
- PH Livestock has assisted in monitoring its allotments for over 25 years and was one of the initial eleven operations chosen for the BLM outcome-based grazing initiative demonstration projects. It has found that the flexibility of outcome-based grazing has greatly enhanced livestock management and range improvement opportunities.
- PH Livestock thrives on innovative efforts to improve rangeland management and efficiency. It monitors water levels remotely using linked game cameras, has outfitted well pump generators with timers to provide reliable water, and employs drones to locate cattle and check fences, gates, and trough water levels.
The Public Lands Council represents the cattle and sheep producers who hold approximately 22,000 public lands grazing permits. Federal grazing permit holders provide essential food and fiber resources to the nation, as well as important land management services like the eradication of invasive species, mitigation of wildfire risk, and conservation of vital wildlife habitat. The Public Lands Council works in active partnership with the BLM, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and local land management offices to make landscapes more resilient across the West.