Winners of the 2024 Rangeland Stewardship and Innovation Awards announced

PLC and BLM 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 recognize their accomplishments at a gathering of their peers.

“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.”

BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning commented: “The spirit of these awards honor generations of American ranchers who have promoted healthy public lands for the benefit of current and future generations. The addition this year of the Rangeland Innovation Awards builds on this legacy by encouraging new grazing methods and technologies on public lands necessary for adapting to the challenges of a changing climate.”

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, Oreg., 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 has been to improve the ecological condition of these allotments to continue operating a viable economic ranch operation for future generations. 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 around 120 local ranchers to discuss conservation issues and implement projects across the region.

RSA 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 Innovation Awards recognize outstanding examples of demonstrated creativity, willingness to embrace change, and/or a modified perspective or approach to persistent rangeland stewardship challenges in addition to the accomplishments meriting the Rangeland Stewardship Award.

The 2024 Rangeland Innovation Award – Permittee Category winner 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 their allotments for over 25 years and was another of the initial eleven operations chosen for the outcome-based grazing initiative demonstration projects. They’ve found the associated flexibility has greatly enhanced livestock management and improvement opportunities. Several range improvements have been completed to support the use of grazing flexibilities, and several more are identified for future projects.

PH Livestock thrives on innovative efforts to improve rangeland management and efficiency. They monitor water levels remotely using linked game cameras, well pump generators with timers to provide reliable water, and drones to locate cattle and check fences, gates, and trough water levels.