Working and Playing the Land 



The other public land managers of the up- 

 per basin — the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) 

 and the Montana State Lands Department— have 

 followed similar management procedures. The Lolo 

 Forest too has adopted rotation methods, though 

 in 1990 cattle grazed on only one Lolo allotment 

 in the drainage.'^ 



Livestock grazing on the Lolo declined as 

 ranches in the canyon were subdivided, starting in 

 the 1960s." Fewer than a dozen cattle grazed on the 

 "ranchettes" of the canyon in 1990, and their pur- 

 pose was mainly to keep the grass short. By con- 

 trast, most of the private land of the upper basin 

 is still ranched — and many of the ranchers still de- 

 pend on public land allotments.''* 



"We try to develop a balance of uses bet- 

 ween livestock and game," says Larry Newman, who 

 oversees BLM grazing allotments in the upper Rock 

 Creek drainage. "We move the cattle when the grass 

 gets down to a certain length, and we try to adjust 

 for a set number of wildlife. But some of the ran- 

 chers are saying where there used to be 1,000 

 ungulates there are now 2,000 and we keep reduc- 

 ing the livestock use."" 



Much of the ranchers' cropland is irrigated 

 for hay, and where there is hay there are larcenous 

 elk: Most elk and deer winter on privately owned 

 lands. Indeed, most of the open land of the upper 

 basin is in private hands. As a 1973 state wildlife 

 report noted, there is "no easy solution" to graz- 

 ing conflicts; reducing grazing on public ranges can 

 cause overgrazing on the crucial privately held 

 winter ranges.'* 



Bob Neal's family ranches 7,000 acres of its 

 own land about 40 miles upstream from the mouth 

 of Rock Creek and grazes another 5,000 acres of 

 public land. His BLM allotment was under review 

 in 1990, to determine whether grazing should be 

 further curtailed. "We've invested in water develop- 

 ment and cross-fencing on this allotment," says 

 Neal, "and 1 certainly believe they should leave it 

 as is."" On the other hand, Neal says public lands 

 account for only eight percent of his "animal unit 

 months'— his total volume of grazing. And he agrees 

 with public land managers that the rotation systems 

 keep the public lands healthier "We're doing a bet- 

 ter job as stewards," Neal says. "The Forest Service, 

 BLM and state lands are all under better manage 

 ment than 20 years ago ."'" 



Neal has had his share of run ins with wild 



life during 39 years of ranching in the Rock Creek 

 basin. "We do have more hunters and recreationists 

 in the field and they're having their effect," Neal 

 says.'** He grumbles that the bighorn sheep herd shar- 

 ing his range numbered 300 in 1990, despite a 1975 

 agreement with the state Fish and Game Department 

 that it wouldn't exceed 125. But he, like most Rock 

 Creek residents, would rather have too many than 

 none at all, which at one time seemed likely. 



"The mountain sheep is a relatively scarce 

 species in the United States and it would seem wise 

 to manage even small herds to prevent eventual ex- 

 tinction," state officials warned in a surprisingly 

 prescient 1957 report. ^o In I960, biologists counted 

 130 bighorns in a native herd 15 miles west of 

 Philipsburg, but five years later, disease and over- 

 crowding nearly wiped them out. 



Bighorns like open country, plenty of bunch 

 grasses and, for security, rocky crags. A vertical cliff 

 topped by a grassy knob is a bighorn's dream, and 

 the upper Rock Creek area is blessed with just such 

 terrain. But in the mid-1960s, the remaining Rock 

 Creek bighorns had to compete with huge flocks 

 of domestic sheep, and both species suffered on 

 badly overgrazed range. In addition, bighorns are 

 thought to be cursed with a severe Malthusian 

 regulator; rather than spread out when overcrowd- 

 ed, a herd merely plunges toward extinction.^' 



By the time the Rock Creek Advisory Com- 

 mittee was meeting in the early 1970s, only about a 

 dozen bighorns remained in the Rock Creek drain- 

 age." The state Fish and Game Department and the 

 Forest Service then joined forces to revive the herds. 

 In January, 1975, they launched a reintroduction pro- 

 gram with 29 bighorns from the Sun River r;mge. 

 Once again, with careful maintenance and dispersion, 

 two herds are thriving — one in the upper basin and 

 one in the canyon, where they can be seen grazing 

 placidly by the roadside when the cottonwoods are 

 turning colors. By 1990, the bighorn sheep popula- 

 tion in the Rock Creek drainage was so healthy that 

 state officials were trapping them for transplant 

 elsewhere, and of ten rams taken by hunters, six made 

 the Boone & Crockett record book.-' 



Trampled streambanks and overgrazed 

 pastures can still be found, but in the Rock Creek 

 drainage, cattle and wildlife — even the finicky 

 bighorns — are thriving as neighbors on the land 

 Unfortunately, land isn't the only .scarce commodi 

 ly: ranchers iiTiti siiortsnien ;ilso i onipetc tor vv;iter 



