Groundswell features the Front

Rocky Mountain Front on the cover of Groundswell
Photo © Stoney Burk/RMF Adv. Committee

The ranching life

Ranchers on the Rocky Mountain Front -- many of them the third-generation of their families to ranch here -- are proud of their ranching heritage. Author Alix Hopkins documents how these ranchers became involved with the Conservancy and its Rocky Mountain Front Advisory Committee, and found a way to collaborate to preserve their land and way of life.

Ranchers featured for conserving...

...their lands

Conservation efforts on Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front are featured as part of a new book titled “Groundswell: Stories of Saving Places, Finding Community.”

Author Alix Hopkins chose six stories from around the country that celebrate local people and collaborations focused on protecting special landscapes. One of the stories focuses on the Conservancy’s Rocky Mountain Front Advisory Committee and its leadership in conserving the ranchlands and wildlife habitat of the Front.

The cover of Groundswell features a large color photograph of the Rocky Mountain Front, which was taken by Stoney Burk, a member of the RMF Advisory Committee. Another smaller photo on the cover features the Committee itself.

Published by the Trust for Public Land, the book is co-sponsored by the National Park Service, The Conservation Fund and The Nature Conservancy.

To order copies of Groundswell, visit www.chelseagreen.com or contact Chelsea Green Publishing at 802-295-6300.

Quotable quotes

"We are the trespassers on the Rocky Mountain Front. Bear, elk and wolves were here long before my great-grandfather came." -- Rancher and committee member Karl Rappold.

"Ten years ago I wouldn't have even talked to those people. But now we look for solutions instead of ways to fight each other." -- attorney and committee member Stoney Burk.

"I get most excited about the prospect that this landscape will look relatively the same in the future. The culture will remain the same here. Good values, cultures and land worth preserving. So far this is a success story. And after four years, we are still motivated and fired up. -- Dusty Crary, rancher, committee member and Montana Conservancy's board chair.