Conservation group buys ranch, sells it back to Montana landowners

North-central Montana ranchers and an international conservation group have collaborated to acquire a neighbor’s 5,000 acres in a unique partnership.“There was a ranch next to us we wanted to buy and didn’t have the funding to do so … without becoming a financial casualty,” said Dale Veseth, a Malta-area rancher. “So we enlisted The Nature Conservancy, and we’re going to put a conservation easement on the property we bought and our home place as well.” Veseth said his family has been on their ranch since 1943, although family members have been “running around the community” since 1886.The Nature Conservancy bought 4,340 acres scattered across 10 parcels. “The land, which runs along sections of Second Creek, is a rich mix of native prairie and big sagebrush grassland as well as more than 155 acres of freshwater wetlands,” according to a Nature Conservancy press release. “It harbors several important and/or disappearing species including greater sage grouse, burrowing owl, ferruginous hawk, long-billed curlew and chestnut-collared longspur. It is also important winter and summer range for pronghorn.”