By Cara Greger
Making a living on the ranch is tough. Ranchers are in a constant battle with beef prices, weather, invasive weeds, and the developers who look to carve up large tracts into 40 acres ranchettes. The same pressures that ranchers face impact North Dakota’s grasslands. Preserving our remaining grasslands takes partnerships. The North Dakota Wildlife Federation (NDWF) is working with multiple partners to accomplish its conservation goals in the North Dakota badlands.
These partners are the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and US Forest Service which started a North Dakota Badlands Restoration Project on private and public lands in 2019. In Phase 1, they worked through the Joint Chiefs Landscape Restoration Partnership (JC) and Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) programs to do cost share agreements with private landowners where the programs pay $240 per acre to support private landowners. This still leaves private landowners to pay the rest for the treatment. In Phase 2 of the North Dakota Badlands Restoration Project; NDWF, Mule Deer Foundation, National Wild Turkey Federation, and the ND Natural Resources Trust are encouraging landowners to participate by awarding an additional $100 per acre to help offset the remaining costs.
The focus of the project is Rocky Mountain juniper removal on rangelands. The plan is to find landowners in Billings, Dunn, McKenzie, and Slope counties who see a need to remove the juniper. The project will reclaim shaded out forage, increase wildlife habitat, increase drought resiliency, reduce wildfire severity, and improve landowner access to their acres.
Several methods of treatment were used in Phase 1 including manual labor, mastication (reducing the size of woody vegetation by grinding, shredding, or chopping) with heavy equipment, and stump cutting and piling. In Phase 1, it was found that mastication was the most effective method of treatment. The plan for Phase 2 over the next three years is to treat 1,500 acres of private land. NRCS cost share allows for $240 per acre to support private landowners, however the actual cost of this treatment is often more than $400 per acre, depending on density of juniper, slope of land, and other difficulties of working in the Badlands region. This is why the NDWF is working with other non-profit organizations to offset the cost to landowners.
Why are Rocky Mountain juniper a problem you may be asking? Rocky Mountain junipers are a native species, but historically the evergreen trees have mostly only grown on north facing draws and near butte summits in the Badlands. Before European-American settlement, frequent natural wildfires kept the trees in check. But over the past 100 years as the open range was fenced for grazing and farming, and fires were controlled – junipers have spread into grasslands. An 8 ½-inch diameter juniper tree can consume 30-35 gallons of water a day. The Badlands get only about 14 inches of precipitation a year, and large junipers can consume nearly all the precipitation that falls on them in a year.
“They use so much water that dense stands can dry up springs and creeks,” Mark Hayek, NRCS state rangeland specialist, says.
When the juniper stands become thick enough that the branches from adjacent trees touch each other, they shade out all the grasses and shrubs beneath them. There’s nothing for wildlife and livestock to eat. Deer, turkey, elk, and cattle avoid dense stands. Many grassland birds – including sharp-tailed grouse, greater sage grouse, and others – lose their habitat.
Junipers also set the soil up for severe erosion because the soil beneath the trees isn’t covered or anchored.
The wildfire risk increases with the spread of junipers according to Misty Hayes, U.S. Forest Service District Ranger, in Medora. The trees contain an oil and burn hotter than grass. Because they are taller than grass, junipers can throw hot embers farther than grass, making it harder to control wildfires with fire breaks.
On a recent trip, I went out with Mike Gerbig, NRCS CDU Supervisor out of the Dickinson office, to look at sites that were a part of Phase 1 in the project. We looked at three project areas on private land and one large 2,000 acre project area on US Forest Service land.
The April 2021 wildfire in Theodore Roosevelt National Park which approached Medora helped producers see the threat of wildfire and how grasses come back after the fire. The dry summer, dry fall, and limited snow that winter created drought conditions. Those conditions, followed by a windy and hot spring, all made for perfect wildfire conditions. Family producers and landowners in the area who have been on the land for generations have seen juniper numbers increase and spread into areas that are not typically juniper habitat. Junipers should be found in north facing draws, but in the past 80 to 100 years, the junipers have encroached in the waterways, the uplands, and even south facing hillsides. This increase can cause future loss of forage, increase invasive and noxious weed species, and be a hazard during heightened wildfire conditions.
The first stop on our tour was south of Painted Canyon visitors center. Juniper removal was done through EQIP and the landowner hired a construction company from Dickinson to do the work in the winter months. A track hoe mounted masticator was used to mulch up the juniper. That work cost the NRCS $240 per acre and the producer $80 per acre. In a steeper area, the total cost was $20 more. This producer saw the need to control juniper encroachment. He has seen how the juniper had been invading his uplands, creek bottoms, and southern facing slopes.
These are areas where historically, juniper would not be located. An area to the west of the property had a wildfire in 1920s and we could see how juniper were less thick but young stands were becoming established. The tour took us to two other landowners’ properties in Billings County. We looked at 100 acres on Frank’s Creek Road that will be treated this winter by the same contractor out of Dickinson. The second site is in an area called Mike’s Creek. The landowner for this property is using chainsaw to cut down the juniper and then will follow up with a pile burn in the winter. They are also trying to save the juniper logs for fenceposts. Using a chainsaw is a longer process but can be effective since juniper does not resprout from the roots like some invasive trees. Another stop Gerbig drove by was Forest Service land managed out of Dickinson office. Juniper removal has occurred there using a skid steer with a masticator head to grind up the juniper. Forest Service has treated over 2,000 acres in the Mike’s Creek area.
The Badlands Restoration Phase 2 project will manage 8,500 acres of juniper encroachment and ponderosa pine stands within the 1.3 million acres of badlands areas of western North Dakota to reduce the threat of wildfire near the communities of Amidon, Belfield, Fairfield, Grassy Butte, Keene, Mandaree, and Medora. Wildfire risk reduction treatments are also planned on and adjacent to Fort Berthold Reservation. Treatments will also reduce wildfire risk to oil and gas development on private, state, and federal lands, while improving grasslands habitat for bighorn sheep and other native wildlife. Additionally, this project will improve water and soil conditions and provide improved forage quality and quantity for livestock grazing. Conservation practices will build upon the first phase of this project, which treated 1,200 acres of juniper and ponderosa pine stands with an additional 10,500 acres under contract to be treated.
Working to maintain our grasslands takes partnerships. Helping offset landowners’ costs will benefit wildlife, ranchers, hunters, and balance the badlands ecosystem. For further information on these NRCS programs, visit:
Cara Greger is a Dakota Edge Outdoors contributing writer and the Western ND Conservation Coordinator for NDWF. She can be contacted via email at cgreger.ndwf@gmail.com or by phone at 320-808-4897.
Featured Photo: Stands of Juniper impact the quality of habitat in the badlands region of North Dakota by absorbing rain, exacerbating erosion and out-competing more desirous grasses and plants. Removal of these trees helps prevent wildfires too. DEO Photo by NDWF.
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