30 Years Ago

Editor’s Note: The following is a continuation of last week’s article, which dealt with the public meeting in Broadus regarding the FWP purchase of the Brewer Ranch, in NE Powder River County. The sale was met with heavy resistance from locals, but went through anyway.

Rancher-outfitter John Stuver stated that it would be an “error to purchase this property. It is a fragile land. If there is an increase of hunting you’re going to eradicate the wildlife,” he said. His outfitting partner Rick Gatlin said that 38 percent of the land in Montana is already public owned. “Why don’t you take that $1.1 million and put it into improving the wildlife habitat on public lands,” he asked.

Ken Greslin, co-owner of the largest outfitting business in the county said he was against letting one person decide who will and will not be allowed to hunt. “What if he has a few friends who want to hunt. He has the right to turn anyone away,” Greslin said. “I don’t think one person should be able to say you can hunt but you can’t.”

“You raised the money through out of state licenses and now you are going to have to give them preference” said Himelspach. “When word gets out they’re going to come down there in droves. What about the guys who paid $450 for license and then turned away?”

The problem of predator control and prairie dog control was brought out by several attending. They were told that control measures would continue.

Sportsman and businessman Leroy Hyatt drew applause from the audience when he spoke against the purchase. Hyatt said some 26 years ago measure were provided so that a certain percentage of license fees would go to better the relationship between the sportsmen and landowners and that the Department should take the $1.1 million and use it to compensate ranchers. “I’ve got a gut feeling as a sportsman that I’m not going to like hunting on your place,” he added.

Carter County ranch couple Norman and Carol Lambert were also among the many opposed to the purchase. “You say the primary reason is that you want wildlife habitat protection,” Lambert asked the Department officials. “Is it necessary to buy the land to protect the habitat?” His wife protested both the purchase and the earmarking of funds for future acquisition allowed by H.B. 526.

Other members of the audience also protested the purchases, citing similar reasons and concerns, while many listened to the protests with obvious approval.

The proposal will now go before the Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission during a hearing set for this Friday in Bozeman for a final decision by that group. Then, if approved, it will go before the State Land Board for yet another decision.

Despite the opposition, most of those interviewed after the hearing held little hope that the planned purchase will be halted.

One frustrated individual asked not to be named, summed up what seemed to be the general attitude when asked what the result of the meeting would be. “It’s obvious that they think we’re just a bunch of ignorant, misinformed farmers and ranchers and they’re going to go ahead and do what they think is best for us,” he said. “They don’t seem to realize, as a government agency, that they are supposed to be working for and with the people.”

The Brewer Place Today

Following the initial purchase by FWP, the Brewer Ranch eventually sold to Hubert Ostrum, in exchange for conservation easements on his land in NE Montana. The state maintained hunting access to the Brewer Place, and it continues today on the land which is now the Pezzarossi Cattle Company.

Hunters are able to access the land through the Block Management Program – officially up to ten hunters a day may hunt the land, per FWP guidelines. Reports from folks who’ve hunted the area lately indicate that game is indeed available, though the quality of said game is certainly down from years ago, and the dry country simply doesn’t hold the big game numbers of more lush locales. A dated but interesting article in Montana Outdoors about the Brewer Ranch from 2004 shows how statistics can be skewed in one’s favor. The article indicated that the mule deer harvest had increased on the Ranch from 36 animals in 1988, to 52 in 2002. Now anyone who was around in 1988 knows what a terrible year that was, with terrible drought and a bad previous winter making life tough for game and human alike. The thing is, 1988 would be a good choice for a year to use as a comparison in making virtually any other year look productive.

FWP continues to make their wildly unpopular land purchases, which more recently have included land such as the dry and dusty 18,500 acre Tongue River Ranch, located along Highway 59 around 15-20 miles south of Miles City, which was purchased in 2007 for $4.8 million dollars. In 2012, the state purchased the 4,505 acre Milk River Ranch, northwest of Havre, which was bought by the State for $5.7 million dollars. In the state’s most expensive land buy to date, an $11.3 million dollar purchase was made on February 20th of this year, for the approximately 17,000 acre Angela Farm property, on Highway 59 around 25 miles north of Miles City. Before the purchase, one voice of dissent mentioned that there were a few pheasants on the Angela Farm, but by and large the land wasn’t worth much – it wasn’t even particularly productive farm ground.