The Clark Fork Coalition purchased Dry Cottonwood Creek Ranch in 2005 with the help of two partners.  The ranch supports 150 head of cattle, and includes a grazing lease on adjacent U.S. Forest Service land.  Located east of Interstate 90 near Galen, the ranch contains three miles of Clark Fork River frontage, and Dry Cottonwood Creek also flows through the property.

Download this brochure on Dry Cottonwood Creek Ranch to learn more about the ranch.

Split Season Lease on Dry Cottonwood Creek: In July 2011, we put a split-season water lease into place at Dry Cottonwood Creek Ranch—a pilot project we hope to scale up in future seasons.  We shut down our irrigation diversions from Dry Cottonwood Creek and the Clark Fork River during the second half of the summer, which allows 7-10 cubic feet per second (cfs) of water to return to the river, and also connects a westslope cutthroat spawning tributary back to the Clark Fork.  This split-season water lease generated income for the ranch, and will hopefully prove to be a model we can replicate elsewhere.  We’ll continue to monitor in-stream flows and ranching operations through the fall.

All-Natural Beef: Every year, the Coalition offers all-natural, grass-fed and finished, locally-produced and processed beef from Dry Cottonwood Creek Ranch.  In 2011, the Coalition will keep ten steers for butchering and selling, and we are hoping to increase this number in coming years.  We feel that raising, feeding, and butchering grass-fed cattle is a more preferred and sustainable agricultural alternative, as opposed to sending cattle to stockyards.  We hope to increase awareness of our efforts in coming seasons.  For info or to order, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Hands on the Ranch: The Coalition recently started its "Hands on the Ranch" program, which connects local high-schoolers to stream monitoring and restoration endeavors underway on the ranch.  After rating the overall health of Dry Cottonwood Creek in the fall, students return to the ranch in the spring to plant dozens of riparian plants along riverbanks, giving the creek a fresh start.  This program is run in partnership with the Clark Fork Watershed Education Program, the Watershed Restoration Coalition, the Deer Lodge County Conservation District, and Powell County High School.

Riparian Fencing and Improved Livestock Grazing: In 2010, the Coalition worked with other neighboring landowners to install six miles of riparian fencing along Dry Cottonwood Creek.  The fencing, a high-tensile, wildlife-friendly electric fence, helps keep cattle away from grazing on the creek and destroying critical riparian habitat.  We're also using short-term electric fences to employ "short-term/high intensity" grazing, which encourages rangeland health.

Weed Management: We use sheep and local sheepherders to control noxious weeds that have popped up in neglected or over-grazed areas on the ranch.

Superfund Cleanup: Dry Cottonwood Creek Ranch is preparing for the Superfund cleanup, which will clean up toxic sediments from over 43 river miles in the Upper Clark Fork basin.  In late 2010, contractors with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) began digging test pits on the Coalition's property, taking soil samples from over 500 test pits.  This sampling will give us a better grasp of the scope and limit of contamination on the ranch.  In addition to the pit testing, DEQ's contractors are conducting some important experiments on the property.  Equipment operators removed contaminated soil from a badly eroded section of Clark Fork River bank, peeled back layers of toxic sediments, and reached the healthy dirt of the river's historic floodplain.  The excavated plot was fenced and left alone, with the intent that DEQ will monitor this site and others like it over the next two years.  Ideally, this will result in willows and other native vegetation re-claiming old ground, with minimal noxious weed growth.  Whatever the results, this test (along with dozens of others) will give DEQ a better understanding of what it will take to maintain an effective and thorough Superfund cleanup.

History:

In June 2005, with the help of two conservation partners, the Coalition purchased a 2,300-acre ranch in the heart of the Deer Lodge valley’s Superfund site.  It’s one of the largest and most polluted ranches in the valley. We have invited the EPA to take the ranch through the most ambitious cleanup possible.  By augmenting the cleanup with agricultural practices that complement the EPA’s remediation work, we are offering the Dry Cottonwood Creek Ranch as a learning site for exploring first-hand the challenges and opportunities that cleanup will bring to the valley’s ranchers.  In 2009, we hired our Ranchlands Program Manager, Bryce Andrews, who's hit the ground running to implement progressive management practices at the ranch.  Want to visit the ranch or get the latest news?  Contact Bryce at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .