Plant Materials and Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative Partnership

The NRCS Plant Materials Program and Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative (GLCI) have combined their efforts to promote new plants and vegetative techniques through local educational demonstrations and tours. Through the program, local conservation districts conduct range and pasture monitoring and research as well as demonstration projects involving many rangeland issues. Although GLCI and the Bridger, Montana, Plant Materials Center (PMC) are currently working together at three locations near Circle, Jordan, and Judith Gap, Montana, they hope to eventually expand the program nationwide.

The McCone County Conservation District is working with the partnership at Circle by hosting tours of the site that features 66 grass, forb, shrub, and tree species plus several mixture combinations. The planting site objective is to display commonly used and new plant materials and techniques for the successful establishment of diverse plant communities for grazing lands.

The privately-owned Jordan planting site features comparisons of warm-season and cool-season grass-legume-shrub mixtures. Plant tissues are sampled at various plant maturity stages during the active growing season to determine the amount and type of nutrients available as well as the forage quality for livestock.

The demonstration planting site at Judith Gap features an array of pasture species. Tours are conducted for local landowners who benefit from observing several close-by species helping them make their planting decisions.

Your contact is Larry Holzworth, NRCS plant materials specialist, at 406-587-6838 or larry.holzworth@mt.usda.gov.