It’s a clear, May morning, on the plains of eastern Montana.
The dawn chorus of birds welcomes the sun as it crests over hills of waving bunch grass. You can’t turn in any direction here without seeing a meadowlark singing atop a shrub or fencepost.
You also can’t look anywhere without seeing, or hearing, cows.
The Northern Great Plains from Montana to the Dakotas supports critical breeding habitat for five of the most at-risk species of grassland birds in North America. It’s also about 70 percent private land. Retaining the large chunks of prairie habitat that remain, while keeping family farms intact, is a balancing act. And it’s the driver behind unique collaborations between agricultural producers, state and federal agencies, and nonprofits.
"We're up kind of in the middle of our crop land by an old water well that my grandfather and his father would have put in," Seth Newton says.
Newton grew up on his family’s land outside Glendive, Montana. Today, he manages it alongside his dad and brother. Instead of traditional farming and ranching, he’s been bringing in a more regenerative approach. Regenerative ag is a bit of an umbrella term that runs the gamut of techniques. But the idea is to use grazing or farming to improve the ecosystem – while also making a living.
Newton doesn’t till his soil, and he’s been planting cover crops for over a decade. That means planting things like peas and lentils instead of just bare ground. It can suppress weeds, and it also helps retains more water and prevent runoff.
"We've all learned that having the living roots there every year cuts down drastically on erosion, and we've really seen improvements on the land better than we thought would be possible."
And that’s important now more than ever. According to the state drought monitor, Dawson County, where Newton lives, is in severe to extreme drought at the start of June. This is the county’s 6th driest year since the late nineteenth century.
Healthier soils hold more carbon in the ground, rather than releasing it into the atmosphere. And having year-round ground cover provides better habitat for wildlife. Newton says he’s been amazed at how much biodiversity he’s seen since making these changes.
"It's pretty wild to see just the change in how the wildlife come in, too. A lot more birds, you know, large game, everything. I think the pheasants coming in to where I just never ever seen them before. Something has to be good about what we're doing."
He points to a structure sitting on top of the old well that looks like a shorter version of a cell tower. And, in a way, it is. It’s part of the MOTUS Wildlife Tracking System. This tower is one of a global network of stations that detect electronic tags fixed to small animals. More than 250 species of birds, bats and insects have been picked up by these towers globally.
Abbey and Ryan Bruski are regenerative ranchers southeast of Glendive, in Ekalaka.
"Regenerative to me, it means a lot of different things, but it goes back to building soil health, taking care of the people," Ryan Bruski says.
Like Newton, they don’t till, and plant cover crops on their fields instead. And instead of having cows roam freely across large pastures, they do intensive, rotational grazing. The Bruskis move cows from small pasture to small pasture for short periods of time, which mimics how herds of bison used to move through this ecosystem.
"It's a driver for us of how do we get these grasslands restored and to their full capacity," Abbey Bruski says.
When the cows get moved, the pasture “rests” and grasses regenerate. And the Bruskis are seeing results.
"And we are starting to see some species of that native seedbank showing up that we've never planted."
They’ve prioritized soil health, and over the last decade they’ve seen drastic increases in the amount of organic matter in the soil. More organic matter means healthier soil that holds water and provides better nutrients for the plants growing in it.
Ranchers like the Bruskis are learning things in real time, and there are definitely setbacks. Like in 2021, when the drought was so bad they didn’t even see a green-up in the spring. They’re used to drought, but things got worse.
"Plague-like proportions of grasshoppers," Ryan says. "Anywhere you drove, the grasshoppers would just start on your tracks, because it weakened the grass, and eat their way out,"
It made them completely reevaluate how they approached grazing, which led them to the rotational practices they use today. And they’re committed to continuing to learn and adapt, to whatever conditions they run into. They’ve been able to stretch their resources and learn new approaches to management through collaborations with nonprofits. The Bruskis have built something that feels like it will last. They hope to pass on these techniques on to the next generation.
"To see your grass is happy, to sit out and not get poked on your grass, because it's not full of weeds, and prickly, it's actually really soft grass that you can walk barefoot in," Abbey says. "To dig down to test your soil, and it just looks like chocolate cake, and it has worms, and you're finding dung beetles."
Because the majority of intact grasslands remaining in Montana exist on private land, NGOs like the World Wildlife Fund, Audubon Society and the Northern Great Plains Joint Venture partner with landowners to restore and protect grasslands, collect data and conserve threatened species.
"It's a necessity to be able to work with ranchers and farmers to be able to conserve these lands and the animals and plants that rely on them," says Lauren Hatch.
Hatch is a graduate student at the University of Montana who works with the Northern Great Plains Joint Venture to study imperiled grassland birds. She’s in the beginning of her research, but so far, her data bears out what the Bruskis and Newtons are noticing. She focuses on thick-billed longspurs, a sparrow-like bird known for the males’ unique flying and singing behavior.
These birds have experienced massive declines, along with many other grassland species. But a 2025 study across regenerative farms in the Northern Great Plains in the U.S. and Canada found that regenerative practices often increased bird densities.
Back in Glendive, Newton points to a flock of lark buntings, a bird he doesn’t remember seeing in these kinds of numbers growing up.
"Family farms, ranches that have been here for generations, are the best managers of our resources that could be done right now," Newton says.
