Range Recover: Raising grass from the ashes

The 22,000-acre East Fork Fire burned range land for many Bear Paw Mountain ranchers and threatened that of many more, but burned areas in the longterm could be beneficial to the range land and some relief may be available for ranchers in the short term, said a range researcher at Montana State University.

Although the fire brought immediate pasture devastation and financial hardships, the outcomes for range lands can be good if affected producers can find a way to keep the stress off burned areas until they recover, Clayton Marlow, professor of range sciences at MSU, said.

Right now, lan...