Pheasants Forever launched the Montana Grassland Initiative (MGI) in July of 2023 to strategically address threats to Montana’s grasslands and ensure the Montana upland experience lasts forever. Rooted in the best available science through the grassland road-map and sagebrush conservation design, the five-year initiative sets ambitious goals to impact 1.5 million acres of grassland by June 30th, 2028. The MGI strategy is centered around four categories: retaining intact grasslands, conserving vulnerable grasslands, restoring converted grasslands, and expanding public access to grasslands. Through the first two years, over 475,000 acres of grasslands have been impacted. (Fig. 1)
In November of 2024, the US Department of Agriculture’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) awarded $25 million to the Montana Grasslands and Wildlife Corridors Project, a key effort nested within the MGI Framework. This investment provides a transformative opportunity to implement the MGI vision at the scale necessary. Over the next five years, the RCPP project will support conservation and stewardship across 120,000 acres of working lands and wildlife habitat. It will help ranching families keep their operations intact, safeguard migration corridors, and restore the ecological function of native prairie. And it will do so through the partnership driven model that defines MGI: landowners, agencies, nonprofits, sportsmen, and local communities working side by side.
Work has begun to ensure the monumental RCPP investment is translated into on the ground action. Our partnership has collaborated to define geospatial prioritization and ranking criteria for landowner applications through the RCPP.
We leveraged our extensive partner network with NGO’s, Joint Ventures, and government agencies to multiply landowner outreach efforts. We launched two rounds of targeted radio advertising in key geographies to drive landowners to apply during our first batching period ending January 15th, 2026. Next, we will look to plan, review, rank, and preapprove project funding in the spring of 2026.
The RCPP award positions the Montana Grassland Initiative to accelerate progress toward its five year goals: anchoring intact grasslands before they’re lost, restoring altered prairie to functioning habitat, and strengthening the economic resilience of rural communities. Most importantly, it demonstrates that Montana’s grasslands are not a story of decline, they are a story of possibility. With the right partners and the right resources, we can protect one of the most iconic landscapes in the American West for generations to come.