Badlands and barbed wire: Conservationists re-wild Montana's prairies and pronghorn

<p>It might surprise some to learn that Montana’s largest National Wildlife Refuge doesn’t contain a single mountain. Instead all 1.1 million acres of the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, or CMR, consists of sweeping prairie encompassing the massive Fort Peck Reservoir and rugged, impassable badlands that spin the land into a labyrinth of gumbo hills and plummeting draws. </p> <p>But for all its rugged wildness, the refuge has not always stood as a pristine example of prairie grasslands and more than a century of western expansion, homesteading and ranching has left behind barbed-wire remnants of when the refuge was parceled out as ranchland years ago. But one conservation group, known as Keep It Public, alongside the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service field offices that oversee the refuge are hoping to remove those fence lines in a decade’s long effort to restore the refuge’s prairie to its untamed glory. </p> <p>On this episode, A.J Etherington, city editor of the Billings Gazette newspaper, talks about his time spent in the CMR reporting on work done by conservationists.</p> <p><em>This podcast is created in partnership across five newsrooms – the Billings Gazette, the Helena Independent Record, the Missoulian, the Montana Standard and the Ravalli-Republic. You can support this podcast and our efforts by subscribing. Visit any of these newspapers’ websites, and click on the Become a Member button at the top of the home page. We appreciate your support of local journalism.</em></p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>