Volume six number one, two thousand ten | spring

Cowboy Politics and the Montana Stockgrowers

Tracing Parks Reece’s Artistic Roots

Predicting Trouble
in Avalanche Country

Wade’s Drive-In Café: Passing Time in Harlowton

Fiction by Pete Fromm

 Cowboy
Politics
From vigilante days to the cyber age,
the Montana Stockgrowers Association remains a big player
in state politics, with a little help from Uncle Sam

BY SCOTT MCMILLION

t
he Montana Stockgrowers Association
organized itself on April 20, 1884, in Miles
City. By the Fourth of July, a posse of asso-
ciation men had hanged its first rustler —
a whiskey peddler who had branched out
into stolen horseflesh — at the mouth of the
Musselshell River.
Four days later and 15 miles to the south, the association’s
vigilantes surrounded a cabin full of armed men and ordered
them to surrender. The rustlers, facing a rope,
answered with gunfire. So the Stockgrowers
burned the place to the ground, killing
11 men.
Granville Stuart, a prominent
merchant fairly new to the cattle
business, lead the attacks.
Like other cattle men,
he was vexed beyond
frustration at wide-
spread rustling

PHOTOGRAPHY
Cattle await a truck full of feed at the
BY THOMAS LEE Hougen Ranch near Melstone.

M O N T A N A Q U A R T E R LY 9
8
and the inability or unwillingness of the territorial government
to do anything about it. So the Stockgrowers Association took
the law into its own hands and the vigilantes became known as
Stuart’s Stranglers.
By the time the stranglers had finished their grim work, at
least 30 men, maybe a lot more, died at their hands. No trials. No
lawyers. Future President Theodore Roosevelt, then a rancher
along the North Dakota line and an association member, cheered
effective political lobbies. They play hardball and they play to
win. They usually win.
And that’s why, when they issued a public apology to Gov.
Brian Schweitzer last October, it came as such a surprise. That
kind of thing doesn’t happen often in politics, and it made head-
lines across the state.
“I am deeply pained by the distressed relationship that our
organization has chosen to maintain with you throughout your
ment regulations have rankled for decades.
But new issues arise all the time. People blame cows for
global warming, denuding landscapes, polluting streams, displac-
ing wildlife, spreading disease and expanding the national waist-
line. Whether these perceptions are true or not, they cannot be
ignored.
That’s why the association exists: to protect the interests
of its members and earn them money. Its stated purpose is “to
line, to make their business more viable,” said Errol Rice, the
association’s executive vice president and its top employee.
“Everybody has had these sorts of opportunities. I think Montana
has seized on the opportunities.”
The federal money did not come without strings. It was
dedicated to two programs: One of them is called Undaunted
Stewardship, which helps ranchers improve their grazing prac-
tices to make their land better for wildlife and for their own

them on at the time, though he later expressed some doubts.
In his memoirs, Roosevelt wrote that as many as 60 men
were killed. Most were guilty, he said. Some probably weren’t.
Justified or not, the lynchings were effective, and rustling
slowed to a trickle. None of the association men were prosecuted
and some went on to great prominence. Stuart became so influ-
ential in the state that some people called him “Mr. Montana.”
Roosevelt went on to become president of the United States.
And the Stockgrowers Association is still around. While its
members haven’t tossed a rope around anybody’s neck for well
over a century, they remain one of the state’s most powerful and
term of office,” association president Tom Hougen wrote. “I am
not excusing our errors of the past, but I am asking you to consider
our apology and to consider making amends.”
So who are these guys, and what are they sorry for?
MENDING FENCES
Hougen, interviewed at his Melstone ranch, wouldn’t specify
any specific transgressions. But he acknowledged the group
hasn’t gotten along with the governor, that the disagreements
have been bitter. Though the gover-
nor plays political hardball, too, the
apology came from the association, not
from Schweitzer. The intention, Hougen
said, was to open doors. The ranching
industry is in a tough spot, he said, and
it needs friends where it can find them.
He wants to move forward.
The association bills itself as the
voice of Montana ranchers. It has about
2,000 members, Hougen said, though
some are “supporting” or “allied indus-
try” members that don’t own a cow but
sell things to ranchers. Its members own
about 320,000 cattle, about 13 percent
of all the beeves in the state. There are
other ranch organizations around, but
the association is the most prominent
and the best-funded, in part because it
takes a lot of taxpayer money from the
federal government.
Ranching faces lots of vexing prob-
lems. Some of them are old: taxes on
both the living and the dead, weather,
water rights, fickle markets and govern-
Tom Hougen, president of the Montana
Stockgrowers Association, stands outside
his ranch in Melstone. Hougen says, “the
major concern of ranch families in Montana
is, ‘How am I going to pass this on to the
next generation?’“
[
protect and enhance the business climate for family ranching in
Montana.”
It runs publicity campaigns that extol ranching,
it files lawsuits to push wild bison out of the state, it
publishes a newsletter and a Web site, and it helps
members market their cattle. And it lobbies heavily.
John Bloomquist, the association’s Helena
lobbyist for the past 17 years, estimated he’s been
successful 90 to 95 percent of the time, whether
he’s supporting a bill or opposing one.
And for the past several years, the association
has been heavily funded by the federal government,
with congressional earmarks originated by former
Sen. Conrad Burns, an enthusiastic supporter of the
association.
Between 2004 and 2008, the last years for which records
were available, the association accepted more than $2 million in
federal earmark money. That means taxpayer money comprised
40 percent of its budget for those years. Government gave the
association more money than its own members did. (The asso-
ciation also raises money by selling ads in its publications and
vendor space at its conventions.)
Other agricultural groups with strong lobbies, like the
Montana Wool Growers Association and the Montana Grain
Growers Association, take federal money, too, but it’s a frac-
tion of what the Stockgrowers Association takes. The Montana
Cattlemen’s Association, which competes with it for members,
takes no taxpayer money.
The Stockgrowers Association often opposes Montana
environmental groups on issues ranging from stream access to
Yellowstone National Park bison. Those groups have to raise
their own money without congressional help.
The Montana Wildlife Federation, the Greater Yellowstone
Coalition, the Montana Environmental Information Council, the
Northern Plains Resource Council, and the Alliance for the Wild
Rockies all report no payments from the federal government.
Montana Trout Unlimited has taken federal money in recent
years: a $17,000 grant.
Association officials make no apology for their heavy reli-
ance on federal money.
“We’re proud we could secure some federal funds to bring
back to Montana ranch families in order to improve their bottom
bottom line. It also helps them create business plans. Congress
People blame cows for global warming,
denuding landscapes, polluting streams,
displacing wildlife, spreading disease
and expanding the national waistline.
Whether these perceptions are true or
not, they cannot be ignored.
has earmarked $5.5 million for it over the years. Most of that
money went to Montana State University-Bozeman, which did the
work of analyzing rangeland and recommending improvements.
A little more than $900,000 went to the association. The
association’s job was to recruit ranchers and publicize the
program. Over the years, more than a million acres on several
dozen ranches have been “certified” by the program.
Undaunted Stewardship has fans outside the ranching
community.
“My feeling is they’ve developed something a lot of people
would like to have,” said Bill Bryan, a veteran environmental
and community activist who owns an ecotourism business in
Bozeman. “It’s good for the land, good for the rancher and good
for the country.”
He notes that Undaunted Stewardship has helped improve
grazing practices on vast landscapes at a cost of just a few dollars
an acre. That translates into better wildlife habitat on land and
water, which is a hard thing to measure in dollars.
The second federally funded program, called the Montana
Beef Network, is a little easier to measure.
That one, another partnership with MSU-Bozeman’s agri-
culture department, provides tools that help ranchers get a better
price for their cattle. Also funded by a Burns earmark, it provides
a way for ranchers to certify that their cattle meet the require-
ments of specific markets. For instance, Asian buyers seek cattle
under 20 months old. European markets want cattle with no
hormones. The American “natural” market wants animals with
no hormones or antibiotics.

M O N T A N A Q U A R T E R LY 11
 The Montana Beef Network certifies that buyers get what
they’ve ordered. Doing so costs the rancher about $3 an animal,
according to John Paterson, who runs MSU-Bozeman’s part of
the program, but it fetches them an average of an extra $10 per
animal at market.
“The goal was to add value to a guy’s calves,” Paterson said.
Plus, buyers could see the records, and the program would stand
behind them. A primary goal was to establish credibility for the
certification program.
But it’s hard to describe the program as cost effective.
It ran from 1999 to 2009 and cost about $600,000 a year,
for a total of more than $6 million. Paterson said he can docu-
ment that ranchers earned an extra $3 million by selling calves
through the Montana Beef Network.
MSU did most of the lab and field work. The association
did most of the marketing and outreach to ranchers. It was paid
between $100,000 and $445,000 a year for that work.
Neither program is getting any more federal money. When
Burns lost the 2006 election, the Undaunted Stewardship
earmark ended, though some dollars remain in the account.
For the Montana Beef Network, former MSU-Bozeman
12
president Geoff Gamble told the association last August he was
ending the program.
The program was never intended to last forever, university
spokesman Tracy Ellig said.
But it still might put money in the association’s pockets.
Running the program called for sophisticated software,
databases and monitoring. Aware that earmark money was about
to run dry, the association spent $445,000 in federal money on
the program in 2008, preparing to transform it into a private busi-
ness, Rice said. It is now a joint venture between Stockgrowers,
Inc., a for-profit subsidiary of the association, and Watts and
Associates, a Billings consulting firm.
Though the program was financed mostly with public money,
any future profits will go to those two private entities.
A rankled governor
Schweitzer finds something foul in this arrangement.
“They’re using earmarks from Congress to keep themselves
in business,” he said. “They’re able to pay a large number of
Gov. Brian Schweitzer takes a phone call in his office in Helena.
Errol Rice is the executive
vice president of the Montana
Stockgrowers Association.
(Congress has dictated the grazing
rates on federal land.)
“They are subsidized to
graze livestock on federal land,”
he said. “That’s just a fact. The
Stockgrowers Association has
been that segment of the livestock
industry that has protected that
federal government subsidy.”
That means privately owned,
government-subsidized livestock
are in direct competition with
publicly owned wildlife for publicly
lobbyists and lawyers with taxpayer money.” owned grass, Schweitzer said.
The association listed five lobbyists on its disclosure form “And they criticize everybody else as a bunch of welfare
in the 2009 Legislature. Three of them are full-time, year-round babies,” he said.
association employees.
Like most federal contracts and grants, the earmarked
money allowed the association to pay some of its overhead. For Waning influence
example, the federal money compensated the association for 25
percent of Rice’s salary. While many association members use federal grass, Hougen
The governor and the association have butted heads over a disputed Schweitzer’s assertion that cheap grass is the group’s
number of issues: public access to streams, coal bed methane main priority.
regulations, taxation, school-funding formulas, appointments to “We’ve done a lot more than just work for cheap grass,” he
the Montana Department of Livestock, the list goes on, and at its said. Ranching grows more complicated every year.
top you find one of the state’s most vexing issues: brucellosis and Modern finances dictate an economy of scale; small ranches
Yellowstone National Park’s wandering bison (more on this later). have a harder time. Working more land means reliance on
Schweitzer, elected in 2004 as Montana’s first Democratic machines, which burn a lot of fuel. And while land is valuable,
governor since 1988, maintains the association — which is proudly profits can be elusive.
conservative — lets its politics get in the way of good policy for ranch- “We’re part of the general economy and we all know where
[
ers. (Its competing group, the Montana Cattlemen’s Association, was the general economy is,” Hougen said. “I would guess that the
until recently run by Dennis McDonald, a Democrat
now trying to unseat Republican U.S. Representative
Dennis Rehberg.) The governor and the association
“Let’s be realistic,” said Schweitzer, himself a have butted heads over a number of
former rancher and farmer. “Ninety-seven percent of
the Stockgrowers Association aren’t Democrats. And
issues: public access to streams, coal
they’ve made it more important to be partisan than to bed methane regulations, taxation,
build their industry.” school funding formulas, appoint-
And it rankles him that the association is so
deeply funded by federal tax dollars. Many of its
ments to the Montana Department of
members also graze cattle on federal land, paying Livestock, the list goes on ...
a fraction of what they’d pay to lease private land.
M O N T A N A Q U A R T E R LY 13
 But the association isn’t going anywhere. It’s been around
for 126 years, since before Montana was a state, since the
time when vigilantes were not just accepted, but lauded.

tion, particularly with environmentalists, traditional opponents

on many issues. He talks about building a “trust factor.”
The association has some catching up to do.
“They’ve been pretty aggressive against the conserva-
tion community,” said Craig Sharpe, executive director of the
Montana Wildlife Federation. He said his group has reached out
to them many times, seeking “handshake” deals.
“It seems like any time we do, we get our fingertips burned,”
Bison with ear he said.
tags weather
the winter
Though he took an aggressive position when he addressed
behind several the association’s annual convention in December, Schweitzer said
layers of fence he respects its leadership for “coming to me and saying we want
at the quaran-
to work with you. Looking for allies to help them stay competitive
tine facility near
Corwin Springs, shouldn’t surprise anyone.”
just north of When Burns lost to Sen. Jon Tester, the association lost a
Yellowstone key ally, one with a critical seat on the Senate Appropriations
National Park.
Committee. Shortly afterward, it lost the federal money that had
been financing much of its operations.
But the association isn’t going anywhere. It’s been around for
[
126 years, since before Montana was a state, since the time when
vigilantes were not just accepted, but lauded. These days, it’s
taking heat from members over bison control and brucellosis. It’s
taking heat from animal rights activists. It’s lost a key lobbyist.
It’s enduring skepticism from environmental groups and political
figures. It’s trying to figure a path in a world that is increasingly
either leery of or ignorant about its own food supply.
In the past, it’s faced world wars, market collapses, expand-
ing government, calamitous weather and rampant rustling. It
survived all of that.
“We’ve always found a way to adjust, adapt, recalibrate,”
Rice said. “And we’re certainly going to play to win. That’s never
changed.”

majority of Montana ranchers didn’t make any money last year.”
Regulations continue to pile up. Both imports and exports
alter the markets. Some consumer advocates assail the indus-
try over food safety and the way animals are treated. Bizarre
diseases pop up occasionally. The association works on all these
issues and more.
Plus, ranchers are losing political clout.
In 1989, 51 of Montana’s 150 legislators farmed or ranched. In
2009, the number shrank to 17. (You can look at this trend a couple
different ways: 66 percent of Montana is in farms and ranches, but
less than 5 percent of the state’s population works that land.)
Bloomquist said when he started lobbying for the associa-
tion, he could talk to 20 or 30 key lawmakers and be confident of
support.
“Now,” he said. “You have to do a lot more.”
Which brings us back to that apology letter.
Shortly after it was issued, Bloomquist resigned as lobbyist.
“It undermined my ability to promote their policy, in partic-
ular if it’s at odds with the governor,” he said.
Bloomquist had been a lead player in the association’s legal
and legislative efforts — successful so far — to keep Yellowstone
bison from wandering more than a few miles from the park. The
main concern is brucellosis, a tough disease to address in wild-
life, but there are other concerns.
“It’s more than just competition for grass,” Rice said. “It’s
fear of being removed from the land. Can successful (bison) resto-
ration be done without removing the rancher?”
It’s a thoughtful question, and one that has been batted
around for years.
But for the first time, the association is sending signals that CAR and DRIVER hails Audi as best in class.
it’s willing to give an inch on bison and brucellosis. In essence,
they have agreed, at least in principle, to back a federal plan that
calls for a special surveillance district near the park. That means
ranchers in that area will face extra work, expense and hassle to
make sure their animals are free of brucellosis, a disease carried
by many of the park’s elk and bison.
It’s similar to a plan Schweitzer proposed several years ago.
The association’s position really irked some of the affected
ranchers, many of whom want the disease tackled inside the park.
“It feels like they abandoned us,” said Alan Redfield, an
association member who ranches south of Livingston. “They’re
trying to get along with whoever, instead of standing for the prin-
ciples they’ve been standing for.”
Such criticisms are not lost on the association’s leadership,
Hougen insisted. But he also pointed out that reality must be
faced.
“I think we have to move forward,” he said. “Change does
happen. The conclusion we’ve come to is that we’ve got to reach
out a little bit. We’ve got to look at not only how we do things, but
how the public perceives those things.”
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