By Josh Margolis
HILL COUNTY, Mont. (NMB) – The Hill County Park Board’s Grazing Committee held a meeting on Wednesday morning and recommended constructing a proposed cattle cross fence at the south end of Beaver Creek Park.
Before the meeting officially began, Park Superintendent brought the committee to the area where the proposed fence would go. Several ideas were bounced around, and during the official meeting, the committee unanimously decided to move forward with member Leon LaSalle’s proposal.
The south cross fence would split the roughly 3,400 acre south pasture into two, in order to prevent overgrazing of some areas. The fence would be over a mile long and would go from the south side of Alkali Springs to the Lions area. It would cross the Bear Paw Nature Trail once, meaning a gate would need to be built to allow people to pass through it.
The project would be paid by ranchers through their land management fund.
The recommendation now goes to the Hill County Park Board for approval. It is on the agenda for their upcoming meeting this coming Monday, but they are unlikely to vote on it until their December meeting, since the fence needs to be mapped out and they need to figure out a cost estimate.
If approved, the plan is for the fence to be constructed next spring and summer so that it would be able to be utilized by the start of the 2021 grazing season at Beaver Creek Park.
Other notes from the meeting:
- After consulting with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Edgar says it is unlikely that ranchers will be allowed to utilize the Bear Paw Lake Fishing Access Site for grazing anytime soon. However, they will continue to look into the possibility
