MILES CITY — Montana's first prescribed burn association is forming to help landowners safely coordinate controlled burns, share resources, and prevent catastrophic wildland fires.
The effort is being organized by landowners across Eastern Montana, and is awaiting final steps of receiving nonprofit designation before it is finalized.
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Miles City rancher Erik Peterson is among the many involved in the effort, and he's using fire to his advantage since he took over his family ranch around 2005.
"Early on in my life, I knew that fire was a net positive," Peterson said. "The immediate effects of it are not that great, but long-term, it is positive."
Peterson completed a prescribed burn of a little more than 30 acres of his property on Sunday to help prevent future wildland fire damage and enrich the soil.
"It doesn’t prevent fire in the future. It just prevents the catastrophic effects of fire," Peterson said. "I try to get a few acres burned every year. You know, I can’t really speak to the science of it. I can just speak to the variety and the vigor of the grass come back better than it was before."
Custer County Fire Department Chief Cory Cheguis is familiar with the importance of prescribed burns for farmers and ranchers. He estimates that his department helps with more than 4,000 acres of prescribed burn each year.
"Our biggest thing is always to try and assist the landowners, but now we’re trying to help the landowners set something up for themselves," Cheguis said.
That's why Cheguis is assisting with the creation of the association, which will allow landowners to work together and share equipment.
"They train, they have bylaws, they have rules as an organization as a whole," Cheguis said of what the prescribed burn association would provide. "And they’re able to accomplish burning more self-sufficiently without the help of local fire departments or anything like that."
While this is a first for Montana, prescribed burn associations are common in other parts of the country, particularly the Midwest. Cheguis said it's important to be in a state that relies heavily on agriculture.
"It just empowers them to do it, but also at the same time it helps them do it correctly," Cheguis said. "Ag producers are our number one driving economy in Montana."
It's a new organization that is aiming to bring a spark to the backbone of Montana.
"What makes agriculture so important? I don’t know, that’s how we eat," Peterson said.
