THE BEGINNING

For more than one hundred and fifty years, individuals and organizations have sought to conserve wildlife on the Great Plains. They include ranchers who have worked to make a living raising livestock while preserving the wildlife species that could live in harmony with ranching operations. Since the late 1800s, numerous hunting groups have fought to preserve critical wildlife habitat and have pushed for legislation to regulate wildlife harvests, thereby ensuring a viable population of game animals. Since the 1970s, conservation and science-based organizations have focused efforts on the plains, working to save specific areas and restore many native species of plants and animals.

In 1999, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) published Ecoregional Planning in the Northern Great Plains Steppe, which, for the first time, pinpointed areas of the Northern Great Plains that were the most important for restoring the region’s habitats, and most viable for conserving the existing diversity of animals and plants.

Shortly after TNC published its findings, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) decided to initiate a conservation effort in the Montana Glaciated Plains, one of the key areas identified by TNC. They recruited noted conservation biologist Dr. Curtis Freese to develop a plan. During the same period, the Northern Plains Conservation Network, a coalition of local and national organizations, endorsed the importance of initiating a conservation program in the Montana Glaciated Plains and created a subcommittee, chaired by Freese, to work on the idea.

The importance of building a prairie reserve in the Montana Glaciated Plains became widely supported. It was agreed that such an effort would require forming an independent entity existing solely to acquire land and soundly manage the proposed reserve. In June 2001, The Prairie Foundation (the original name) was officially formed.

TODAY

APF is a freestanding, non-profit, Montana-based organization. As a registered land trust, our main focus is to purchase, hold title to, and thoughtfully manage the private land of this evolving wildlife reserve.

APF and WWF see our work as continuing the legacy of a long line of talented people and committed organizations. The idea of preserving a unique area of the American prairie, one to be enjoyed forever and by all, has been worked on diligently, and in a variety of ways, for well over one hundred years. We feel privileged to join this long-standing effort and are confident we are helping to make the dream a tangible reality.