Southeastern Montana’s Powder River County is renowned for producing trophy bull elk, including a 430-inch monster taken by bowhunter Steve Felix in 2016 that is the current Pope and Young world-record typical. Working with the U.S. Forest Service’s Ashland Ranger District, RMEF is helping to ensure quality habitat in the area continues to support healthy herds and big bulls. Powder River County includes a large portion of the Custer Gallatin National Forest, and RMEF has partnered with the Ashland Ranger District to treat ponderosa pine stands, improve forage for elk and prepare areas impacted by high-severity wildfires for regeneration.
RMEF funding will help the USFS carry out prescribed burns in a 2,500-acre portion of the forest to help promote forage growth as well as natural regeneration of ponderosa pine. Scientific research indicates ponderosa pine savanna ecosystems need fire in their natural lifecycle. However, catastrophic wildfires do more harm than good. Prescribed burning introduces low-severity fire to the landscape, stimulating new growth of forage and future cover.
The Ashland Ranger District program includes priority locations for prescribed burns that are within areas that burned at a high severity during past wildfires. These places have little to no mature, unburned trees present. Prescribed burns in these areas will help reduce wildfire activity, promote new forage for elk, protect tree planting efforts and encourage natural regeneration. The elk utilizing these locations will benefit long-term from these efforts that help protect future cover and security within a landscape that currently has minimal cover.
Prescribed burning can also make ponderosa pine savanna habitat more resilient to large, high-severity fires, which helps combat the impacts of wildfire on wildlife. Locations in the Ashland Ranger District near the Odell and Poker Jim areas where prescribed burns funded by RMEF had been conducted showed primary low-severity burning during the Remington fire in 2024. Such resiliency can help forested areas maintain cover that elk seek for security.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ elk management plan for the hunting district that includes the Custer Gallatin National Forest names increasing elk use of USFS land as a goal. The Ashland Ranger District contains one of the largest continuous blocks of public land in southeastern Montana, and work that promotes quality habitat and forage in the national forest improves its attractiveness to elk.
The Ashland Ranger District program is just one example of how RMEF funding helps implement a variety of wildfire rehabilitation projects to improve critical winter, summer and transitional big game habitat. In March 2026, RMEF committed up to $3 million toward wildfire restoration efforts over the next three years, following more than $3.3 million in RMEF funding since 2021 for wildfire rehabilitation efforts that leveraged more than $11 million in partner contributions.