Nestled into the base of the majestic Rocky Mountain Front, the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch seems an unchanging, elemental place, where the rhythms of ranch life follow the endless cycles of weather, and people and cattle share the land with a diversity of wildlife.

“The place has magic, no doubt,” says Jack Ward Thomas, Boone and Crockett Professor of Wildlife Conservation at UM. “To be there is to imagine the old north trail of the Blackfeet Indians, imagine the journeys of Lewis and Clark. You can see history in the place, envision the buffalo that once were here and encounter every other species.”

But while the landscape seems eternal, the work of the ranch is immersed in present day issues of conservation research, education and practice.

“Humans have to exploit their environment in order to live; that’s a given,” Thomas says. “The question is, How do we do it in a rational, sustainable manner?”

To this end, he says, the ranch, owned by the Boone and Crockett Club since 1985, has three purposes: to demonstrate that profitable ranching operations also can accommodate wildlife; to provide a place for UM students, faculty and others to conduct research on the relationship among livestock operations, wildlife needs and vegetation; and to develop and offer conservation-oriented curricula to K-12 students and teachers.

Founded more than a century ago by Theodore Roosevelt, the invitation-only Boone and Crockett Club is the oldest conservation organization in the United States and the official keeper of statistics on rifle-killed North American big game. Although UM is the prime beneficiary of the Roosevelt Ranch and associated endowment, the facilities also are available for researchers from state and federal agencies and other universities.

Recent UM studies have included the ecology of limber pine, a species well adapted to the harsh, windy conditions of the Front; the habitat requirements and population dynamics of westslope cutthroat trout, which inhabit Dupuyer Creek on the ranch; research on various birds; and cost-benefit analyses of grazing methods.

Robert and Kelly Peebles have been running the 6,000-acre operation since 1989. They manage a herd of 200 Angus cattle — twice that number in the summertime. In doing so they are providing long-term documentation on the separate and combined effects of grazing by deer, elk and cattle on range vegetation. Peebles makes these results available to other interested ranchers.

Similarly, he keeps track of predators, adjusting some of his management practices to reflect the reality of living in proximity to grizzly bears, mountain lions, wolves and coyotes. Sometimes he feels caught between protecting wildlife and protecting his and others’ livelihoods.

“Wildlife management is really people management,” he says, meaning that — for certain protected species such as grizzlies and wolves — the public must come to understand the necessary balance between wildlife and humans.

Peebles is happy to discuss wildlife and ranching issues with visitors and to grant permission to cross ranch land to reach the Bob Marshall Wilderness. The public is welcome to hike a short nature trail built by local volunteers on ranch property. The ranch also participates in the state’s Block Management hunting program, and hunters can call Peebles to reserve a date in the fall. He gives priority to hunters under 18. (Boone and Crockett members, however, are never allowed to hunt at the ranch.)

The major educational efforts of the ranch are conducted by Lisa Flowers, Boone and Crockett education specialist and a certified Montana science teacher. Each spring and fall she guides half- or full-day field trips for local students and in the summer offers for-credit workshops for teachers.

“I try to tie the field trips in with whatever the kids are learning about the out-of-doors,” Flowers says. After an introduction to the ranch by Peebles, Flowers takes her charges into the field to look at the vegetation, water, climate geology and biodiversity and engages the students in some hands-on activities.

The ranch’s educational outreach will get a boost at the end of the summer with the completion of a more than 5,000-square-foot educational center. The new building, funded with grants from The Mellon Foundation and the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, will accommodate up to 30 people overnight and contain a lecture room, exhibit area and wet lab/activity area. Thomas says he hopes to extend use of the facility to other groups, such as the Montana Stockgrowers Association or the Nature Conservancy, whenever it is not being used for educational or research purposes.

The next step will be to take some of the conservation curriculum developed at the ranch on the road. Thomas has received funding to begin an exchange program involving Montana and Texas teachers in cooperation with the Welder Wildlife Foundation, which runs a similar ranching and educational operation near Sinton, Texas. He has submitted another proposal to do the same thing in Colorado.

The idea, Thomas says, is to combine teachers from both states and spend a week in each place learning about wildlife and management issues in different contexts.

“We’d give them two sets of experiences to draw on,” he says, “and show them how climate, topography, social history and economic and political conditions can affect management practices and conservation efforts.

“We’ve done the ground work,” he says. “Now it’s time to expand.”