In Winnett, the only town in the least populated county in Montana, out-of-state absentee land ownership poses a threat to the future of ranching and the preservation of the region’s intact prairie ecosystem. To keep people on the land and build a vibrant future for Winnett’s main street, the rancher-led nonprofit Winnett ACES is furthering economic and environmental sustainability for Petroleum Co. through local grassroots organizing. 2023

Ranchers Stewardship Alliance (RSA), a rancher-founded nonprofit based in Malta, MT, and Winnett ACES, a grassroots-led nonprofit in central Montana are jointly announcing a partnership with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to create a potential “grassbank campus.” If realized, the campus would serve as a physical location for continuing agricultural education alongside the fostering of grazing solution development to the benefit of the local ranching community and in the interest of grassland conservation.

Montana’s smallest county making big changes to save town, expand housing. Winnett ACES started with locally produced food, moved on to affordable housing, historic preservation. By the Daily Montanan.