Rebecca Knapp wins national rangeland specialist award

Rebecca Knapp, district conservationist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Ekalaka, received the agency's highest honor in her profession-rangeland management specialist of the year.

This year is Knapp's 29th year of promoting positive change on Montana's rangelands with the NRCS. Currently, under her leadership, the Ekalaka Field Office works with most of the agricultural operations in Carter County, which contains one of the largest sage-grouse core habitat areas in the state. In her time as district conservationist, the number of staff in the field office has doubled, a partner position has been added and engineering staff from all over the state and area staff are consistently brought in to help manage the increased workload she has created.

The field office currently manages 104 active conservation contracts covering more than 643,500 acres, totaling an agency financial commitment of $16 million. Since 2011, they have had 146 conservation contracts worth $21 million covering nearly 821,000 acres-numbers far beyond what any other county in the state of Montana is managing. Knapp and her staff have written the most contracts for prescribed grazing in the country through NRCS' Sage- Grouse Initiative.

The Carter County Conservation District has been very fortunate throughout the years to be able to work side by side with Knapp and the Ekalaka field office staff. The working relationship the district has with her is phenomenal, her compassion for the conservation district goes above and beyond expectations. District staff members appreciate Knapp and her commitment to improving natural resources in Carter County.