Danielle Schmidt received a 2025 Graduate Student Summer Research Mini-Grant from the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems (CIAS). She interviewed ranchers in northeastern Montana for her study on agricultural land transitioning to conservation reserves.
Danielle writes, “My mixed-methods dissertation project examines the process and implications of agricultural land transitioning to conservation. I draw on interviews and other field-based data collection techniques to consider how agricultural land transitions change landscapes and the rural communities within them. With financial support from CIAS, this summer I conducted interviews with agricultural producers in four northeastern Montana counties. These interviews encompassed diverse perspectives from producers who lease from or have considered selling to a local conservation organization; young producers who have recently inherited land or who are seeking ways to acquire land of their own; producers part of multi-generational operations; community and industry advocates; and adjacent industry professionals. In my preliminary analysis of these data, I find producers are concerned about land market pressures in ways they haven’t been before. Young producers in particular are motivated by these challenges to adapt their operations for improved economic and environmental sustainability. Further, findings continue to strongly suggest conservation and production are not opposing missions; however, in certain spatial and cultural contexts, stakeholders have a ways to go in developing shared visions of land use and tenure.”