 Custer County is a little unique in its geography, topography. Roughly 50% of our county is public land versus private. We have Black Hills National Forest, the Buffalo Gap National Grassland, Wing Cave National Park, Jewel Cave National Monument, Custer State Park. So it creates a unique situation where we have roughly 40-50% of our county forested and then we have prairie on the eastern side of our county. Today we're obviously here talking about our programs that work on improving forest resiliency, thinning and fuels treatment. We also have programs on the eastern side of the county working with ranchers to improve their grazing programs and protecting riparian areas. We've worked with about 17 landowners and covered roughly 400 acres of private land, helping landowners to improve the resiliency of their forest and to protect their property from wildfire and insects. We realized that on a small scale in the program that we have in the conservation district that it's important to work with our landowners because these disturbances in the Ponderosa Pine Forest occur across whole landscapes. 100 acres a year does not make a lot of difference in the grand scheme. It makes a difference to that landowner and it's important to work with adjacent landowners as well. Thus we've partnered with the U.S. Forest Service, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the South Dakota Division of Wildland Fire and South Dakota Division of Resource Conservation of Forestry and Custer County to make our practices more effective across whole landscapes. The benefit of looking at a landscape approach to this is especially when you start talking about fire. If we can have a whole area that's fire resistant because of the work that's been done, it's just a benefit and it's one less area that has a concern that we need to worry about. Instead of addressing 10 acres here and then 20 miles over, we're addressing another 10 acres, which leaves 10 miles in between that is a high fire risk. We're going to concentrate on multiple areas and instead of having just a single 10 acre area that's fire resistant, we might have a thousand acre area that's fire resistant. It's a healthier stand, healthier trees, just better for the environment overall. So why we manage trees, especially Ponderosa Pine in this area is Ponderosa Pine is kind of the first treat and they don't like to share very many things. It's one of the first that way it creates a healthy environment and it also benefits not only local products but also wildlife and other things in creating habitats. We've been successful working with landowners approximately six or eight per year over the last seven or eight years. We started with landowner workshops to talk with landowners about the importance of forest practices about forest ecology and a little bit about fire prevention. And those landowner workshops led to applications for grant funds that are cost share programs. They blend some grant funds available through the conservation district as well as other agencies along with their funds and then they can get more land treated. It's important to work with the other entities. US Forest Service treats thousands of acres a year. We want to encourage private landowners to do thinning on their land adjacent to national forest land. It reduces incidents of running crown fires which are the most destructive when it comes to fire damage to private property. For a healthy Ponderosa Pine forest, generally you want to see a lot of spacing. You want to have a healthy ground floor so you want to be able to have a lot of sun be able to come in. So different grasses and different plants are able to grow for foraging for wildlife. That open space also allows for the trees to get more nutrients and more resources. So management when it's done on private land or even in other lands depends on what the equipment is available. The slopes, the soil conditions there's a lot of factors that go into it along with contractors. We have some people that do everything by hand. They'll cut down a tree, limit up, have everything lay on the ground so that nutrients can slowly degrade back into the ground. Or you can go as far as they'll have heavy machinery that'll come in and grind everything up and leave it on the ground. Or you can do like a mix and some of it will create some income from the commercial products sold and others will be left in order to have that tree in cycling. We have actually had a forest stewardship program that we've worked with the state for close to 20 years is when we first did our first forest stewardship program. So when we bought the ranch our goal was to be able to run cattle of course but to have it be maintained as a paradise and have it healthy for the wildlife and for the plant life of our ranch. So we've continued that process. We've worked with both state and federal programs to do management of the ranch which includes thinning and some other practices. And we've continued that for over the last 20 years concluding with our latest practices which has been thinning of the trees and working with the Custer County Conservation District to really thin out some areas to make them healthy and resilient for the future. I'm a big believer that with the wildlife on your place there's a reason. You got the tall grasses and the thin trees and it helps everything. We caught kind of ranching for wildlife as long as ranching for livestock. We kind of see it as a together partnership. So our goal is to manage this ranch for now and for the future for the wildlife and for the plant life and we happen to run cattle on the ranch. We don't have the wildlife herds that we had before that could actually manage the ranch. So we use the cattle to actually manage the grasslands. Our goal is never to overgrace. We don't abuse the land. We use it cooperatively with the cattle to be able to manage it and make it a paradise and make it healthy for the wildlife and for the plant life on our ranch. We've had a number of great partnerships. We've worked with the South Dakota Forestry, Custer Conservation District and RCS. We've worked with all of them with a number of different plans that they've had to be able to do forest recovery and forest health. It's really unique in South Dakota and we have the most awesome partners that are willing to work across all different spances and our foresters in these areas are able to work across all boundaries very well. The great part about working in Custer County is the great partners that are involved. Whether it's the NRCS, the U.S. Forest Service or the State of South Dakota, National Wild Turkey Federation and so on. It really enables us to get a lot more done on the ground than if we were working by ourselves. We can bounce ideas off each other and focus our efforts in certain priority areas where we can have a greater impact. Open communication, there's a passion amongst all the partners to do what's best for the environment, the people that live in the county and to serve that community. I think the biggest thing is is we have open communication, willingness to share ideas and work together and nobody's taking credit for anything. We're just here as public servants to help the environment and the people that live in the county.