RANCHING/LIVESTOCK:
TIM TEW

Tim Tew has been a cowman since he was a young boy, and is a lifelong resident of Montana. He received his education in the cattle business first-hand, at one point spending three consecutive winters in a solitary cow camp with a team and wagon, feeding 450 cows and having no contact with the outside world other than the weekly drop-off of his groceries by his father.

Mr. Tew worked for Rock Creek Cattle Co. near Deer Lodge and became foreman there when he was 27, staying for 13 years. The ranch ran approximately 3,500 cows and 5,000 yearlings. He then took a job managing the Skunk Creek Ranch north of Wolf Creek (their brand was PU), which, shortly thereafter, was joined to the LF Ranch west of Augusta on the spectacular and windy Rocky Mountain Front. The LF is home to grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, coyotes, mountain lions and what Tim describes as, “1,100 highly alert Red Angus cows.” As a result, in his 21 years there, Tim has had extensive interaction with predators.

The first known breeding pair of gray wolves on the East Front denned and had three litters of pups on the ranch. Both the LF and the Skunk Creek ranches have had several packs of wolves predating cows and calves on a yearly basis, as well as run-ins with grizzly and black bears. Throughout his years of dealing with wolf and bear kills, Tim has worked successfully with Defenders of Wildlife, the Great Bear Foundation and Montana’s Livestock Mitigation Board.

Nicholas Evans, author of The Horse Whisperer, toured the ranch with Tim as research for his subsequent book, The Loop. The Fall Creek grizzly, a locally famous cow-killing bear, was trapped on the ranch, with the story of its impact chronicled in the book Great Montana Bear Stories.

Mr. Tew was a member of the Rocky Mountain Front Advisory Board, and has traveled to Washington, D.C. to discuss Fish, Wildlife and Parks conservation easements on the Eastern Front with Montana’s representatives. He currently serves on the Lewis and Clark County Weed Board, and the Defenders of Wildlife Ranchers’ Advisory Board.