Tesoro has given a $50,000 grant to help restore the historic viewshed of President Theodore Roosevelt’s Elkhorn Ranch. The USDA Forest Service recently acquired the largest remaining remnant of Roosevelt’s North Dakota ranch still in private ownership with the support of the Friends of the

Elkhorn Ranch.

“Environmental stewardship is one of Tesoro’s core values,” said Alan Anderson, Tesoro’s Mandan refinery manager. “Our $50,000 grant supports a much broader restoration program in the region where our employees work and live. We are proud to be part of the restoration that will impact such diverse wildlife populations that play such an important role in the health of the prairie and the nation’s agricultural lands.”

The 5,200-acre historic viewshed, prized by Roosevelt for its beauty and lamented for its loss of big game in the 1880s, is now managed as part of the Dakota Prairie Grasslands. The Forest Service is evaluating restoration and management plans on important wildlife feeding, nesting and breeding areas, migratory wildlife corridors and the encroachment of invasive plants along the Little Missouri River and its tributaries.