DOUGLAS - When ranchers in the Thunder Basin grassland area drive the dusty red roads from pasture to pasture or from highway to home, they're watching more than their cattle these days.

The landowners who are part of the Thunder Basin Grassland Prairie Ecosystem Association are also keeping a sharp eye out for flora and fauna. They're taking particularly careful notes in an almost 38,000-acre area where the association, with help from the state and others, is treating land with a mixture of fire, pesticides and native grass seeds to rehabilitate the ecosystem.

The treatments are funded in part through the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust Fund, an account established by the 2005 Legislature. The association has submitted a new application for $600,000 to treat more land, according to Betty Pellatz, rancher and association chairwoman.

If approved, the dollars would help fund rehabilitation on about 37,000 acres - the 15 percent of association lands deemed to be short of historical ecosystem conditions, Pellatz said.

Restoring prairie health in those acres is part of a bigger plan to solidify "candidate conservation agreements with assurances" with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Pellatz said. Under such agreements, private landowners who take on practices that conserve and increase habitat for particular species are allowed to continue their normal operations if the species are listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Pasture treatments began a year ago with funding from the state wildlife trust fund and other sources. Four pastures were burned, sprayed and seeded, and monitored monthly for grass growth and bird activity. Treatments began this fall on about 250 acres owned by the state, the U.S. Forest Service and a private landowner.

First, crews set fire to existing vegetation. Within that, 125 acres were sprayed with Plateau, an herbicide used to control cheatgrass and pepper seed. Finally, the land was reseeded with native species using a rangeland drill, a more successful technique in the grasslands terrain than broadcast seeding, said Amy Ganguli, rangeland ecologist with the Montana-based Ecosystem Management Research Institute.

The Thunder Basin association has contracted with the institute for technical assistance in collecting initial data, designing treatments to improve the land and, ultimately, making sure the ecosystem is whole.

Grasses were customized to soil type - loam, clay or saline - and represent grasses found to be lacking from the system, she said. All are high in nutrient value and resilience, the better to withstand an ongoing drought.

Now, project managers sit back and watch. They'll sample vegetation as it grows and evaluate whether pepper weed and cheatgrass have stayed away, noting which new weeds may move in. They'll consider productivity, which affects livestock and wildlife, and shrub cover and grass height, which can be critical habitat for sage grouse and other grasslands animals.

A key indicator of ecosystem health is the birds, Ganguli said. Mountain plover, a protected species, is found in the area. And although it's too soon to tell how animals will respond on the newly treated state land, birds are showing a definite preference for the area treated a year ago. A McGowan's long spur was recently spotted, an unusual occurrence in the grassland, Pellatz said.

Mike Henn, principal lands management representative with the Office of State Lands and Investments, is excited to see what results will show on the treated state property.

"We're eager to see what the response is from the treatments," Henn said.

The association approached the state lands office several years ago about potential partnerships, Henn said. The association wanted financial assistance in controlling cheatgrass, using prescribed fire and testing different grazing management techniques on state land leased to ranchers.

That was an appealing offer. The state lands office could be a good steward while maintaining the property values to benefit the state's school trust account, not to mention to benefit the ecosystem from wildlife to cattle, he Henn said.

Pellatz said results may take up to two years so managers can determine actual production.