How Regenerative Ranching Can Save Sage Grouse and Salmon
By Tracy Loew || Salem Statesman Journal
This article was featured in the November 26, 2025 issue of the Salem Statesman Journal about Andrea & Tony Malmberg.
Tony & Andrea Malmberg, owners of Bunchgrass Land & Livestock near Union, talk about using sustainable agriculture practices in fall 2024. Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard
Tony Malmberg spent his life as a rancher.
To do his job well, he told the Statesman Journal in fall of 2024, he also needed to be a poet.
“By poetry, I mean explaining to the environmental community how my being out on the land contributes to their values, whatever that value may be,” said Malmberg, who died in April 2025. "It might be fish in a river, it might be sage grouse, it might be functional ecosystems. Whatever it is, I can explain how my working with livestock contributes to their values on the land.”
Malmberg practiced holistic agriculture for four decades.
Tony Malmberg spent his life as a rancher.
To do his job well, he told the Statesman Journal in fall of 2024, he also needed to be a poet.
“By poetry, I mean explaining to the environmental community how my being out on the land contributes to their values, whatever that value may be,” said Malmberg, who died in April 2025. "It might be fish in a river, it might be sage grouse, it might be functional ecosystems. Whatever it is, I can explain how my working with livestock contributes to their values on the land.”
Malmberg practiced holistic agriculture for four decades.
In the late 2000s, he and his wife, Andrea, moved to northeastern Oregon and began using cattle to improve salmon habitat on their ranch, Bunchgrass Land & Livestock.
“When we bought this place, the plant community in this pasture was a lot of bare ground and a lot of sedges, rushes and weeds. And it was constantly irrigated,” Andrea Malmberg said. “We thought, why are we irrigating it? Do we need to?”
Watch their interview and continue reading article here….
Tracy Loew
Tracy Loew covers the environment at the Statesman Journal. Send comments, questions and tips: tloew@statesmanjournal.com or 503-399-6779. Follow her on X at @Tracy_Loew