The Dillon Unit of the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) has received MT Forest Action Plan Grant money for conifer encroachment removal projects in locations around Virginia City. The DNRC has identified three locations within the target area as priority areas for conifer removal work, and include the tracts of Granite Creek (T5S, R3W, S36), Herman Gulch (T6S, R3W, S16), and Threemile Creek (T6S, R3W, S36). Approximately 382.91 acres of conifer encroachment removal and a potential prescribed burn are proposed across these three locations, on DNRC State Trusts Lands tracts held in trust for the Common Schools grant. The project will conduct forest thinning practices, conifer removal, and pile burning for on-the-ground treatments. The DNRC will collaborate with the Southwest Montana Sagebrush Partnership (SMSP), which consists of personnel from the NRCS, BLM, TNC, FWP, Conservation Districts, etc., local fire departments, commissioners, private landowners, and all other relevant partners. The project's primary goal is to improve sage grouse, and forested landscapes by removing scattered Douglas-fir and Rocky Mountain Juniper from sagebrush-grassland areas, while also increasing crown spacing within historic forested systems. Additional benefits will include improved forage for wildlife, as well as a reduction in wildfire severity and risk to the communities of Virginia City and Nevada City. This project is expected to begin as early as the spring of 2025 and may extend up to 3 years. During the project, DNRC staff will ensure treatments are completed to specifications. Once the grant period has ended, staff will implement a monitoring protocol for a period of 10 years to observe the results of the treatments and the maintenance. Due to the dry, cold conditions in this region of Montana, regeneration is expected to progress slowly. Moderate and consistent land manager maintenance - clipping/pulling seedlings, controlling noxious weeds, removing dead and down - will sustain treatment prescriptions for ~ 30 years in the dry mix-conifer forests and sage-steppe ecosystems that dominate the project area. Conifer encroachment has been identified as a considerable threat to sage grouse conservation (80 FR 59858, October 2, 2015) while also threatening other wildlife, increasing the risk of more severe wildfires, and reducing forage for wildlife. Reducing the prevalence of rangeland-invading trees has been identified as an important objective for this region of southwest Montana. The proposed treatment areas of Granite Creek and Herman Gulch will occur in General Sage Grouse Habitat.