Urban Encroachment
How Missoula farmers are combating the growth and expansion
Full Story written by Emily Messer
https://missoulian.com/news/local/article_960306ec-8227-492d-8909-41920e1a3999.html
Fred Stewart spends his morning walking the fields of his farm, Green Bench Orchard, to inspect the irrigation systems and make sure all of his sprinklers are properly working on July 10. Stewart, 80, manages the raspberry and apple orchards by himself and is working to secure a conservation easement to protect his land from development.
Fred Stewart, 80, kneels to turn on a sprinkler that will ensure his apple trees get enough water for the morning on July 10. Stewart runs a u-pick orchard with apples and rasberries in the Orchard Homes neighborhood, and has owned his land since 2004.
Kids run around Green Bench Orchard, filling up cartons of raspberries and apples from Fred Stewart's u-pick farm.
A young boy picks rasberries from Green Bench Orchard in Missoula Mt. on July 18.
A young boy fills a carton of rasberries at Green Bench Orchard in Missoula MT, on July 18.
Three new homes were subdivided from Green Bench Orchard. in the past decade. Fred Stewart, owner and manager of Green Bench Orchard, made the decision to sell off his lots in order to afford keeping the rest of his land. Now, he's been working on putting his land into a conservation easement with Farm Connect Montana in order to fully give up the rights to further develop his land.
Fred Stewart works alone at Green Bench Orchard on July 10.
Fred Stewart, owner and operator of Green Bench Orchard, drives around the orchard to turn on sprinklers for his apple trees on July 10.
Green Bench Orchard, nestled in the back of the Orchard Homes Neighborhood, is slowly being surrounded by new development.
John and Karen Rimel get ready to feed their cattle with spent grain, donated by KettleHouse Brewing, on July 30. The Rimel Ranch, a 160-acre ranch in the South Hills up Pattee Canyon, was originally bought in 1955. John said he's watched the hills change around him his entire life.
Hay bails on the Iverson Cattle Ranch in Potomac Montana, on July 17. The Iverson Ranch has been preserved by Five Valley Land Trust for the past two decades.
John Rimel sits for a portrait on July 30. “When I was growing up, none of these houses were here,” he said at his property this summer. “I could ride my horse from here down to the roundabout in Miller Creek and I would ride bareback, never setting foot on pavement. And now, if I've left our pasture either down there or up and back, I would probably never be off of the pavement getting there. So I've watched this whole hillside get developed, and I've watched the houses go up above.”
John Rimel shovels spent grain, donated by Kettle House Brewing, to feed his cattle on his cattle ranch in the upper south hills of Missoula Montana on July 30, 2025.
Karen Rimel gets driven around the cattle ranch in order to shovel spent grain for the cows, on July 30.
Denny Iverson speaks to a neighbor in Potomac, MT, on July 17.
Cattle graze on spent grain from Kettlehouse Brewing on the Rimel Ranch in Missoula, Montana, on July 30.
Denny Iverson poses for a portrait on July 17 at his family's cattle ranch. Iverson runs a cattle ranch in the Potomac Valley, which is parents bough in 1975.
Denny Iverson drives a side-by-side through his cattle ranch in the Potomac Valley on July 17.
