Randy Malson is ODWC’s 2024 Landowner Conservationist of the Year
Farmer-rancher Randy Malson of Roger Mills County was named the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation’s 2024 Landowner Conservationist of the Year.
Malson manages 4,560 acres consisting of an array of mixed-grass prairie and rolling sandhills to red shale hills with wooded bottomlands. For over 25 years, Malson has worked to restore the land that, after the Dust Bowl ravaged western Oklahoma, many thought would be barren forever.
Malson is an advocate of prescribed fire and uses it frequently. He applies prescribed fire in the dormant season to reset plant succession, and in the growing season to reduce woody encroachment. He’s a member of the Roger Mills County Prescribed Burn Association, where he encourages and assists other landowners with prescribed burns. He is also the chief of the Crawford Volunteer Fire Department and uses his prescribed burning experience to “fight fire with fire” when given the opportunity. This was critical when fighting the Smokehouse Creek Fire in February 2024, which burned over 1 million acres.
Through an intense rotational grazing regimen, cattle are moved frequently, resulting in forb production and bunch grass quantities that create amazing wildlife habitat. Malson is involved in a grazing peer group so he can educate others on his practices and can learn new strategies himself. He’s also addressed the most limiting habitat factor in western Oklahoma: water. In areas without live water, he has placed solar wells with overflow ponds to address cattle needs while benefiting wildlife, and installed rain-filled water guzzlers specifically for wildlife.
Soil conservation is critical in the operation. He engages in 600 acres of no-till farming. In early summer, he plants a cover-crop blend of millet, sorghum, cowpeas and sunflower. In the fall, he plants a crop mix of rye, triticale, vetch, and winter peas. Roughly 75% of both crops are allowed to go to seed annually. He combines this practice with his grazing regime to enhance soil microbe diversity and health.
Malson’s recent focus has been restoring about 200 acres of riparian habitat. Due to woody encroachment, roost tree availability is the biggest limiting factor to Rio Grande turkey populations in western Oklahoma. Seeing his turkey numbers take a dramatic decline in 2017, he began efforts to remove eastern redcedars by combining mechanical removal and prescribed fire in riparian areas. Rising turkey numbers is yet another success story on Malson’s property.
The Malson property has also created great outdoor memories for many people. Malson doesn’t only allow family and friends to hunt, trap and fish his property, he’s also opened it to Unlimited Outdoor Adventures, a local nonprofit organization that takes youths with terminal illnesses on hunting trips.
The red shale hills of Roger Mills County are unique in that they provide ample resources for wildlife in a seemingly unforgiving terrain. Northern bobwhites, white-tailed deer, and Rio Grande turkeys flourish on Malson’s property through his conservation-focused ranching and agricultural practices.
