About the author
Donna Erickson was raised riding horses, putting up hay, and herding cattle at Skyline Ranch. Her family’s nearly 1000-acre ranch lies in the North Hills at the edge of Missoula, Montana. As a young adult she ranched there and on other leased ranches in western Montana. Many decades later, her life as both a rancher and landscape planner gives Donna a unique perspective on ranching at the edge of a growing western town. She wrote this book to share stories about a century of change in this iconic landscape and the threats it faces going forward.
Part of the third generation at Skyline Ranch, Donna never found a niche for herself and her young family there. She left ranching in 1986. Her love of both the land and design led her to a career in landscape architecture. While pursuing a graduate degree at a Dutch university, she developed expertise in planning for rural environments and in conservation planning. Those interests stemmed directly from an early life in ranching. She writes: “On the one hand, the land is part of me; I am rooted in the North Hills. On the other, I’ve lived most of my adulthood away from them. This perspective helps me understand the outlooks of both ranchers and their urban neighbors.”
Donna was a professor of landscape architecture and planning at the University of Michigan for 16 years, conducting research and teaching mainly graduate students. This period deepened her understanding of the interaction between ecological processes and landscape change. She is the author of a book on open-space conservation, (MetroGreen: Connecting Open Space in North American Cities, 2006, Island Press) completed as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. One Amazon reviewer wrote: "Erickson's rigorous scholarship and engaging style will inform and inspire a broad audience of readers—students, professionals, and decision makers alike." She has published dozens of scholarly journal articles and popular pieces for Montana Magazine. Leaving academia 25 years after moving from Missoula, Donna is one of many Montana ‘rebounders.’
Donna started the Missoula firm Erickson Consulting Inc in 2005. Until 2017 she consulted with dozens of nonprofit land trusts. Her business specialized in open-space planning, organizational development, and land conservation with a primary goal of protecting intact rural landscapes and strong communities. The demand for her work traveled by word-of-mouth across the west and led to projects across ten western states.
She says “thirty-five years as a landscape planner and designer has led me back to the North Hills. This is where my heart sings. It is the source of my unique voice about ranching on the edge. I offer a vision for how urban areas and ranching communities might better grapple with the challenges and opportunities of urban growth.”