About Us
United Property Owners of Montana was started as a last resort in our fight against those who are seeking to take away our property rights. Our story began with actions by Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks aimed at punishing landowners in our area, but we soon recognized the potential for the organization to fill a vital role as a comprehensive property rights organization. We’ve since expanded our scope to include issues affecting property owners on a number of fronts.
Like most Montana family farming operations, we’d prefer to focus on making a living at agriculture, but economic pressures have forced us, and a lot of our neighbors, to diversify in one form or another. We’re proud to have our roots in Montana, and through UPOM we’re seeing to it that our children’s children will have their roots here too. Our objective is to preserve the unique agricultural heritage that makes Montana such a great place to live, work, and recreate. We quickly came to recognize that the various efforts afoot in Montana to erode property rights were in direct conflict to the preservation of that heritage.
Our philosophy is that the deterioration of one person's property rights is really the erosion of everyone's property rights. Everyone owns something, and whether you own a city lot or a sprawling ranch, your property rights are sacred to you.
Thanks for your interest in UPOM and our work to protect property rights in Montana. For more information about supporting UPOM, please click here.
[Learn more about how UPOM got started.]
UPOM Leadership
Mark & Deanna Robbins
Mark and Deanna Robbins both grew up in Central Montana. They are third generation Montanans whose family homesteaded in northeast Fergus County in 1917. They live near Roy, where they run a cow/calf operation and a big game outfitting business. They've been married 29 years and have two sons.
Toby & Jody Dahl
Toby Dahl, a fifth generation rancher, married Jody, a former teacher, in 1998. They are raising the sixth generation (Brigem age 7 and Colton age 1) on the family ranch outside Roundup. Together they have diversified the family cattle ranch into a working guest ranch (Runamuk Guest Ranch) and offer hunting services in the fall. They also raise speed-bred quarter horses. Believing in the motto "sustainability through holistic diversification", they are working toward building a ranch that will help nurture the ecological value of the land until the next generation is ready to run Runamuk.
Don Proue
Don Proue has spent his life in central and eastern Montana. He and his wife Betty have been married over 36 years and have a son and a daughter. Don and Betty currently lease a ranch in the Bull Mountains, southeast of Roundup, and run a yearling cattle operation. They also own and operate Betty’s family homestead, a farm and ranch operation at Jordan. Don has been an active member of the Musselshell Valley Stockgrower’s Association, and is a former Secretary/Treasurer for that organization. He is also a former state director for the Montana High School Rodeo Association.
Chuck Denowh
Chuck Denowh is UPOM's policy director. He's worked in nonprofit management, grassroots development, and public advocacy in Montana for a decade. He grew up on his family's ranch in Sidney. His wife, Barbara, was raised on a ranch near Grant in Beaverhead County. They live in Helena.
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