Oklahoma veteran restores 400-acre ranch as native grasses and streams return

After more than two decades in military and government service, Brian Heishman found a new mission on a 400-acre ranch near Pawnee, Oklahoma. For five years, the retired Marine has worked to restore land that had become heavily overgrown with Eastern red cedars.

The changes are now visible. Native grasses are returning to areas once covered by cedars, ponds fill faster and streams have reappeared. Heishman and his wife, Melinda, initially faced three ponds and broad sections of dense cedar growth when they acquired the property.

Heishman began by clearing 500 feet for a firebreak ahead of a prescribed burn. The work gave him confidence to attempt a much larger restoration effort, despite having no prior experience managing a project of that scale. His earlier service included five years in the infantry, 16 years in Explosive Ordnance Disposal and a decade as a U.S. government contractor in Iraq.

Conservation partners helped turn the effort into a broader land-management plan. Duel Brown of the Natural Resources Conservation Service advised Heishman on practical improvements, while Cole Fagen of the American Bird Conservancy helped with his first NRCS contract in 2022. Later support included fencing, grazing practices, equipment financing, dam repairs and fish stocking. A wildfire in 2025 destroyed much of the cedar growth on the property’s eastern side, accelerating a transition Heishman is now managing by removing the remaining tree skeletons and allowing the recovering landscape to develop.