"The New Frontier" explores various controversies over cattle ranching and rangeland management in the American West. Shot on three family ranches in the Rockies of Colorado, southern New Mexico and Central Texas Blackland Prairie, the film examines cultural, scientific, political and philosophical considerations concerning environmental stewardship, the traditions of ranching families and communities, collaborations between ranchers, ecologists and environmentalists, and the controversial but often successful use of grazing animals to improve land and animal water biodiversity and healthy watersheds. Through interviews, archival images and present-day observational footage, the documentary also explores conflicts over public land grazing, the economic viability of family ranches, and the idea of the "Western mystique" currently prompting the conversion of thousands of acres of working ranch into "ranchette subdivisions."