Conservation Easements in Wyoming
Each land trust, landowner, and conservation easement is one-of-a-kind
From verdant, low-elevation spreads in Wyoming’s northeast corner to high, dry western basins, private lands across the state are diverse.
Conservation Easements
An open spaces protection tool worth reforming
In 2002, when Robert Hicks, owner of the Buffalo Bulletin newspaper in Buffalo, Wyoming, learned that the Johnson County commissioners canceled a conservation easement
Realtor Conservationists
Anticipating residential development to protect habitat
Each spring, just outside the town of Pinedale, Wyoming, some 5,000 mule deer slip through a 400-meter-wide gap between a housing development and Fremont Lake.
After the Burn
Fontenelle fire sparks collaboration to protect local ecosystems and economies
In late June of 2012, the Fontenelle fire ripped across the Wyoming Range, torching forests and shrublands.
Measuring Rain, Snow, and Hail
An international volunteer network bests the fanciest technologies
The second week of September 2013, rain pummeled Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Carnivores, Not Condos
Ranches provide key wildlife passages between two protected ecosystems
On his ranch in Montana’s Ruby Valley, Rick Sandru can load hay and enjoy views of the snowcapped Tobacco Root Mountains as geese honk overhead.
The Landowner Must Yield
A 100-year-old homestead act gives energy developers access to private lands
Just south of where the Little Snake River meanders along the Colorado-Wyoming border, silvery green sagebrush and mountain scrub grow above a fortune of hydrocarbons.
Of Ranchers and Researchers
Trespassing to collect data in Wyoming is a crime
As early as 2006, employees of the environmental group Western Watersheds Project allegedly trespassed onto Wyoming ranches to gather water samples.
Wyoming Stickers
Three lifelong ranchers reflect on private lands values
“For somehow, against probability, some sort of indigenous, recognizable culture has been growing on Western ranches and in Western towns
Tribes Tackle Drought
New and old approaches help the Wind River Reservation prepare for a changing climate
During the record-setting hot and dry years of 2012 and 2013, severe water shortages on the Wind River Indian Reservation turned fields to dust and forced cattle ranchers to sell their herds.
The Cowboy on the Bluetooth
How ranchers make ends meet in the twenty-first century
From a distance, Kent Price looks like any other young rancher working cattle.
The Dinosaur Keepers
An unlikely crew helps a private land fossil find a good home
“They tend to die like an old cow in a draw,” Row Manuel says from the back seat.
Rockefeller in Patagonia
Outside wealth, local values, and creating national parks
Ken Burns’ documentary The National Parks: America’s Best Idea tells a story from the early years of Grand Teton National Park.
Raising Sheep in Patagonia
A way of life suffers under absentee landowners
Rody Twyman follows a couple thousand bleating sheep on a dirt path.
Home Away from Home
How does conservation happen when the landowner lives elsewhere?
In Texas, authorities are dealing with a rash of timber thieves sneaking onto far-flung parcels of absentee-owned lands
Editor’s Note
I grew up in the 1990s watching the hay fields between Sheridan and Big Horn, Wyoming, sprout houses. By the time I graduated from Big Horn School, golf carts zipping over manicured greens had replaced the tractors pulling balers through waist high grass.
“When Land Does Well for Its Owner, and the Owner Does Well by His Land”
An interview with the Sand County Foundation about the state of private lands conservation
Among the writings of forester and conservationist Aldo Leopold
Selling Conservation
UW research reveals landowners’ surprising attitudes about conservation easements
Chris Bastian grew up working on his grandparents’ ranches in southeastern Wyoming every summer and thought he’d spend his life as a rancher.
Bee Ranching
Paying landowners to create and connect pollinator habitat
Bees are declining, and that’s bad news for ag producers.
The True Value of Flood Irrigation
What’s seen as wasteful water use has hidden benefits
Ranchers today in the Upper Green River Basin say they are modern-day beavers.