Leave it to Beaver
Returning to past practices for future water management
By Tesia Lin
In 2014, John Coffman arrived in Wyoming as The Nature Conservancy’s new steward for the Red Canyon Ranch and quickly encountered an unforgettable lesson.
Not Fade Away
Communities in rural Montana reach beyond agriculture
By Samuel Western
I’m in upper eastern Montana, a land of undulating drainages, heading north on Highway 87.
Free-Range Carbon
Not a silver bullet, but maybe a gold standard, a new market tool benefits climate, ecosystems, and people
By Birch Malotky
When I get Dallas May on the phone for the first time and ask how he’s doing, he immediately tells me, “We were getting ready to start selling cattle and a week later the rains started.
Early Detection and Rapid Response
Can a highly coordinated team of experts and weed managers stop a new invasive species?
For many westerners, cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is the exemplar invasive weed, well known for thriving in sagebrush landscapes where it crowds out native plants, fuels a devastating fire regime, and threatens wildlife and livestock grazing.
Unsung Pollinators
Native bees are forgotten in the clamor to save exotic pollinators
Christy Bell rifled through a series of shallow drawers lining the walls of a dark, windowless lab.
Time to Revisit our Invasive Species Strategy
Perspective from Governor Mark Gordon
Invasive species are not a new phenomenon, but over the past few decades the West has seen an explosion of all types in all ecosystems.
Where Domestic Sheep Still Roam
A court case challenges domestic sheep grazing on national forests
In any court case, there are two sides. But in a wood-paneled courtroom at the Federal Building and United States Courthouse in Butte, Montana, differences between the two sides headed to court were not immediately apparent.
A Win-Win Situation
What’s good for sage grouse is good for landowners
I met Peter John Camino in the lobby of the Johnson County Public Library in Buffalo, Wyoming.
Small-Scale Hydropower
Wyoming’s streams and irrigation ditches are an untapped clean energy source
“If we disconnected that 14-inch pipe and pointed it upward, the water would blast nearly 600 feet into the air,” says Les Hook
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
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.
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.
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
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.
Raising Sheep in Patagonia
A way of life suffers under absentee landowners
Rody Twyman follows a couple thousand bleating sheep on a dirt path.
“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.