Conservation Strategies

We have developed a ranchland fragmentation matrix to map out the status of key ranch landscapes in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The matrix illustrates the level of ownership fragmentation, and the nature of owners, ranging from traditional ranches to owners who focus on the amenity benefits of ranch properties (X-axis). We have divided the landscapes into three “poles,” each requiring different land conservation strategies.

Pole 1 describes landscapes largely dominated by full-time owner-operators. Conservation opportunities here hinge on the ecological and socioeconomic sustainability of commodity agriculture and on a mix of creative approaches to ranch viability, including grass banking and maximizing ranch profits through economic diversification.

Pole 2 represents landscapes in transition, where amenity-driven landowners intermix with long-tenure producers. Landscapes in this group feature a combination of landscape elements that have become increasingly attractive to rural development in the American West: scenery, historic communities, isolation, moist climate, and high terrain. Transitional landscapes are at the highest risk of development and represent logical targets for purchases of development rights, as remaining large parcels command a premium for development. Areas with intact large ranches offer opportunities for collaborative stewardship among newcomers and long-timers on shared concerns like weed eradication and overgrazing; collaboration can leverage the resources of new landowners to help sustain struggling traditional local operators.

Pole 3 landscapes have largely made the transition to alternative ownership and feature a wide variety of land use practices, ranging from "conservation ranching" to "fishing ranches" to twenty-acre "ranchettes" and second homes. Many of these owners are absentee. Areas with high amenity ownership and little ownership fragmentation are often the bulwark of regional private land protection efforts; they provide a secure base of lands in conservation easements as well as financial and social resources for the land and community. Amenity-dominated landscapes with intermediate fragmentation risk more future fragmentation, but offer important conservation tactics such as re- aggregating subdivided ranches or encouraging owners to purchase available neighboring properties to maximize both privacy and habitat continuity. Amenity landscapes that are heavily fragmented (like those near resorts) shift the conservation tool kit to tactics like open space finance and acquisition, smaller easements, and rural design guidelines and regulations that protect habitat at the site scale.

 

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A Center of the American West project with funding from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Yellowstone Heritage, and The Nature Conservancy