Ownership Change Patterns

Results of our studies of ranchland ownership change are available in:

• Hannah Gosnell, J.H. Haggerty and W.R. Travis (2006): "Ranchland Ownership Change in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem: Implications for Conservation". Society and Natural Resources 19: 743-758.
• H. Gosnell and W. R. Travis (2005): "Ranchland Ownership Dynamics in the Rocky Mountain West." Rangeland Ecology and Management 58: 191-198.

The first step in this project was to measure the rate, pattern and nature of ranchland ownership change in three Rocky Mountain ranching counties over the last decade. We then concentrated on defining ranchland change in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, detailing the rates of ranch sales, their geographical distribution, types of buyers, and changes in use of both private and public rangelands in ten GYE counties (click to see individual county reports in PDF): Lincoln (2002), Sublette (2002), Fremont (2002), Park WY (2003), Carbon (2003), Sweet Grass (2003), Park MT (2003), Stillwater (2002), Beaverhead (2003), and Madison (2003).

The Executive Summary of the GYE study is available here in PDF format.

  Download Complete Executive Summary, 42 pgs, with maps. High-resolution.  (1.5 Mb)

  Complete Executive Summary, 42 pgs, with maps. Low resolution.  (529 k)

  Map: Large Agricultural Land Ownership. High-resolution.  (4.7 Mb)

  Map: Ranch Landscapes in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. High-resolution.  (4.3 Mb)

 

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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