The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

Matador grassbank cattle drive. (c)Kenton Rowe

Watch a slide show of the grassbankers in action.

The Conservancy’s pioneering grassbank is centered at our 60,000 acre Matador Ranch. Under the program, local ranchers pay discounted fees to graze their cattle on the Matador in exchange for wildlife-friendly practices on their own operations. The minimum requirement for membership in the grassbank is a committment to control noxious weeds and not break any new ground (sodbusting). After that, the lease price drops for additional conservation measures. For example, protecting prairie dog habitat earns a discount, securing Sage-grouse leks earns another, modifying fences, that's right, more money off the lease price.

The agreements secure habitat for Sage-grouse and grassland birds; increase the use of wildlife-friendly fencing, protect streams; control weeds;and prevent plowing under native prairie. 

How it Began  

The program evolved in 2002 after the area had suffered from three years of severe drought, and ranchers were facing selling off their herds if they didn’t find grazing. They found grass at the Matador. The program helped the ranchers rest their drought-weary ranchlands, and helped the Conservancy develop positive relations among neighbors.

 “We are real pleased with this opportunity,” says rancher Dale Veseth, “This has made a huge difference in this community… When you help feed families and cows, they’ll remember.” 

A Growing Success 

The local ranchers help plan and manage the grassbank. The result is that participating ranchers, along with the Matador, have improved habitat across more than 250,000 acres in south Phillips County. They have also helped us protect more than 56,000 acres of habitat for highly threatened Greater Sage-Grouse and remove or modify miles of fencing that endangered wildlife. 

The grassbank has allowed them to broaden that stewardship in ways that increased benefits to wildlife, without reducing the already slim profit margins for ranching. This partnership has helped conserve some of the most important remaining habitat for grassland birds, pronghorn, prairie dogs, and Sage grouse in the country.

See how Grassbank ranchers helped scientists study imperiled Long-billed curlews.  See who's been caught on our Matador fence cam!