| Fast Facts |
location
near Cody; 2 hours from Billings, Montana
ecoregion
Utah-Wyoming Rocky Mountains
project size
more than 3 million acres
preserves
Heart Mountain Ranch and Grassbank
public lands
Yellowstone National Park, Shoshone National Forest, mixed Bureau of Land Management and state lands
partners
U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Wyoming Game and Fish, Draper Museum of Natural History, Audubon Society, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, private landowners, Absaroka-Beartooth Ranchland Trust
conservancy initiatives
Fire, Invasive Species
natural events
sage grouse gather at mating grounds, early spring; elk migrations, spring and fall | |
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In the Greater Yellowstone area—the largest intact ecosystem in the lower 48—keeping rangeland open and unbroken by development is essential to preserve ancient migration routes and wilderness. |
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Lamar Valley near Soda Butte Creek.
© Jack Dykinga |
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| The borders of a national park mean nothing to grizzly bears, which move in winter from Yellowstone National Park to the nearby lower elevations of the Absaroka Range. For migrating herds of elk, the open slopes of a ranch offer a good place to calve in the spring. Although human boundaries do exist, they are rarely apparent in country that remains largely unbroken. |
| The extraordinary wildlife of this wilderness along the eastern edge of Yellowstone has drawn the likes of Teddy Roosevelt, Buffalo Bill Cody and Ernest Hemingway. Named for the Crow Indians who made their home here, the Absarokas provide vital habitat for wide-ranging |
Bernie and Pam Bjornestad,
ranchers participating in the Heart Mountain Grassbank.
© Will Van Overbeek |
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species such as wolves, mountain lions and mule deer. Volcanic in origin, the land is dissected by scores of clear creeks that transform into frenzied rivers during summer rainstorms. Glaciers, canyons, dense forests, broad mountain meadows and hundreds of alpine lakes comprise some of the nation’s most striking wilderness. It is rugged country where stark beauty meets ageless rituals. | |
Maintaining the intact nature of the Absarokas is vital to many species like sage grouse and grizzlies, whose habitat has been greatly reduced elsewhere in the West. Because ranches contain much of the precious open space that connects and buffers conservation areas, keeping local ranches in business and free of subdivision is a primary goal of The Nature Conservancy. At Heart Mountain—a geological puzzle and well-known symbol of the Absarokas—the Conservancy worked with the local community to launch the Heart Mountain Grassbank. The grassbank gives Absarokas ranchers a shared source of livestock forage while they rest and restore the grass of their own rangeland. A revolving “bank” of grass that allows many ranchers to participate, the grassbank is an innovative tool that supports working landscapes while keeping at bay the subdivision common in many Western landscapes.
Learn more about The Nature Conservancy's work in Wyoming. |
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| Conservation Profile |
targets
grizzly bear, bighorn sheep, Yellowstone cutthroat trout, ferruginous hawk, wildflowers like aromatic pussytoes, Absaroka goldenweed, Shoshonea, Absaroka biscuitroot
stresses
flood of new residents, ranch subdivision, second-home development, alteration of natural fire regime
strategies
secure conservation easements, acquire land, restore ecosystems through fire management, encourage conservation management of public land, involve community in management of natural resources
results
launched Heart Mountain Grassbank; land exchange with Bureau of Land Management protected 4,000 acres of migratory corridor | | | | |
