Conservation Buyer Acquires Moulton Ranch

Upper Bench First of Two Parcels to be Purchased

Jackson, WY—March 30 2005—The upper bench portion of the former Moulton property was purchased today by a buyer agreeing to the terms of a conservation easement placed on the ranch by Gladys Moulton a decade ago. The conservation agreement limits the number of building lots on the property, designates a specific building envelope and allows livestock grazing. The sale of a second parcel, encompassing the lower end of the property along the Snake River, is also being negotiated, according to The Nature Conservancy.

In 1995, Gladys Moulton donated a conservation easement on her property to The Nature Conservancy with the goal of forever limiting development on the ranch she grew up on and managed throughout her adult life. She loved her land and particularly enjoyed seeing cattle grazing the pastures adjacent to the Snake River bottomland. Subsequent to donating the easement on the property, Ms. Moulton became ill and died several years later. Never married, Ms. Moulton had no children and her will did not name any relatives as heirs. She left the property to the Wyoming Chapter of The Nature Conservancy with the understanding the conservation easement would remain in place in the event the organization chose to sell the property.

A long dispute over Ms. Moulton’s bequest was reached through a private settlement. The Nature Conservancy conveyed a portion of the property to her brother’s son, Eric Moulton, who subsequently sold that acreage. The Nature Conservancy listed the remainder of the property, under conservation easement, with Sotheby’s International Realty of Jackson last summer.

With changing times and modern economies, the property is no longer of sufficient size to support a working cattle ranch. The organization chose to sell the property through its Conservation Buyer program which matches buyers dedicated to conservation with unique properties—with agreements specific to the particular property protecting its habitat value in place at the time of sale.

"Conservation easements and purchased development rights are valuable tools for wildlife and wildlife habitat and for human communities, too. They keep land in private lands and on the tax rolls while preserving important natural features such as critical winter range, riparian areas, migration routes and breeding grounds," said Andrea Erickson, State Director for The Nature Conservancy in Wyoming. "Our science staff identifies key features of each property that we work with and guides our decisions on how to best conserve that which is important to wildlife yet enables compatible human uses as well."

Funds from the sale of Conservation Buyer properties are reinvested in conservation projects throughout the state of Wyoming. The Nature Conservancy, along with a broad range of willing partners, has conserved over 424,000 acres of important natural areas in Wyoming. For more information on The Nature Conservancy’s work in Wyoming and to see other Conservation Buyer properties currently offered for sale, visit www.nature.org/wyoming.