The Nature Conservancy Opens Cheyenne Office

Lander, WY—July 5, 2006—A native of Nebraska’s sweeping prairie, Brent Lathrop knows what it’s like to live in a land of swaying grasses and wide, lonesome vistas. He also knows that the vastness and monotony of the Great Plains are all that most people are able to see. “For those who don’t live there, the open spaces of grasslands can be really intimidating,” Lathrop says.

After almost 30 years doing conservation work in Nebraska, Lathrop has shifted to the plains landscape around Cheyenne, Wyoming. Here he’s starting a southeast Wyoming program for The Nature Conservancy. Lathrop’s move marks a new focus for the Conservancy’s Wyoming Chapter on protecting the state’s native grasslands.

Brent Lathrop
© The Nature Conservancy

“Southeast Wyoming’s grasslands provide so many services for the people of this state,” says Andrea Erickson Quiroz, the Conservancy’s director in Wyoming. “Grasslands provide important wildlife habitat, economic opportunities, forage for domestic livestock, and the protection of freshwater resources, but they’re largely an under-appreciated landscape.”

In Cheyenne, Lathrop will continue to do what he does best—work with farmers, ranchers, other private landowners, and government agencies to build a network of partnerships. His focus: the native shortgrass and mixed-grass landscapes that hug Wyoming’s eastern half. Grasslands account for more than 34 percent of Wyoming.

Lathrop began his conservation career working alongside farmers and ranchers in the 1970s with the Natural Resource District in North Platte, Nebraska. After 14 years, he opened The Nature Conservancy’s Platte/Rainwater Basin office in Aurora, Nebraska, bringing it from a one-man office to a community program with six employees.

Lathrop’s first task in Cheyenne will be to get to know his new community. “There can be a disconnect between the conservation community and practical folks on the ground,” says Lathrop. “But once you get to know people, a lot of that nervousness starts breaking down and you can get things done.”

This is an important time to join Wyoming’s efforts to protect its native grasslands, says Erickson Quiroz. The Wyoming Chapter of The Nature Conservancy recently announced a partnership with the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resources Trust to provide $250,000 in matching funds for conservation projects in Wyoming’s Shirley and Thunder basin areas.

Today, grasslands are considered among the most threatened habitat types on Earth. Conversion, invasion by noxious and non-native plants, and loss of naturally-occurring patterns such as fire, all affect the viability of Wyoming’s native grasslands.

Compared to many of the highly-impacted regions of the Great Plains, grasslands in Wyoming are relatively healthy throughout much of their historic range. Wyoming’s large tracts of native grasslands exist because of the presence of large, untilled tracts of private land and the stewardship of landowners, says Lathrop.

“If you don’t work with landowners, then you’re missing a huge opportunity to work with people who make a difference,” he says. “This is a group of people I enjoy working with—if we can help them be successful managing their resource, that will help us all as a society.”

The open spaces of grasslands, Lathrop says, often turn people away. Mountain environments get more attention. “The mountains are very scenic, but the fact is that they have a low carrying capacity—you can’t grow food there,” says Lathrop. “When crossing the United States, Lewis and Clark almost starved in the mountains, but in the grasslands they had a never-ending supply of resources, just like the Native Americans who carved out a life on the prairie.”

Lathrop notes that as the population of Colorado’s Front Range expands, the big open spaces nearby in Wyoming act as filters for water quality and air quality. “Out here in the grasslands there’s space to breathe,” says Lathrop. “I just love it.”

Brent Lathrop can be reached at blathrop@tnc.org.