Conservation Buyers Protect Historic Ranch Property

Cody, WY—August 21, 2006—The Nature Conservancy’s Sheep’s Point property near Meeteetse was sold to buyers who will protect its conservation values with a donated conservation easement to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. The 320-acre parcel is surrounded by public land and harbors important elk and mule deer migratory corridors, elk calving grounds, and crucial elk winter range.

Rich Dahm, a long time elk hunter from Spokane, Wash., is one of the partners buying the property. “We’ve been coming out to the upper Greybull to hunt elk the last four years, and it’s always a thrill to see the wildlife here,” Daum says. “So many of the places we’ve hunted in the past have deteriorated, so we feel it’s really important to protect this habitat. You can’t get it back once it’s gone. It’s about the legacy for us.”

Dahm and partners are supporters of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and will donate a conservation easement on the property to that organization.

The Sheep’s Point parcel is a priority area for both the Conservancy and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, which spawned its Absaroka Conservation Initiative with the goal of protecting critical winter elk range and important habitat for other wildlife species on the Absaroka Front.

Bill Mytton, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s lands program manager, will work with The Nature Conservancy and other groups to ensure the protection of critical elk habitat such as the Sheep’s Point property. “We really appreciate the opportunity to work with the Conservancy to secure this piece of property, and look forward to doing more joint projects throughout the Absaroka Conservation Initiative area,” says Mytton.

Partnerships are the best way to achieve lasting conservation results, says Laura Bell, the Conservancy’s northwest program director. “Migratory corridors, calving grounds and winter ranges are priorities for us, so the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is a natural partner,” Bell says. “I see us going in this direction more and more to get larger work accomplished.”

The Sheep’s Point property was once part of the Pitchfork Ranch, one of Wyoming’s most historic ranches. Started in 1878, the ranch is an important link to the Old West—a place where Butch Cassidy stole a horse and legendary photographer Charles J. Belden captured images of the cowboy life.

Later, the ranch continued to make history with the discovery of the black-footed ferret, a small mammal thought to be extinct. The discovery sparked a new model for ranching and conservation. Today, 13,000 acres of the Pitchfork Ranch are under conservation easement.

Bordered by Shoshone National Forest, state grazing lands, and the Wyoming Game and Fish Sunshine Habitat Unit, Sheep’s Point hosts sagebrush grasslands and groves of aspen, fir and limber pine. Easement terms address the maintenance and protection of elk migration routes and calving grounds, as well as mule deer migration routes and riparian areas. Bighorn sheep migration routes and critical moose range and calving areas are also in close proximity to the property.