Sheep Mountain Land Exchange
Proposed Trade to Secure Public Access and Winter Range for Elk
Cody, Wyoming—November 30, 2006—“Sheep Mountain is the most interesting and beautiful place,” says Patricia Bales. “I’m thankful that this land that had been in my family for so long is still isolated and wild.” For more than a generation, Bales’ family owned much of the private land on Sheep Mountain. Now an innovative land exchange provides a chance to protect its wildness for more generations to come.
Critical Winter Range
West of Cody, Sheep Mountain sits wedged between the north and the south forks of the Shoshone River. The mountain’s open, grassy meadows harbor crucial elk and mule deer winter range, particularly in deep snow years, and are occupied grizzly range. Many of the elk that winter in this area are part of migratory herds that summer as far away as Yellowstone National Park.
“The area is one of the major ungulate winter ranges for the Cody elk herd,” says John Emmerich, Wyoming Game and Fish Depart-ment Deputy Director. “With potential land trades and conservation easements to protect this area from future development and to set aside more winter forage, this area will be of utmost importance in maintaining big game herds in future years.”
In Sheep Mountain’s shadows stand limestone cliffs where you can find both nesting raptors and a collection of rare and endemic plants. The mountain’s many caves offer stories of the past, including a woven juniper net found covered in a packrat midden. The net dates to the Paleoindians of almost 9,000 years ago and is thought to have been used to trap mountain sheep.
A Piece of History
The top of Sheep Mountain is a large block of private land surrounded by Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land. For many years the Bales family owned the majority of private lands and generously made them available to the public for recreation, hunting, hiking and horseback riding. In 1999, two private individuals purchased the deeded acres on Sheep Mountain from the Bales family, with the intention of trading them to the BLM for other property.
But the new landowners soon realized the process was far more complicated and time consuming than they expected. In August 2000, the Conservancy purchased 1,828 deeded acres on Sheep Mountain with the intention of exchanging them to the BLM.
What the Conservancy is Doing
Today, the Conservancy is proposing to transfer the land on Sheep Mountain to the BLM in exchange for an equal value of BLM parcels mostly located in the Stonebridge Reservoir area west of Sheep Mountain. Other BLM lands in the Two Dot Ranch, Polecat Bench and Meeteetse areas have also been added to the exchange.
The Nature Conservancy will transfer these BLM parcels to private landowners, protecting certain parcels with total non-development conservation easements.
A Win-Win Trade
Without the exchange, the picture of conservation on Sheep Mountain doesn’t look as bright: the Conservancy might be forced to sell Sheep Mountain to a private buyer who could protect wildlife habitat, but deny public access to the mountain for hunting, horseback riding and hiking. In addition, the Bales family might lose Sheep Mountain as a major portion of their family-run grazing operation.
“It just makes sense for the BLM to manage the land on Sheep Mountain,” says Patricia Bales. “I would much rather the BLM have it than some private party that would build a big road up there and destroy the views. A large percentage of wildlife live on private lands—they don’t fare well on subdivisions. And [exchanging the lands to the BLM] will ultimately help our ranching operation stay alive.”
“There are many winners here – wildlife, ranching, conservation and public access,” says Laura Bell, Director of The Nature Conservancy’s Northwest Program. “The Conservancy has worked hard to come up with a proposal that both generously enhances the public holdings while supporting the needs and interests of the local community.”
Download a fact sheet on the Sheep Mountain Project
(.pdf, 320 kb)
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