None The Nature Conservancy in Wyoming Press Releases Search All Press Releases Kerry Brophy-Lloyd email: kbrophy@tnc.org phone: (307) 335-2135

2008 Landowner of the Year Award
The Nature Conservancy's Heart Mountain Ranch

CODY, WY— September 26, 2008— The Cody Region of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department has named The Nature Conservancy's Heart Mountain Ranch as its 2008 Landowner of the Year. The award was presented at the 11th Annual Wyoming Hunting & Fishing Heritage Expo in Casper Sept. 11, 2008.  

"The cattle grazing operations and overall management approach at Heart Mountain Ranch are meant to coordinate livestock and wildlife management and demonstrate the important link between conservation and agriculture," said Doug McWhirter, Cody wildlife biologist for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

In 1999, The Nature Conservancy purchased the 15,000-acre Heart Mountain Ranch north of Cody. The ranch supports one of the greatest concentrations of rare plants ever discovered on private land in Wyoming.

According to McWhirter, the ranch provides important wildlife habitat. "The ranch habitat is unique. It supports elk, mule deer and pronghorn antelope as well as large carnivores including grizzly bears, wolves and mountain lions," McWhirter said. "Sage grouse, a species of special concern, use strutting grounds, nesting, brood rearing and winter habitats on the ranch."

Along with the Two Dot and E & B Landmark Ranches, Heart Mountain Ranch is part of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Heart Mountain Hunter Management Area, providing hunting access for pronghorn, mule deer and elk. "The Heart Mountain Hunter Management Area has been particularly important for management of elk in the Clarks Fork herd unit, as the Heart Mountain area has seen wintering elk numbers increase from less than 50 to nearly 800 over the last 10-15 years," McWhirter said.  

The Nature Conservancy and Heart Mountain Ranch are cooperators in the Absaroka Elk Ecology Project, a large-scale research project being conducted by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the University of Wyoming. The project is investigating the population dynamics of migratory and non-migratory elk and the influence of wolves upon habitat use and movements of elk.

Heart Mountain Ranch is proactive in enhancing wildlife habitat. In conjunction with the Bureau of Land Management, the ranch treated 640 acres of sagebrush and conifers with prescribed fire and 100 acres of sagebrush with a brush mower. In cooperation with the Big Horn Basin Sage Grouse Local Working Group, the ranch has developed and fenced six springs.

The irrigated fields of Heart Mountain Ranch are used as a revolving bank of livestock forage, often referred to as a grass bank. "In this arrangement, forage is made available at a reduced cost to ranchers while they implement wildlife habitat improvement projects on either their private lands or federal grazing allotments," McWhirter stated. "As a result, the habitat receives the rest and recovery needed prior to, and following treatment. In turn, ranchers are provided a place to graze their cattle until improved areas are ready to be grazed."

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. The Conservancy and its more than 1 million members have protected nearly 120 million acres worldwide. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.