In the western U.S., family ranches — places where three generations often work together — are disappearing.
As daunting property taxes and escalating debt force many landowners to sell, family ranches are increasingly transformed into residential subdivisions split into 10-, 20- or 40-acre parcels.
Fading away is the family ranch—and generations of families knit together by hard labor and the lands and waters they steward.
Disappearing, too, are wildlife habitat and open space that benefit all of us.
The Nature Conservancy is committed to innovative conservation solutions that help families create a better future for ranchlands at risk in the West.
Several multi-generational ranching families in eastern Colorado came together with the Conservancy to protect more than 75,000 acres of endangered grasslands. Watch a video and hear what one young kid is learning from his grandfather as a result of the project. Read the story
Heidi Redd and her sons, Matt and Adam, are working with scientists at the Conservancy’s Canyonlands Research Center in Utah to answer the questions ranchers face as they try to maintain their livelihood in a region threatened by drought, increasing human demands, and rising temperatures. Read the story
Three generations of the Salisbury/O’Toole family raise cattle, sheep and horses in Wyoming’s Little Snake River Valley. The family has now found a way to maintain and expand their ranch business while keeping vital wildlife corridors open. Read the story
Liza Jane Nichols was out walking the ranch with her young son when they found themselves in the gullied channel where the Wallowa River in Northeastern Oregon used to run. And it dawned on them: why not restore the river and put it back on its old, bending path? Read the story
“We’re the next generation out here and it’s up to us to protect the land.” Clara Miller may only be 14 years old, but she clearly understands the importance of conservation. She and her family are working with the Conservancy to bring a real force of nature back to the land. Read the story
When Lee Cornwell surveys his vast grasslands in Montana, he imagines this must be how it feels to be in the middle of the ocean…and the center of the universe. It’s a feeling he wants to be sure his children and grandchildren will also experience. Read the story
At the Selman Ranch in Utah’s Cache County, third generation cattle and sheep ranchers are working with the Conservancy to protect their 6,700-acre ranch both for the Columbian sharp-tailed grouse, and for the next generation. Read the story
Derril Franzen farms with his family next to the Conservancy’s Clive Runnells Family Mad Island Marsh Preserve on the Texas coast. “My family moved to the Collegeport area in the early 1900s,” says Derrill. Find out how his farming practices are helping migratory birds. Read the story