Working Lands and Public Benefits

On Thursday, Feb. 1, the Western Landowner Alliance along with the Sheridan County Conservation District held a program in the Snow Goose Room at the Sheridan Center titled Working Lands and Public Benefits, about how the various groups represented work with private landowners for private land conservation to benefit wildlife, pollinators, plants, fish, and the public as well. Over 100 people sent an RSVP for the event.

Carrie Rogaczewski, District Manager – Sheridan County Conservation District, talked about what they were planning to address in the program.

“We feel that is still true today,” Rogaczewski added. She said they partner with several other entities to accomplish their goals. They provide assistance to private landowners for private land conservation.

She talked about working with the private landowners saying,

Lesli Allison, founding member and chief executive of the Western Landowners Alliance, spoke about what her organization does.

She added that they work to support landowners and managers in caring for these lands. “We make knowledge and science more available to landowners.” she said and added that it is not enough to want to care for the lands, but they also need resources and public policies available to do that. The Western Landowners Alliance mission is “To advance policies and practices that sustain working lands, connected landscapes, and native species.”

She much of the conservation efforts have been to preserve public lands, such as Yellowstone. She added that private land conservation is important because when the county was being settle, the landowners chose the best lands, and these are important to wildlife and are disappearing. She mentioned that working lands stitched together the west. The clothes we wear and the food we eat are products of working lands. It is important to conserve these lands, and they are important to our future.

There was short film about the Granger Family Ranch in the Madison Valley in Montana, where they brought back the water to the river bottoms, and how it helped everything, because wetlands are very rare, but are important to 90% of all living species.

The Laszlo family received the 2010 National Wetland Award for Landowner Stewardship after restoring over 500 acres of wetlands on the Granger ranches.

After the film, the panel took the stage to talk about various aspects of land conservation. Jessia Western, who works in natural resources and owns a small acreage outside of Sheridan introduced the speakers and asked the questions of the panel. There was Bob Budd, Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resources Trust; Brad Bauer, Sheridan Community Land Trust; Don Reinke and Doug Masters, both area ranchers, and Ian Tator,  terrestrial habitat supervisor with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

Western said it was a lot of work even on a small acreage, and she became interested in private property, and how much work goes into a ranch.

She started the discussion by asking ranchers Masters and Reinke about how do their operations currently support public assets such as clean water and wildlife?

Masters spoke about his ranch between Dayton and Ranchester, along with his forest service grazing leases so they depend on public land grazing.

He added that he is the fourth generation on the ranch, and he has grandchildren who work on the ranch as well.

Dan Reinkie talked about water development on his lands.

He also said that his ranch is a haven for pheasants as well.

Both Reinkie and Master’s thanked the Sheridan Conservation Service.

She asked Bauer, Budd and Tator about to expand on the public benefits from private land conservation.

Tator spoke first and talked about what he does to landowners in such things as wildlife friendly fencing and aspen treatments, and water development,

“You name it we probably do it,” Tator said.

Budd talked about his organization.

Bauer talked about how the SCLT helps to keep open lands for the next generations. He compared a conservation easement to a pizza and keeping the pizza whole. He said it doesn’t matter what toppings on the pizza, or what one does on the property, it was just keeping the pie whole and keeping it open for wildlife.

The panel also discussed some ways private landowners could make extra income off the land, and carbon credits was touched on as a new income source.

There was also a discussion about mule deer habitat and ways to improve that, and that 65% of mule deer use private lands for their habitat.

Any landowner wishing for more information on any of these organizations, they can be found on the web.

Western Landowners Alliance https://westernlandowners.org

Wyoming Game and Fish Department https://wgfd.wyo.gov

Wyoming wildlife and natural resource trust https://wwnrt.wyo.gov

Sheridan Community land Trust https://sheridanclt.org