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In this issue:
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Montana: Conserving a Sea of Grass
As the crow flies, Lee Cornwell lives more than 1,000 miles from the nearest ocean, but when he rides across the family’s ranch in north central Montana, he feels like he’s in the middle of the sea. By placing nearly 11,300 acres of the family ranch under an easement with The Nature Conservancy, the family is helping protect a whole host of endangered grassland birds. But it’s the threat to family ranching that really motivated the Cornwells’ decision. “With this easement, the land will stay valued as agriculture, so we can afford to pass it along to our kids. That’s really why we’re doing it, to make sure that the next generation can live this great life,” says Lee Cornwell. Cornwell’s grandfather started the ranch in 1892, and the fourth generation is already actively managing operations. “We’re making sure it stays the way it was when my grandfather settled it…we want it to stay in grass.” And both the next generations and wildlife benefit from that decision. |
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Fostering the Next Generation Wyoming: The Conservancy's new Conservation Initiatives Director on his return to the West, fostering Wyoming’s future land stewards, and the importance of finding common ground. |
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Back from the Brink Hawaii: A native Hawaiian plant that had not been seen in a century and was presumed extinct is rediscovered on Parker Ranch lands on the island of Hawai‘i. |
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Steering Toward Sustainability California: For 150 years, Darrell Wood and his forebears have sustained family ranching operations in northern California. The Conservancy partners were honored for an entirely different type of sustainability when they won the 2009 National Environmental Stewardship Award at the 2010 Cattle Industry Annual Convention, beating out nearly 200 other nominees from around the United States. |
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Ranchers Reach Out from Across the Globe Argentina/China: Big expanses, arid lands, strong winds and intensive sheep and goat livestock are just some of the similarities Chinese and Argentinean grasslands share. As a result, a delegation from China visited the Conservancy’s Patagonian Grasslands of Argentina Conservation Project to launch an official knowledge-sharing exchange between the two countries. |
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Video: Cowgirl Conservation What’s it like to run cattle on Utah’s Dugout Ranch, where scientists and ranchers are seeking solutions for a changing climate and landscape? Saddle up with longtime rancher Heidi Redd to find out. |
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Video: Talking Straight About a Conservation Easement Wyoming rancher Mike Healy answers the critical question, "What changes when you decide to place a conservation easement on the land you love?" |
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Video: It all Started with a Wayward Cow Many grasslands in the U.S. have been tilled or converted. Not the Jumping Cow Ranch in Colorado. Watch a video of the ranch owner as he talks about his connection to conservation. |
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Round-Up
How to Save the Grasslands: Bring in More Cattle
Read the full story and see the photo essay in TIME. |
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Parting Shot
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Ranchers around the world work with the Conservancy. If you would like to talk with a rancher in your area, tell us a story about your ranch, comment on this issue or receive more information, please e-mail us at ranchenews@tnc.org.
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Photo Credits: © Madylon Cornwell (header images: horses on the ranch; front gate of Cornwell Ranch by moonlight); © Staci Lancaster (TNC's Conservation Initiatives Director, Arlen Lancaster); © Rob Shallenberger (Clermontia Flower, native Hawaiian plant); © Clinton Smith (Rancher, Darrell Wood); © Francisco Bedeschi (Gauchos in the Patagonian pampas); © Tedd Wood (Rancher, Heidi Redd); ©TNC (Video); © Madylon Cornwell (Parting shot); © TNC (Video); Quote - source unknown.
