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What We Do
Conservation Easement
Since July of 2001, The Wyoming Stock Growers
Agricultural Land Trust (WSGALT) has received 34 conservation easements
on close to 80,254 acres of ranchland. Additional conservation
easements are being negotiated throughout the state.
National Awareness
WSGALT has been
instrumental in forming a group of agricultural-focused state
associations called PORT (Partnership
Of Rangeland Trusts). Other
members include the California Rangeland Trust, the Colorado Cattlemen's
Agricultural Land Trust, the Kansas Livestock Association Ranchland Trust, the Montana Land Reliance, the Oregon
Ranchland Trust, and the Ranch Open Space of Nevada. For more information visit http://www.maintaintherange.com.
The Partnership of
Rangeland Trusts (PORT) continues to
work on the 2007 reauthorization of the Farm Bill to support ranchland
conservation programs, most notably the Farm and Ranchland Protection
Program (FRPP) and Grasslands Reserve Program (GRP). PORT
has been working most closely with the National Cattlemen’s Beef
Association and Land Trust Alliance, but also with the Nature Conservancy
and American Farmland Trust on drafting suggested legislative
changes. Terry Frankhauser, Executive Vice President of the
Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, recently testified to the Senate
Finance Committee on the importance of the Grasslands Reserve Program and
renewing legislation increasing the tax benefits of conservation easement
donations. The House version
of the Farm Bill has passed. The Senate will act next, but is not
scheduled to take up the issue until after Labor Day.
PORT Exceeds over 1 million Acres of
Ranchland Conservation
During the fall of 2005, the combined total acres
conserved by the seven members of the Partnership of Rangeland Trusts (PORT) through
conservation easements surpassed the one million mark (1,062,000
acres). Comparatively, this total
means that the safeguarding of one out of every seven acres through
conservation easements in the United States was accomplished by a PORT member, making
participant organizations among the most successful and fastest growing
land trusts in the country. This
success is attributed to PORT member’s
unique grassroots structure of being formed by agricultural producers for
agricultural producers.
PORT was
established in 2004 to leverage resources for the voluntary conservation
of America’s rangelands and to increase the input of agricultural
producers into land conservation issues.
WSGALT was among its founding organizations and WSGALT’s
Executive Director, Glenn Pauley, currently serves as PORT’s board
chairman.
Increasing public awareness of the role of agriculture in
maintaining the nation’s natural habitats, scenic views, clean air
and clean water; making conservation more financially advantageous for
agricultural producers; and enhancing the 2007 reauthorization of the
Federal Farm Bill to support ranchland conservation were designated as
three priority items for PORT during its
2006 August annual meeting in Billings, Montana.
PORT members met in
November with representatives of the Texas Wildlife Association, Texas
Farm Bureau, and Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association to
provide information about establishing an agricultural land trust. Texas is 97 percent privately owned,
has a strong agricultural and ranching tradition, and is currently
experiencing urban sprawl and the loss of farmland. Since 1970, three million acres of
agricultural land in Texas has been converted to other issues. While there are thirty-nine
not-for-profit land trust organizations operating at a statewide,
regionally or locally in Texas, none are directed primarily toward
agricultural land conservation. PORT has also supplied information on establishing running a
ranching land trust to the Oregon Rangeland Trust who hired its first
Executive Director in November of 2006.
Education
Home(s)
on the Range: Wyoming Agriculture, Wildlife, and Rural Economies
WSGALT is developing a series of lesson plans for middle
and high school teachers about the economic, ecological, and cultural
effects of rangeland fragmentation and the tools to address this
problem. Project partners include the University of Wyoming’s William
D. Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Natural Resources (WRIENR),
Wyoming Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture in the Classroom, and the
University of Wyoming Math and Science Teaching Center.
Media and Public Presentations
Since its founding, WSGALT and its work have been
featured in twenty-six local and state newspaper articles, five radio
interviews, two television stories, and two national magazines.
WSGALT has also made fourty-five public presentations about the
importance of conserving working ranches and ranchland conservation
tools. Presentations addressed such groups as agricultural
organizations, realtors, Rotary clubs, state legislators, county
commissions, and university students.
Open Spaces and Ranching Places
WSGALT has a quarterly column in the Wyoming Stock
Growers Association’s Cow Country magazine about its activities,
tools to conserve working ranches, and western land use issues.
Research
WSGALT consults with University of Wyoming and other
research institutions to document the agricultural, ecological, economic,
and cultural effects of land fragmentation; share information among
interested and effected parties; and investigate new ways of maintaining
ranching landscapes and sustainable land uses.
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