The historic Lazy BV Ranch, made famous for the discovery of the last remaining black-footed ferrets about 40 years ago, is home to many wildlife species, big and small. It’s been called “little Serengeti,” demonstrating the diversity of wildlife on the private property.

Yet, standing in the way of several iconic species of the West were unfriendly livestock fences, invasive plant species robbing the habitat of native plants and subdivision developments in migration routes and winter habitat.

Located near Meeteetse on the front range of the Absarokas, the ranch is worth millions to developers with its amazing views and proximity to bucket list outdoor recreation. Lazy BV owners Allen and Kristine Hogg’s cattle operation on the hardscrabble landscape doesn’t allow them to live the lavish life they could should they sell it to the highest bidder.

To sell the property could mean development: Subdivisions have been springing up at a brisk pace in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Yet, the Hogg family has decided to keep the property intact, instead enrolling in U.S. Department of Agriculture Big Game programs, including cost-sharing and savings through the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, and the multi-year Grasslands Conservation Reserve Program.

The historic ranch had miles of old fences, but the cost of installing wildlife-friendly fences was more than the business could bear. They needed 16 miles of fence replaced, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yet the importance of the land for big game is immense and the Hogg family prides themselves in championing conservation efforts.

“I just want to emphasize the importance of these cost share programs that we can partner with mainly the federal government, but other entities as well,” Allen said to a large group of state and federal officials, nongovernmental agency representatives and local landowners. “If we don’t have this program, our alternative is to just go with what we’ve got.”

The group of about 40 people on the working lands field tour, including honored guest Gov. Mark Gordon, visited four agricultural operations within important wildlife migration and winter grazing habitat that could spell trouble if sold. The first stop was the front line of working farms in the Irma Flats on the South Fork of the Shoshone River, where subdivisions are popping up faster than blemishes on a ninth grader’s nose.

CWD spreading

Wyoming Game and Fish Department Cody Region Wildlife Biologist Tony Mong said development in the Irma Flats helped spread disease.

“In 2017 or 18, we had a high amount of snowfall up here. It ended up losing probably over half of the herd here. I do believe that part of the reason why those animals died is because they hit a barrier, which would be development, and they couldn’t move out into the areas where there was less snow,” he said.

Facing tough wildlife issues like chronic wasting disease and brucellosis, Mong said as development pushes wildlife out of traditional habitat, they are forced into tighter groups. It’s in the tighter groups where diseases are more easily communicated.

“By dividing this land and forcing animals into smaller areas, we’re seeing that those animals are having more interactions with one another — which, until we started to see this chronic wasting disease thing, wasn’t really something that we were concerned about,” he said.

Now, some areas in the Absaroka Range and Big Horn Basin have prevalence rates for the disease closing in on 50% and it seems that everywhere Game and Fish look in ungulate habitat, they find CWD.

The prevalence of CWD in the Greybull and Shoshone River herds is about 45% for both mule deer and white-tailed bucks. The department has a CWD surveillance program that has been tracking the disease since 1997.

Mong said the key to managing wildlife is approaching it as a collaborative effort.

“It’s important as we look at this landscape around Cody and down into Meeteetse that partnerships are key in managing wildlife. It’s not just for Wyoming Game and Fish to do, but it takes partnerships with private lands, with other agencies and NGOs to really make a meaningful impact,” he said.

Government agencies represented at the event included Natural Resources Conservation Service, Wyoming Wildlife Natural Resource Trust, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Park County Weed and Pest, Shoshone National Forest and Farm Service Agency.

In recent years a significant portion of the habitat has been developed and the push is on to sign new permanent conservation easements to ensure critical habitat is not lost. In return for financial considerations, landowners can still own and work their property, even sell it if they desire, but designated easement land cannot be developed or subdivided for residential properties in perpetuity.

Migration routes

The group then headed to the Quarter Circle Eleven Ranch south of Cody. There they took a wild double-track ride to check out an important migration route near the busy two-lane Wyo. Highway 120. The trip highlighted the need for a protected wildlife crossing and the results of a recent large-scale cheatgrass mitigation project that was part of a grant.

President of Hoodoo Land Holdings and Manager of the Hoodoo Ranch in Cody, JD Radakovich said one of the problems the ranch had when he arrived was rough-riding interior roads were tearing up their trucks.

“So I saw a road grader sitting there. It’s like, well, I’m gonna go and I’m gonna blade all these two tracks around the ranch so our guys can get around easier and less wear and tear on trucks. Well, that worked the next year, though, cheatgrass filled in all the places we disturbed,” he said. “It’s just waiting for an opportunity.”

From a hill overlooking Wyo. Highway 120, you could easily see a steady stream of traffic. But then Radakovich pointed to the land, showing how the color of the landscape has changed between the sprayed and nearby untreated land.

The final stop before lunch was at the Lazy BV. It was important for the collaborative to demonstrate how their programs and easements can save family agricultural businesses. The help that the Hoggs received not only made the ranch more friendly to wildlife, it helped them afford to bring their son Tighe back to work the ranch, ensuring it will continue for yet another generation. The ranch was founded in 1918.

Collaborative effort

The full-day tour and program organized by the East Yellowstone Collaborative was a huge time commitment for the governor. But for Gordon, saving open land habitat and the state’s consequential ag communities are top priorities.

“Our wildlife is a huge treasure, not only for hunting, but for people coming and [wildlife] watching in this area of the state,” Gordon said while joining in the group transportation on rocky double-track trails and gravel roads for hours to see three important Park County conservation projects, including cheatgrass mitigation, fencing improvements and management successes. “What is important, as we’ve seen, is that we can start to understand how important migration corridors are and how important winter habitat is.”

Gordon used Colorado as an example. He said finding solace is hard and wildlife is more rare than in Wyoming “because it’s overrun with recreation,” he said.

“Somehow finding that balance between public lands and private ... lands that are important to the ability for wildlife to migrate ... All of those pieces have to work in order for the place to stay the same,” he said.

Gordon has led the state in preserving wildlife migrations, taking shape with the governor’s 2020-21 Executive Order on migration, said Park County Open Lands Director Alex Few. The NGO is one of seven entities in the collaborative.

“I think one of the successes of this is understanding what happens if you put landowners front and center and you give them a voice,” she said.

The East Yellowstone Collaborative supports the conservation and economic resilience of working lands across the Absaroka Front, valuing the essential role private lands play in sustaining wildlife habitat and landscape stewardship by enhancing the economic viability of working lands that supports healthy wildlife, soil, water and community; building trusted and lasting relationships creates better outcomes; acknowledging the ecological and cultural richness of the Absaroka Front and its key contributions to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem; and making science-based conservation decisions informed by local stewardship knowledge, providing lasting support for landowners.

“We are a collaborative made up of seven nonprofit organizations and three working lands advisers that try to keep us on the right path,” said East Yellowstone Regional Director for the LegacyWorks group Laura Bell.

One of the collaborative’s top strategies is serving as a hub to connect landowners and managers with available resources, which continues to be an important contact for dozens of other local ag farms and ranches. The collaboration includes The Nature Conservancy, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Trout Unlimited, Western Landowners Alliance, Park County Open Lands, LegacyWorks Group and the Beyond Yellowstone Living Lab. But, bringing people together may be their most important work.

“I think the East Yellowstone Collaborative has done a really amazing job of bringing people together and creating community,” she said. “Being able to be a part of the community and place you live is really important, and so we can create more and more opportunities.”