January of the new year began with the closing of conservation easements on one of the oldest operating family ranches in the Green River Valley. Working in cooperation with The Conservation Fund, the Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust placed conservation easements on over 10,000 acres on two homestead ranches owned by the Espenscheid family.
These ranches are part of Budd Ranches, Inc., which is owned and managed by brothers Chad and Brian Espenscheid and their wives Gudrid and Annie, the family’s fourth generation of Wyoming ranchers. The deeded ground under conservation easement has been owned by the Espenscheid family since the 1890s and serves as the base property for an operation that includes approximately 65,000 acres of BLM land in Southwest Wyoming. The publicly-owned acres complement the ranchland under easement and significantly benefit from the Espenscheid’s expertise and stewardship.
Brian Espenscheid stated: “Along with 100 plus years of previous generations ‘working it out, figuring it out and sticking it out,’ this easement helped us to achieve our goals of not only preventing the often inevitable dilution of agricultural lands due to generational splits but to expand our operation to the point that we will have an opportunity to pass on economically viable agricultural businesses to our young children.”
The Budd-Espenscheid family can date their Wyoming roots back to 1879, when Daniel B. Budd inherited a herd of cattle and settled along the Piney Creeks, where Big Piney is currently located. In 1889, his son John established the family’s first homestead ranch approximately nine miles west of town. Over the next century, the family purchased additional neighboring properties and expanded their ranching operations.
“The Espenscheid brothers approached The Conservation Fund with a bold vision to double their ranch’s size by purchasing the neighboring ranch and funding the purchase with the sale of a conservation easement on both properties,” said Luke Lynch, Wyoming state director for The Conservation Fund. “It’s a complicated strategy; but together with WSGALT and other
partners, we rose to the challenge and designed a unique conservation plan to protect the land and accomplish the landowners’ goals.”
“This easement will help the family in keeping the historic Budd-Espenscheid ranch in agriculture and at the same time insures that the land will remain open space for livestock and wildlife,” said Rob Hendry, Chairman of the Conservation Committee for the Wyoming Stock Growers Agricultural Land Trust. “In an area that has many concerns such as subdivisions, wildlife habitat, wildlife corridors, and other development, this easement will have tremendous value for the entire area. This easement, as well as others we have done in the area, showcase the unique value of a truly ag-based land trust like the Wyoming Stock Growers Agricultural Land Trust.”
This land preservation agreement will not only enable the Espenscheid Family to continue its ranching operations, it also protects important wildlife habitat in the Green River Valley. The property provides thousands of acres of crucial wintering ranges and migration corridors for pronghorn, mule deer, moose, and elk, as well as important wetland habitats for songbirds, shorebirds, and numerous aquatic species. In addition, approximately 15 miles of streams, including several miles of North Piney Creek – an important tributary of the Green River that provides spawning habitat for the Colorado River cutthroat trout – have been secured.
“This is a great project for the Wyoming Stock Growers Agricultural Land Trust,” said Alvin Wiederspahn, Chairman of the Board for the Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust. “This easement ties together extensive public and private lands to provide ecosystem-scale conservation of wildlife habitat and agricultural lands. It also provides for the intergenerational transfer of the ranches, and continuation of the ranching operation for the family.”
“The conservation of private ranch and farm lands through voluntary conservation easements held by local, private land trusts is the most effective and efficient use of limited public dollars for habitat conservation. When we can also help facilitate the generational transfer of Wyoming’s working ranches, preserve our agricultural heritage and inject dollars into our rural communities too, it’s a grand slam,” said Pamela Dewell, Executive Director of the Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust.
Funding to purchase the conservation easement was secured from the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP), a federal program managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) that provides matching funds for the purchase of agricultural easements on land. The matched funds were provided by the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust, the Jonah Interagency Mitigation Office, the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and private donors.