“This is as good as it gets. We’re quite proud of it. Unless you have something to hide, there’s nothing to be scared of. Because in the end, the resource will show what’s there,” Brackett says.

Sage grouse and wetland habitats are conserved together along with the future of a working ranch in Northwest Colorado. The closing of the Coyte Ranch conservation easement this week is a landmark achievement. It is a story of vision, tragedy, persistence, and optimism for the future of the great places of the Intermountain West.

Ray Owens is a ranch manager of the Bord Gulch Ranch, north of Craig, Colorado, in Moffat County. He may also be one of the most vigilant observers of sagebrush land, and an innovator who constantly searches for ways to improve the ranch for wildlife and livestock.

The state’s first fence-marking partnership project to prevent sage grouse collisions started not in Ekalaka, but another hour and a half drive from there into a vast sea of sage.

“It is important to preserve and maintain the history of the area and the legacy of the cattle. The only way to protect the land is to not put houses on it.” – Mark Lacey, rancher (from ESLT website)

Conservation enhancements directly linked to the SGI field staff working one-on-one with landowners have crossed the million acre mark.

Ranchers Scott and Alan Chew know what it’s like to work across borders. The Utah and Colorado boundary literally crosses through their property that’s part of vast sagebrush steppe known as Blue Mountain, found east of Vernal, Utah, and including part of Dinosaur National Monument.

Joe Painter credits his grandfather for his appreciation of the sage grouse, sharptails, pheasants, ducks, wild turkeys and Hungarian partridge that share his windswept cattle ranch outside of the tiny town of Buffalo, in the far northwest corner of South Dakota.