Ranchers and farmers don’t work their land for recognition, but a pat on the back every now and them is definitely appreciated. Take the Johnson family from southeast Wyoming. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) recently honored the owners of Terry Creek Ranch as its 2024 landowner of the year.
The Johnsons worked with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation to place a voluntary conservation agreement on their 634 acres in 2021, which lies within the Upper Laramie River Watershed and links a peninsula of the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest to U.S. Forest Service lands in the Snowy Mountains to the west. It also falls within WGFD’s Upper Laramie River and Little Laramie River Crucial Habitat Priority and Sheep Mountain Mule Deer Initiative Areas.
“Not only does this property provide vital winter and year-long range for elk, but elk migration routes funnel directly through it,” said Blake Henning, RMEF chief conservation officer, said at the time. “Groups of 100 to 200 elk on the property are a common occurrence. The immediate landscape also offers important range for mule deer, moose and other wildlife.”
But the Johnsons did much more than just protect the wildlife values of their land with an easement. They converted six miles of fence to wildlife-friendly fencing and implemented forest management practices to mitigate erosion and other issues following the 2020 Mullen Fire.
WGFD presents the award to landowners who show outstanding practices in wildlife management, habitat improvement and conservation techniques on their properties. See the WGFD news release here.
Photo info (left to right): First Lady Jenny and Governor Mark Gordon, Jessie Johnson, Cody Johnson, Nate Johnson, their parents and current owners Barb and Al Johnson, WGFD Habitat Biologist Ryan Amundson and Brian Nesvik, WGF director (retired).
(Photo credit: Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation)