Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeConsider ThisUtah Rancher and The Nature Conservancy Working to Protect Grasslands

Utah Rancher and The Nature Conservancy Working to Protect Grasslands

Dugout Ranch headquarters
Dugout Ranch headquarters

Ranchers and The Nature Conservancy working together?  It sounds like a case of odd bedfellows.  But in the decades she’s been running the Dugout Ranch, Heidi Redd has always done what was best for her ranch and her livestock.  So back in the late ’90s when her divorce from husband Robert Redd meant the ranch might have to be sold, she approached The Nature Conservancy to see if they were interested in purchasing the ranch and allowing it to continue functioning as a working livestock operation.  They were interested, and that was the start of their partnership.  Now in her seventies, Heidi and the Nature Conservancy are working together on research that will provide answers about how to protect grasslands and ranching as the climate changes.

Back in 2010, The Nature Conservancy made Heidi Redd their "cover girl" because "Conservation is about nature and people. Our work to protect habitat benefits people too - whether by alleviating poverty, protecting drinking water or helping ranchers stay in business."
Back in 2010, The Nature Conservancy made Heidi Redd their “cover girl” because “Conservation is about nature and people. Our work to protect habitat benefits people too – whether by alleviating poverty, protecting drinking water or helping ranchers stay in business.”

Redd says that the biggest changes she’s seen in her 40 years running the ranch are the increase in visitors and the shifting weather patterns.  She attributed the fact that her cattle herd is now only half the size it once was to shifts in the climate saying, “There is less moisture, hence fewer forage plants, and the water holes dry up earlier in the season.”  She hopes that the scientists from The Nature Conservancy’s “Canyonlands Research Center” will be able to provide ranchers with information on how to reduce invasive species and their spread, and, if forage plants are stressed due to drought, when to graze them and for how long.

Check out the video for more on the partnership.  Even if you’re not interested in the work, enjoy the beauty of the ranch.  It’s in one of my favorite places on the planet, and if you’ve watched any westerns lately, you might recognize some of the landmarks.

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Kathy Voth
Kathy Vothhttps://onpasture.com
I am the founder, editor and publisher of On Pasture, now retired. My career spanned 40 years of finding creative solutions to problems, and sharing ideas with people that encouraged them to work together and try new things. From figuring out how to teach livestock to eat weeds, to teaching range management to high schoolers, outdoor ed graduation camping trips with fifty 6th graders at a time, building firebreaks with a 130-goat herd, developing the signs and interpretation for the Storm King Fourteen Memorial trail, receiving the Conservation Service Award for my work building the 150-mile mountain bike trail from Grand Junction, Colorado to Moab, Utah...well, the list is long so I'll stop with, I've had a great time and I'm very grateful.

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