Cowboys and Conservation

This paper was prepared as part of the Kingsbury Browne fellowship awarded to the author by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, in conjunction with the 2013 Kingsbury Browne Conservation Leadership Award presented by the Land Trust Alliance. The paper is divided into three parts. The first is a brief history of land trusts formed in the West by cattle producer organizations. The second part is a discussion of the key considerations involved in conserving ranchlands. And the third is a reflection on what the future holds for the rangeland trusts in the West. A brief conclusion projects a productive future for land trusts in the Western United States.