A rancher stands in front of a pickup truck with cows and a windmill in the background.
A rancher stands in front of a pickup truck with cows and a windmill in the background.
Conservation Ranching Initiative

Landowner Resources

Use these tips and techniques to improve your land.
May Ranch, certified by Audubon's Conservation Ranching Initiative. Photo: Evan Barrientos/Audubon Rockies
May Ranch, certified by Audubon's Conservation Ranching Initiative. Photo: Evan Barrientos/Audubon Rockies
Conservation Ranching Initiative

Landowner Resources

Use these tips and techniques to improve your land.

Do you want to know how to mark fences? Make fence-markers? Put in a wildlife escape ramp in a livestock tank? How about perch deterrents to prevent ravens and raptors from landing on fenceposts and other structures in the otherwise treeless country sage grouse prefer? (Predators are a natural part of the sage grouse community, but human-added perch sites make it easier for them to locate sage grouse).

Maybe you’re looking for ways to improve our fencing to be easier on pronghorn and other wildlife on the move. You might want to identify all the kinds of sagebrush, or find out more about the seasonal habitat needs of sage grouse.

Please take a look at our resource list. Also, check in with your local Cooperative Extension office,  NRCS office or other office, too, that may well have hard copies printed out and ready to go. 

Birds

Sage Spirit By Dave Showalter

The Greater Sage-Grouse fact sheet--

Grouse of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, PDF, by Michael Schroeder

The Sage Grouse in Wyoming, by Dr. Robert Lansing Patterson, 1952.

Other Wildlife

To find out more about a whole range of sagebrush wildlife, view the PowerPoint by Kent McAdoo, University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, Sagebrush Associated Wildlife Species.

Mule deer & sage grouse in Wyoming SGI/TNC study – Did you know mule deer share winter range with sage grouse? Find out more.

The Perilous Journey of Wyoming’s Migrating Pronghorn – award-winning article in High Country News.

Wyoming Wildscape

Fences

A Landowners Guide to Wildlife Friendly Fences by the Wyoming Wildlife Foundation

Guide to making your fences wildlife friendly.

How to install fence markers for sage grouse.

Science to Solutions Series: Marking High-Risk Fences Saves Sage Grouse

Soil

Colorado's Soil Health Resource Guide

The Biology of Soil Compaction

Livestock water tanks

Guide to livestock water tanks and sage grouse.

Guide to ladder design for livestock water tanks.

Related programs

Backyards and Barnyards 

Colorado State University Extension

University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension Service

NRCS (backyard conservation)

Home and Small Acreage Owners

How you can help, right now