This is the first in a series of articles focusing on PFC Director Gary Price and his family’s 77 Ranch in Texas. “We are very fortunate to be on the ranch. Most days, we can wander around without interacting with people.” So begins the tale of how the Covid epidemic is affecting the award-winning 77 Ranch in east Texas, owned and operated by Partners for Conservation Director Gary Price and his wife and son.

Legal and environmental historian and conservationist, Lowell E. Baier has recently published a new book, Saving Species on Private Lands: Unlocking Incentives to Conserve Wildlife and Their Habitats.

Partners for Conservation board and staff hope that you, your family and all of those individuals important to you are staying healthy during this pandemic, which will certainly become a part of our shared history.

Partners for Conservation was honored to serve as a co-convener for the first Western Collaborative Conservation Network (WCCN) Confluence held March 10-12 at Colorado State University (CSU) in Fort Collins, Colorado.

In the oft-rainy South Puget Sound region of western Washington, a highly threatened, dry prairie ecosystem persists on droughty soils across a patchwork of prairie preserves and grazed working lands. With recent ESA listings resulting from habitat loss, a team of farmers, researchers, and county planners is seeking to build collaboration across conservation and agriculture.

Partners for Conservation has assisted with the planning, is presenting or is otherwise involved with several voluntary conservation events focused on collaboration and partnerships scheduled for 2020.

In September of 2019 almost 170 landowners and conservation partners gathered in Ogden, Utah for the 12th annual Private Lands Partners Day, this year focusing on private lands conservation partnerships in a state where two-thirds of the land is federally-owned.

On October 25th, 2019 over 120 family members, neighbors, and conservation partners gathered to dedicate The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC) Owen Preserve in Yale, Virginia (Sussex County). The Owen land consists of over 1,850 acres and is being managed for recovery of northern savannas, among the rarest of longleaf habitats across the southeastern U.S.

Partners for Conservation (PFC) Executive Director Steve Jester and Texas Board Director Gary Price participated in a panel on communication and partnership among diverse perspectives at a session held for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Biologists in the southwestern states.

September was a very busy month for Partners for Conservation in our efforts to support public-private partnerships and collaborative conservation, with both a workshop and Private Lands Partners Day!

Ute Creek Cattle Company, in Bueyeros, N.M., has been selected as one of seven regional finalists of the Environmental Stewardship Award Program (ESAP). The award, announced during the 2019 Cattle Industry Summer Business Meeting July 30 in Denver, recognizes the operation’s outstanding stewardship and conservation efforts.

Earlier this month state and federal conservation agency staff and nongovernmental organization representatives from across the West gathered in Manhattan, Kansas to focus on private lands conservation partnerships. This was the theme for the bi-annual Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA) meeting.