Conservation Activities

The privately-owned High Lonesome Ranch has undertaken an ambitious conservation and restoration agenda, engaging a variety of public, private, non-profit and scientific partners. Ranch guests will have opportunities to learn about these projects, and even participate in some of it, as part of their ranch experience. Highlights of this promising work include the following:

Multi-Year Biodiversity Inventory & Monitoring Program

The ranch is partnering with the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia to prepare an ecological baseline of plant and animal species on the ranch. This involves assessing the health of various species and habitat types, and monitoring the effect of restoration and recreation activities on fundamental ecological systems. To do this, top biologists are surveying riparian zones for amphibians; they are counting songbird and butterfly species, and observing the condition of their habitat. The priceless ecological data this study will amass over the next few years will enable the HLR to be managed in such a way as to optimally conserve its biodiversity.

Stream and Ecological Restoration of North Dry Fork and Kimball Creeks

In the West many streams have been degraded by harmful ranching practices. The good news is that with current technology and some elbow grease it is possible to repair and restore these damaged streams. One of the first habitat reclamation efforts on the ranch was a multi-year project to restore 7 linear miles of a highly- eroded and degraded stream in The High Lonesome Ranchs Dry Fork Valley. A second project, to restore 11.5 linear miles of Kimball Creek in neighboring Kimball Creek Valley, is currently underway. This work promises to help create healthier populations of native fish and improved habitat for amphibians and other species that rely on riparian zones, such as songbirds and butterflies.

Keystone Predator and Trophic Cascade Research

In spring 2009, one of the Yellowstone wolves made a heroic 1000 mile journey to northwest Colorado, ending up not far from the High Lonesome Ranch. She wore a state-of-the-art satellite radio-collar, which provided managers with valuable information about her astonishing movements. Although she died a few weeks after she arrived in Colorado, her presence is a harbinger of other wolves to come.

Oregon State University researcher Cristina Eisenberg, a Boone & Crockett Fellow, is currently studying the role and effect of keystone predators (such as wolves) on habitat health and biodiversity at the ranch. The term trophic refers to anything related to the food web, while the poetic term trophic cascades refers to the movement of energy through the food web when predators are removed (or when they return). This dynamic resembles a waterfall and involves top-down regulation of an ecosystem, in which predators have a controlling influence on prey at the next lower level, and so forth through the food web. Remove a top predator, such as the wolf, and deer grow more abundant and bold, damaging their habitat by consuming vegetation (called herbivory) unsustainably. Intensive herbivory can lead to deer literally eating themselves out of house and home, and consequently to loss of biodiversity and destabilization of ecosystems. Lacking top predators, ecosystems become capable of supporting fewer species, because the trees and shrubs that create habitat for these species have been over-browsed. With top predators in them, they contain richer and more diverse habitat, and thus can support a greater number of species such as songbirds and butterflies. Additionally, the presence of wolves in ecosystems helps restore riparian areas, by deterring deer and elk from over-browsing tender riparian vegetation, thereby creating more streamside shade. This keeps the water an ideal temperature for fish.

Measuring the effects of wolf removal in the 20th century, and potential wolf return to this landscapes involves putting in hundreds of miles of track transects in which expert trackers are measuring wildlife use of this wild landscape. It also involves sitting at dawn in aspen communities watching and listening for songbirds. It involves watching elk and mule deer behavior closely, to determine how much time they are spending eating, and how much time they are spending with their heads up, scanning for predators. Because the presence of keystone predators produces richer and more diverse ecosystems, supporting a greater number of indicator species like songbirds and butterflies, we are gathering baseline information that will help us manage the ranch and its resources more sustainably, with or without keystone predators.

Aspen are key players in this dynamic. Their widespread decline throughout Colorado has been documented by researchers from various institutions, as part of a phenomenon called Sudden Aspen Decline. Aspen habitat is one of the most diverse forest types worldwide. At the ranch we hope to determine how herbivory interacts with factors such as climate change, drought, and diseases to impact aspen growth, and are taking proactive steps to conserve these invaluable trees, using the best available science.

Participation in the Colorado Division of Wildlifes Regional Sage-Grouse Working Group

The ranch has been an active member in this group, which came together for the purpose of maintaining and improving the habitat of the sage grouse in the face of the potential listing of the bird as a threatened or endangered species. They are developing a framework to guide management efforts and maintain the sage-grouse population while integrating existing and potential land use activities on public and private lands in the area. The High Lonesome Ranch has historically provided sage-grouse habitat, as part of its rich ecological legacy.

Interactive Mapping System for Ranch Management and Biodiversity Monitoring

A mapping team is using advanced technology to develop an extensive web-based GIS mapping system for the ranch that will use recently acquired LIDAR imagery to make contour scale mapping available for ranch management and monitoring projects. This cutting-edge system, unusual in the context of a private landowner, will allow ranch managers, visiting scientists, and others to record the locations of a variety of important ranch habitats, wildlife populations, and human land-use needs and activities in a real-time, interactive system.

Historic and Cultural Preservation Project

Ranch personnel are working with local museum partners to identify and restore critical historic structures on the ranch, and catalog their significance. North Dry Fork Valley alone is home to some 18 homesteader families, and an effort to collect the stories and memories of still-living pioneers is also underway. The red-roofed, one-room schoolhouse that marks the entry to High Lonesome Ranch headquarters will house a small museum to showcase this important history. The museum will also tell the ongoing story of the natural history of the ranch and conservation efforts.

Integrated Ranch Management Plan

A progressive integrated ranch management plan has been developed in cooperation with Colorado state wildlife and resource management agencies. This plan will enable better internal management of the ranch, and also allow for a collaborative approach to conservation and large-scale habitat projects, in conjunction with the neighboring public land management agency, BLM, and the state game and fish agency, CDOW.