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LandCAN Conservation Success Stories

LandCAN Conservation Success Stories

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LandCAN Conservation Success Stories

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Guptill Ranch

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Guptill RanchGuptill Ranch is a 7,000-acre cattle operation that Pat and Mary Lou Guptill have owned and managed for the past 25 years. With their five children, they are caretakers of this special landscape in western South Dakota. The area features grasslands with rolling hills and a wooded creek running through the ranch.



 

Jorgensen Land & Cattle Partnership

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Jorgensen Land & Cattle PartnershipThe Jorgensens have made a living from farming and ranching for more than 100 years. Humbly beginning as a small family farm, Jorgensen Land and Cattle Partnership has grown to include livestock, a large variety of crops and a hunting business.



 

Kopriva Angus

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Kopriva AngusJim and Karen Kopriva purchased their first land in Clark County in 1991, but credit Karen’s parents, Harold and Mary Hurlbert, with helping them establish their farm. Karen’s family has been in Clark County since 1880 and her parents have helped both their daughters’ families get started in agriculture. Over one third of the operation’s land base is land that has been in Karen’s family for three generations.



 

Mortenson Ranch

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Mortenson RanchAt the end of the 1940s, Clarence Mortenson began to wonder how all of the water originating on his ranch could be kept there for use over an extended period of time. This idea sparked his effort to restore the ranch to its natural state. Clarence’s vision has been embraced by his sons, Todd, Jeff, and Curt, who currently operate Mortenson Ranch.



 

Rock Hills Ranch

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Rock Hills RanchHolistic resources management focused on long-term sustainability is a way of life at Rock Hills Ranch. Lyle and Garnet Perman, along with their son Luke and his wife Naomi, raise crops and Angus cattle on the 7,500-acre ranch near Lowry.



 

77 Ranch

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77 RanchGary and Sue Price’s 1,900 acre 77 Ranch in Navarro County is designed and run to be both economically and environmentally sustainable. The Prices do not make a business decision without first considering its environmental impact.



 

Anderson Ranch

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Anderson RanchJim Bill Anderson and his family are exceptional stewards of the land, water, and wildlife of Anderson Ranch, which is located in Canadian, Texas in Hemphill County, and is comprised of over 5,000 acres.



 

Blue Mountain Peak Ranch

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Blue Mountain Peak RanchBlue Mountain Peak Ranch was once in a state of disrepair; its poor range health was a result of overgrazing, and the land was heavily dominated by blueberry juniper. When it was purchased by Richard Taylor and his late-wife Sally in 2001, it was their dream to rehabilitate the land to what it was before European settlement ? more live oak savannah grassland in the uplands, and a higher density of woody plants restricted mainly to the draws. For the past eight years, Suzie Paris, Richard and Sally’s longtime friend and now Richard’s partner, has been active in the ranch restoration.



 

Cook's Branch Conservancy

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Cook's Branch ConservancyThe George Mitchell family’s Cook’s Branch Conservancy, which consists of 5,650 acres in southeastern Texas, has been managed for nearly 50 years under a family tradition of conservation and sustainability.



 

Dixon Water Foundation

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Dixon Water FoundationSpread across north central and southwest Texas, the five working ranches owned and managed by Dixon Water Foundation are sights to behold. Their mission, to promote healthy watersheds through sustainable land management to ensure that future generations have the water resources they need, has led to successful restoration of plant diversity, improved watershed conditions and wildlife habitat across all of their ranches.



 

Jack & Jan Cato

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Jack & Jan CatoFor more than three decades, Jack and Jan Cato have tirelessly pursued revitalization efforts on two ranches in two different ecological regions of Texas. Their Buckhollow Ranch is located in Uvalde and Real counties on the Edwards Plateau and the Stockard-Sirianni Ranch is in Frio County in the South Texas Plains eco region.



 

Laborcitas Creek Ranch

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Laborcitas Creek RanchWildlife habitat is flourishing in South Texas thanks to Laborcitas Creek Ranch.



 

Emmons Farm

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Emmons FarmConservation has been a cornerstone of the Emmons family approach for generations. Back in 1934, when a big flood occurred, Jimmy Emmons’ grandfather witnessed all of the topsoil to the depth of the plough plane had washed off into the river. The event became a personal warning sign of the need for soil and water conservation. Jimmy’s father would later experience a similar event.



 

Wilson Family Farm

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Wilson Family FarmDescribed by some as “pioneers” when it comes to demonstrating the importance of soil health, Jeremy and Sarah Wilson are showing that agricultural conservation can profit while improving the productivity of their land.   



 

Miller Ranch

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Miller RanchWhen Ken Miller took over the family ranch in the 80s, he knew the management practices he was taught growing up would need to evolve if he expected to pass on the family ranch legacy onto his children. In 1984, Ken and his wife Bonnie received a sponsorship to attend a holistic resource management school in Albuquerque, New Mexico. There they began to realize that their current management had little reasoning behind it besides the fact that it was “the way things were done”.



 

Black Leg Ranch

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Black Leg RanchIn the late 1800s, Jerry Doan’s great grandfather, George H. Doan, moved from Canada to homestead in the Dakota Territory. What began as a 160-acre homestead with a sod house has grown into a 17,000-acre farm and ranch. Jerry and his wife Renae own and manage the fourth and fifth generation Black Leg Ranch, and their children are poised to take the reins in the coming years.



 

Wilson Ranch

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Wilson RanchWilson Ranch, located northeast of Lakeside in the Nebraska Sandhills, is a fifth-gen­eration operation owned and managed by brothers Blaine and Bryan Wilson. The ranch consists of over 15,000 acres and over 1,100 head of cattle. The Wilson Ranch is a terrific example of economic viability co-existing with sustained conservation practices.



 

Shovel Dot Ranch

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Shovel Dot RanchThe Buell family is part of the fabric of the Nebraska Sandhills. For nearly 130 years, they have ranched in the region, while caring for the land, water, and wildlife that each Buell generation passed on to the next.



 

Shaw Family Farms

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Shaw Family FarmsNestled in the heart of Nebraska’s Rainwater Basin is Shaw Family Farms, a fifth generation row-crop and cattle ranch owned and managed by Steve and Vicki Shaw and their son and daughter-in-law Brian and Julie Shaw. The Shaw’s belief is that they have been successful “not just because of hard work, but also because of the land ethic passed down from the first generation.”



 

RuJoDen Ranch

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RuJoDen RanchThe O’Rourkes have implemented a variety of conservation practices to their land that has been in their family since 1950.