Landowner of the Year

Located 8 miles southeast of Glenrock, the Wyoming Office of State Lands and Investments purchased the ranch in 2006, developed a long-term management plan in 2007 and in 2008 awarded a farm and ranch management lease to the Lankisters, who have collaborated with Game and Fish on habitat projects, wildlife management and hunting access the past 14 years.

The Duncan Ranch features many habitat types and a variety of wildlife species. A hunter management area was established in 2006. The ranch also provides habitat for protected species such as bald and golden eagles and peregrine falcons. It also provides good fishing for brown and rainbow trout. The Lankisters' grazing management and irrigation improvements have benefitted wildlife and habitat. 

The Eagle Ridge Ranch is located in Natrona County just a few miles west of Casper and sits along the North Platte River with scenic views of Casper Mountain. Stacey’s father, Dr. Oliver Scott, moved to Casper in 1948 and became the first board-certified pediatrician in Wyoming. A short eight years later, he bought the Eagle Ridge Ranch.  

In 1980, Dr. Scott placed all of the deed-ed land on the ranch at that time into a conservation ease-ment with The Nature Conservancy. The 8,400-acre easement was the largest conservation easement in Wyoming at that time.   
The Eagle Ridge Ranch provides important seasonal and year-round habitats for a broad diversity of wildlife. Riparian areas along the North Platte River and Little Red Creek are home to large cottonwood galleries and vitally important riparian vegeta-tion.  Irrigated meadows not only provide important hay for his agricultural operation, but also are host to substantial numbers of pronghorn, mule deer, white-tailed deer, and turkeys.   

Stacey is a conservationist at his very core. After spending 17 years in Alaska as a state auditor who audited major oil compa-nies, Stacey returned to Wyoming in 1996 to run the Eagle Ridge Ranch.  His father, Dr. Scott, who founded the Wyoming Audu-bon Society and started the Casper Christmas Bird Count in 1949, also passed on a love of birds to his sons. Stacey is a lifelong member of the Wyoming Audubon Society (now known as the Murie Audubon Society), and remains very active within the or-ganization.  

Located in Lonetree, the Hickey Ranch has been in operation since 1874.  Through the generations of the family that have worked the ranch, they have always strived toward creating the most wildlife friendly landscape they can on their own deeded property and the public lands they lease.  Jack Hickey was the recipient of the Landowner of The Year Award in 2005.  In 2018, Jack  passed away at the age of 89 and left his life’s work to be carried on by his children and grandchildren.  The family has con-tinued to carry on Jack’s legacy of being a steward for the land and providing a home for wildlife on their property.          

The Hickey Family has property enrolled in Walk in Areas through the Access Yes program.  This program allows deer, elk, moose and antelope hunting opportunity on a section of their land surrounded by Bureau of Land Management Land and State land.  Whether it is hunters looking for a moose, elk, or Sandhill cranes, the Hickey family welcomes them as if they were family.  By al-lowing access through their property, a  large amount of public land is opened to hunters that would be difficult to access other-wise.  The amount of public access the Hickey Family allows is among the largest of any ranch in Wyoming. 

The High Lonesome Ranch includes over 12,000 continuous acres of valuable sagebrush steppe, aspen hills, alluvial streams and willow dominated riparian habitat.  The ranch includes im-portant habitat for a number of wildlife species including moose, mule deer, antelope and sage grouse to name a few.  The property borders valuable habitat for wildlife species on US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands and provides important migratory and stopover habitat through essential movement corridors for both terrestrial and aquatic wildlife.  Many of the streams on the property support abundant popula-tions of Colorado River Cutthroat Trout including South Cottonwood Creek, one of the longest continuous segments of stream designated as a Conservation Population in the state.   

The Finley’s value their role in the community and have contrib-uted to building and maintaining the character of the region.  They actively participate in several non-profit, charitable organi-zations and have offered their property for access and fundraising efforts.  Several “Hunting with Heroes” participants have enjoyed hunting opportunities provided by the High Lonesome Ranch and the local non-profit “Fishing for the Fight” has enjoyed exclusive fishing access to South Cottonwood Creek to help raise money for locals in need of critical health care.   

The Finley’s are dedicated to maintaining the quality of wildlife and habitat on the High Lonesome Ranch and the long-term con-servation of cutthroat trout and other sensitive wildlife.  They have been a willing partner on a number of valuable efforts to benefit wildlife in the region and have played an integral role in many Department programs.  

John and Nancy Joyce’s property is located east of Manderson on the Nowood River. The Joyce’s manage their property with the help of their sons.  The species rich Nowood River meanders through their property for 7 miles supporting a cold and warm water fishery.  The Nowood River supports up to twenty different species of fish including sauger, burbot, flathead chub, mountain sucker, and  smallmouth bass, to name just a few. 

John and Nancy  maintain 1,500 acres of land where they graze sheep and grow crops using water from the Harmony Ditch  diversion off the Nowood River.  In 2006 and 2007 an en-trainment study was completed that esti-mated over 55,000 fish were entrained into the Harmony Ditch each irrigation season and permanently lost from the Nowood River fishery.   

The Joyce’s are conservation minded and wanted to prevent the loss of fish down their canal, allow for year round passage in the Nowood River, and eliminate annual maintenance to divert water.  They collaborated with the Department to develop solutions to meet these goals.  A project was designed that improved fish pas-sage and sediment transport, reduced fish entrainment and annual maintenance, and stabilized approximately 1200 ft of streambank.

The Snake River Ranch has partnered with Game and Fish for nearly 100 years on various projects, is the largest deeded ranch in the Jackson Hole area and is located on the west side of the Snake River.

The ranch was placed under conservation easements in the 1980s to help protect and preserve wildlife and wild places. Most of the land consists of irrigated pasture, which provides food and cover for many wildlife species. It has assisted Game and Fish’s management of private-land elk herds in the Snake River bottom, and in recent years the ranch has hosted a hunt for Wounded Warriors.

The families have provided access to monitor Snake River cutthroat trout, and have worked with Game and Fish and other agencies to better understand fish loss into irrigation ditches and the timing of water delivery. The ranch also works with organizations to improve stream function and riparian habitats along the Snake River.

Buffalo Bill Cody acquired the ranch in the late 1800s and named it the TE Ranch. The Duncan family purchased it in the early 1970s, and the Bales have managed it for more than 20 years. The working cattle ranch is home to numerous big game species including deer, elk and bighorn sheep.

The ranch provides prime winter range for wildlife migrating out of the backcountry, along with summer transitional range.

Owners and managers have willingly allowed Game and Fish personnel access to help manage grizzly bears and wolves that frequent the ranch, and have worked to avoid bear-human conflicts throughout the property. It also has worked with Game and Fish towards brucellosis management.

Bill and Beth White are a father / daughter duo who exemplify the hard work and dedication necessary to be successful ranchers in these challenging times.  The White Ranch encompasses over 6,700 acres along the Tongue River and foothills of the Bighorn Moun-tains near Ranchester.  

The White Ranch has been a key partner with the Sheridan County Weed and Pest as well as the Uni-versity of Wyoming Research Sta-tion to combat invasive grasses in Sheridan County.  Medusahead and Ventenata, invasive non-native grasses, have been spreading rapidly across the county and outcompeting native rangeland grasses.  The White Ranch has been very active mapping out these grass species on Beth White, & Bill White their ranch, as well as providing the University of Wyoming with a research plot to study the effects of different chemical and fire treatments to control these grasses. 

The White Ranch participated in the Dry Fork Riparian Enhance-ment Project, which incorporated both riparian and upland man-agement.  Approximately 580 acres of riparian habitat and 7.4 miles of stream were fenced, reducing grazing pressure on this important habitat. This protected area has been included in the overall management plan of the ranch and an additional 4,200 acres of uplands have also been placed into an intensive livestock grazing system.  The fenced area is managed to maximize woody vegetative growth and improve stream health. 

The nearly 20,000-acre Banner Ranch is located in Natrona and Converse Counties, 10 miles southeast of Casper. The family history of ranching, stewardship, and love of wildlife make them an easy and most deserving selection for this award.

The Banner Ranch has welcomed hunters and anglers for as long as Mike McCleary and Shelly McCleary Trumbull can remember. Their ranch is home to a diversity of wildlife, including pronghorn antelope, mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk, sage grouse, Hungarian partridge, turkey, black bear and mountain lion. Mike and Shelly are always supportive of hunting and believe it is important to maintain healthy wildlife populations. They also understand the goal of hunting and the revenue it brings to the local communities.

During Mike’s early years on the ranch, he can only remember a few elk running around. Today he often enjoys hundreds of elk wintering on Banner Mountain and the surrounding foothills. Banner Ranch continues to support large numbers of wintering elk despite the hardships they cause, especially with fences. Wintering mule deer above the ranch at one time numbered around one to two thousand in the 1970s and early 1980s.

The Banner Ranch has also shown their generosity when they initiated the development of a permanent access easement with the Department allowing fishing access to lower Deer Creek Canyon. This beautiful canyon and pristine stretch of water offers some of the best stream fishing opportunities in all of central Wyoming.

The Hellyers take pride in their livestock and land management programs and those efforts have carried over to benefit wildlife throughout their deeded and leased public lands.

The Hellyers run a cattle operation with its main base along Willow Creek south of Lander. In the summertime, they run cattle on their Burnt Ranch property along the Sweetwater River in southern Fremont County. The ranch is comprised of 7,100 acres of deeded land as well as many more thousands of acres of state and federal leases. The ranch supports mule deer, white-tailed deer, pronghorn, elk, moose, sage grouse, pheasant, chukar, Hungarian partridge, and every form of waterfowl that flies through the region.

The Hellyers consistently make improvements throughout their holdings and public land pastures to benefit wildlife including fence modifications, water storage improvements, and riparian protection. It is clear when working with them that they hold wildlife and Wyoming’s wild places in high regard.

The Hellyers recognize the value of high quality wildlife habitat, and have worked with the Department in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program in order to remove encroaching juniper from sagebrush habitat. The project is designed to enhance sagebrush and bitterbrush habitat for sage grouse, mule deer, and pronghorn antelope on the fringes of Table Mountain which is classified as crucial winter range for mule deer.

The Burnt Ranch property along the Sweetwater River also supports a unique assemblage of trout and native fish species. The Hellyers have restored approximately 12,100 feet of altered river channel to its historic channel using a series of dikes, instream structures, and irrigation headgate repairs.

John and Vanessa are the third generation to live and work on the Buyok Ranch near the old mining town of Monarch in Sheridan County.  ohn’s uncle began putting the ranch together in 1946 as coal companies sold off parcels. His uncle finished purchasing the current ranch in 1953 with the closing of the coalmine. John and Vanessa began purchasing portions of the property in 1990 and finished assembling the total acreage in 2006.

The Buyoks are true stewards of the land and have implemented several habitat projects to improve forage and cover for livestock, game animals and game birds. They have added water tanks to distribute livestock grazing and installed fencing to protect sensitive riparian areas.

In 2010, the Buyok’s partnered with the Sheridan Community Land Trust (SCLT) to implement a conservation easement on their property to protect their portion of the Tongue River Valley from development. At the time, it was the largest conservation easement in SCLT history. 

The day the easement was signed, John and Vanessa  said “Although our ranch is small by Wyoming standards, we have been fortunate to share it with an amazing variety of wildlife and native plants. Sometimes being rich has nothing to do with money. We’re rich because of the biodiversity and productivity of our small corner of the planet along the Tongue River in Sheridan County.”

Camp Guernsey is a premier Joint Training Center consisting of more than 78,000 acres of maneuver area, training ranges, and 64 square miles of air space which provide for combined arms training using multiple scenarios over varied terrain.   

Aside from their main duty of training soldiers, Camp Guernsey has been a formal partner of the Department since 2003, when it entered into an agreement to create the “Broom Creek” Hunter Management Area, providing the public with access to hunt pronghorn antelope, deer, elk, mountain lion, predators, turkey, waterfowl, small game, and doves.

The camp is probably best known for its spring turkey hunting. Every spring, numerous  hunters convey onto the camp to try and call a big gobbler within shotgun range. Camp Guernsey’s unique habitat is perfect for Merriam’s turkeys; it has just the right amount of topography, conifer cover, and grasslands needed for them. The camp recently approved the release of 73 Merriam’s turkeys from the Black Hills to help bolster the existing population.

The camp sits within the Rawhide Elk herd unit and provides opportunity for hunters in an area that is 90% private land. The camp also accommodates disabled hunters by sectioning off parcels of land to provide opportunities to harvest mature bulls for hunters confined to wheelchairs.

Camp Guernsey is more than deserving of this award. They are instrumental in our nation’s safety and have been an incredible partner with the Department for over 20 years.