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Places We Protect

Red Canyon Ranch

Wyoming

Landscape view of a large red rock wall stretching out into a green landscape.
Red Canyon Ranch Red Canyon Ranch is dedicated to enhancing biological diversity and protecting native plants and animals while at the same time raising quality cattle. © Scott Copeland

A vital testing ground for best conservation grazing practices.

Viewing

Overview

Description

From high in the southern Wind River Mountains, the Little Popo Agie River slices deeply through ancient limestone before spilling through slopes ablaze with wildflowers, some abundant, others extremely rare. Starting at nearly 11,000 feet above sea level, the river's plunge to the plains traverses an incredibly healthy and vigorous landscape.

This is Red Canyon Ranch. Many species of large game animals—moose, bighorn sheep, elk, mule deer and antelope—find forage and cover here. Miles of streams and river foster robust trout populations. Large predators such as mountain lion, black bear and a variety of birds of prey attest to the vitality of this working ranch.

Why TNC Selected this Site

In Wyoming, as throughout much of the West today, unbridled development has resulted in habitat destruction and fragmentation. As land is subdivided, associated roads and human development often interrupt wildlife migration corridors, decrease habitat for rare plants and animals, and make ecosystem management ever more difficult. Ranch lands are the final barriers to this type of development in many areas. The economic viability of ranching is, therefore, essential in maintaining Wyoming's open space, native species and healthy ecosystems. Red Canyon Ranch is a vital testing ground for best conservation grazing practices.

What TNC Has Done/Is Doing

Red Canyon Ranch is dedicated to enhancing biological diversity and protecting native plants and animals while at the same time raising quality cattle. TNC believes that responsible, economically viable livestock grazing can not only coexist with but enhance high-quality wildlife habitat. Local ranching families manage livestock and grazing operations at Red Canyon Ranch. In doing so, they keep Wyoming’s important agricultural heritage alive and able to be passed down to their children and the next generation of ranchers. They also provide educational activities to the larger community to demonstrate how conservation and ranching exist hand-in-hand on the landscape.

Contact

John Coffman
Western Wyoming Stewardship Director
307-714-3388
jcoffman@tnc.org

Access

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Size

Nearly 5,000 acres of deeded property with 30,000 acres of state and federal leases.

Explore our work in Wyoming

Red Canyon Ranch Travelstory

The Travelstory audio tour includes 10 stories, which will take you about one hour to complete. The GPS-triggered stories play as you drive, and in some places, we’ll encourage you to briefly stop your car to listen and observe points of interest.

What to See: Plants

For more than 10,000 years, people have been drawn to Red Canyon for the same reason this place remains important today—the wealth and diversity of plants and animals that can be found there. The earliest people to find shelter, sustenance and solace in Red Canyon were Folsom hunters 10 millennia ago. They are best remembered for courageously hunting mammoth and giant bison with spears, but what probably brought them to Red Canyon was its plant resources—the same variety and unique ecosystem that attracted TNC just a decade ago.

From one camp, native people could harvest a multitude of edible and medicinal plants. By walking a short distance to higher elevations, they could gather flora in different stages of development and thus postpone the labor of actually moving camp. This availability of game and plant foods brought their nomadic descendants back to Red Canyon for untold generations.

What to See: Animals

Most people are surprised to learn a herd of 800 cattle grazes Red Canyon Ranch. TNC often is the kind of neighbor ranchers fear. Highly publicized land deals put landowners on edge. And an army of interns and hydrologists, range scientists and ecologists can look like trouble.

But cattle play a vital role in preserving sensitive lands. Grazing cattle replace vast herds of elk, wild sheep and bison that once roamed the area. They thin out vegetation that used to be swept clean by fire and help native plants thrive.

Recreation

To learn more about fishing opportunities, visit Fishing at Red Canyon Ranch. To get hunting permission, submit a conservation resume to Sharing the Land and email Tayler DeBrosse at tayler.debrosse@tnc.org.