Why is Dugout Ranch Special?

Located in the heart of the Colorado Plateau, Dugout Ranch is interspersed along the biologically rich canyon bottoms of Indian and North Cottonwood Creeks. These canyons are walled by steep sandstone cliffs and talus slopes that form the gateway to the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park.

Ancestral Puebloan rock art and dwellings are found throughout the Dugout Ranch Canyonlands Project area, the most well known being Newspaper Rock. The Green Cabin and other historic structures were built by early settlers in the Dugout Country.

Facts

Location
Dugout Ranch is in San Juan County, 20 miles northwest of Monticello, Utah. It is near the entrance to the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park.

Size
5,200 acres

Conditions
Dugout Ranch is a working ranch, including the private residence of ranch lessee, Heidi Redd.

What to See

Plants
The purchase of the Dugout Ranch and associated water rights have helped protect more than 40 miles of native cottonwood- and willow- lined riparian areas. Many globally rare plants occur within the Dugout Ranch Project Area, such as Kachina daisy, Tuhy’s breadroot, alcove rock daisy and pinnate spring parsley

Animals
Animals within the Dugout Ranch Project Area include Allen’s big-eared bat, big horn sheep, wild turkey, bear, mountain lion, Peregrine falcon, and the Mexican spotted owl..

Why the Conservancy Selected This Site

The Dugout Ranch’s 5,200 acres and accompanying 250,000 acres of grazing allotments, provides about 255,000 acres of biologically diverse natural area and open space along the Colorado Plateau. The ranch’s large “relict areas” are locations that remain little or not at all altered by human actions. Three of these occur on the BLM-administered grazing allotments and are of special value to science. Faced with the need to sell the Ranch, the Redd family in 1995 began working with The Nature Conservancy to explore alternatives to commercial sale of the property.

What the Conservancy Has Done/Is Doing

The Conservancy is managing the Dugout Ranch/Canyonlands Project Area to preserve and enhance the property’s ecological and open space features. The property is used for ecological research, biological management, and natural and cultural history interpretation. It is being maintained as an economically viable and ecologically sustainable cattle ranching operation.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Harold E. Malde (Dugout Ranch); Photo © Tim Till (Full moon at Dugour Ranch)