On a nearly million-acre ranch in Alcova, Wyoming — where mountain ranges rise and rivers wind — the wildlife roams freely, including the greater sage-grouse, a punk rocker-looking bird with spiked plumage and a mating dance to match.
The ranch is on the market, and so is the chance to buy the conservation bank that protects the greater sage-grouse and its other wild inhabitants.
The purchase of Pathfinder Ranches, a 916,076-acre Samons Enterprises holding listed for $80 million, includes around 20 residential properties, a leased cattle and horse program and the option to buy the conservation bank that protects the greater sage-grouse and other wild inhabitants.
“The thing about greater sage-grouse is their habitat has been encroached upon by development, whether that is housing or wind farms, solar farms, transmission lines, and then oil and gas development,” said the property's listing agent, Scott Williams of Swan Land Co. in Buffalo, Wyoming.
"Companies facing state and/or federal sage-grouse mitigation requirements may purchase credits to move development projects forward in Wyoming while eliminating their sage-grouse liabilities forever," according to the Pathfinder Ranches listing. "Credits can specifically be used to secure year-round access to work sites and other development opportunities."
The bank was created to protect the habitat of elk, mule deer, pronghorn, bald and golden eagles, and other wildlife, and to improve water quality in the area, according to the listing. The Pathfinder land, which spans Natrona, Carbon, Sweetwater, and Fremont counties, and the conservation bank would be separate purchases. The price of the bank will depend on past land sales and estimates of its value at the time of purchase, Williams added.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved the conservation bank in 2014 at 55,000 deeded acres with the potential to grow to 700,000. Williams said the buyers would manage the bank and receive the revenue stream from the credits the developers purchase. The owners can spend the money however they wish, and the land itself has a conservation easement in place that preserves the sage grouse habitat, he added.
Homes.com was unable to ascertain the bank's current size due to the government shutdown.
‘Chunky with a round body, small head and long tail’
The sage-grouse inhabits the sagebrush steppe of the Intermountain West, which is its only known habitat, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website.
Fish and Wildlife describes the greater sage-grouse as “large with a chunky, round body, small head and long tail.” They are also a mottled gray-brown with black bellies.
Williams said one of the more interesting elements of the greater sage-grouse is its mating dance.
“In the spring, they come together and they strut around, and they make weird noises,” he said. “They have these air pockets that kind of pop out of their chest.”
The males do the dance, according to Fish and Wildlife, and they “change shape dramatically when they display, becoming an almost spherical shape, as they puff up their chest, droop their wings and fan their tail into a starburst.”
Greater sage-grouse are indigenous to Oregon, California, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana, and they eat leaves, buds, flowers, forbs and insects, according to Fish and Wildlife.
Great Pathfinder Lodge: Where the humans stay
Williams said Pathfinder Ranches is historically significant, playing a key role in the nation's westward expansion: Various settlement trails, including the Oregon, Mormon, Pony Express and California, run across the land.
John C. Fremont founded the ranch in the 1880s. “[He] was a great explorer back in the day” known as "The Pathfinder," and that's how the ranch got its name, Williams said.
There are a number of houses on the property, which is made up of about 12 ranches.
Many of the homes on the property are “the common ranch house and barn,” Williams said. “This is where the people that work the land live with their families.”
“The centerpiece of this ranch is the Great Pathfinder Lodge,” which is 6,579 square feet and offers nine bedrooms and seven and a half baths, he added.
“It has a brick exterior on the front, and it has this timeless ranch feel, kind of a Western feel, especially when you go inside,” Williams said. “There's a lot of exposed beams, high ceilings, wooden floors, a lot of trophy mounts on the walls, big tables, sprawling tables ... a full bar area.”
The ranch attracts ‘production-minded buyers’
“A production-minded buyer is how I would categorize the serious interest that we've had,” Williams said. That's someone who is interested in maintaining Pathfinders’ cattle and other ranch productions.
“It's a buyer who understands grazing cattle markets and the cost to raise a cow,” Williams said. “They see this as an opportunity.”
Williams is hopeful the ideal buyer for Pathfinders will continue the conservation efforts of the sage.
“It's a revenue stream for the new owner that's well worth it,” Williams said.