Habitat Management Assistance for Western Wyoming Ranchers
APP Rockies receives grant to expand Conservation Ranching Initiative.
By APP Rockies
Regional office of the APP for Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah
Published July 20, 2022
This article is from APP Rockies
, APP's regional office for Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Find your nearest APP office here.
Fort Collins, Colo. (July 20, 2022) – APP Rockies received a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) grant that will, combined with matching funds, provide $344,800 for habitat management on ranches in western Wyoming. Starting in the fall of 2022, ranchers in Sublette, Teton, Lincoln, Uinta, Fremont, and Sweetwater counties will be eligible to receive financial support for improving habitat management on their lands.
APP Rockies will distribute the funds through , a growing effort to stabilize declining rangeland bird populations in partnership with ranchers. The funds will be spent on on-the-ground ranchland habitat projects, ultimately improving rangeland bird management across 50,000 acres of rangeland in western Wyoming to benefit species such as Greater Sage-Grouse, Sage Thrasher, and Ferruginous Hawk.
Ranchers interested in receiving support for habitat management should contact Dusty Downey, conservation ranching manager for APP Rockies, at (504) 453-4124 or dusty.downey@audubon.org.
“Like grasslands everywhere, Wyoming’s prairie and sagebrush ecosystems are in danger,” said Downey. “As stewards of Wyoming’s rangelands, ranchers are our best hope for conserving rangeland birds. This funding will help ranchers improve the health of their land, which will benefit their businesses, birds, and other wildlife.”
Through APP's Conservation Ranching Initiative, enrolled private landowners implement habitat improvements for birds and other wildlife through a certification program. Once third-party verified, producers earn use of APP’s certification seal, a consumer package designation that identifies a product’s origin from lands managed for birds and biodiversity. So far, nine Wyoming ranches that span more than 396,800 acres have received APP’s certification.
Nationally, grassland birds have declined by 53 percent since 1970, or about 720 million birds. In Wyoming, this impacts native breeding species like Chestnut-collared and Thick-billed Longspurs, Baird’s Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrow, Sprague’s Pipit, and the Lark Bunting. Still ripe with bird life, Wyoming provides breeding habitat for some of the continent’s most imperiled grassland songbirds. But Wyoming’s grasslands are at high risk of conversion to cropland or other developed uses.
“This market-based conservation program creates a financial incentive for keeping rangelands intact,” Downey said, “Preventing the loss of rangelands benefits both people and birds.”
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About APP’s Conservation Ranching Initiative
A wildlife habitat initiative of the APP with a unique market approach, APP Conservation Ranching’s purpose is to stabilize declining grassland bird populations in partnership with ranchers – on whose land 95 percent of grassland birds live. APP Conservation Ranching’s enrollment includes 92 ranches, covering more than 2.5 million acres that have earned status as APP Certified bird-friendly land. Incentivizing this habitat work for birds and biodiversity are consumers with an appetite for conservation, who support it with the purchase of products grazed on these lands. Shoppers see a special package designation – the APP Certified bird-friendly seal – that sets these products apart. For more information, visit
About APP Rockies
APP Rockies, the regional APP office for Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah, conserves and restores natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth’s biological diversity. Learn more at and by following us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at @audubonrockies.
Media Contact
Evan Barrientos
ebarrientos@audubon.org
(970) 416-6931 Ext. 4