Working ranches play a huge role in the environmental health of Montana, especially along the wildlife-rich Rocky Mountain Front. However, the next generation of ranchers faces a big challenge: the rising cost of ranchland. That’s why, when we learned of Matt and Stacy Crabb — two Montana ranchers who wanted to purchase and protect the ranch on which they worked, which abuts critical open space and wildlife corridors — we stepped in to help.

Our Role

When Matt Crabb talks about the ranch he and his wife purchased along the Rocky Mountain Front in Montana, he gets choked up. The Crabbs dreamed of someday owning the ranch they had been managing for 11 years so that one day they could pass it down to their children to continue their ranching heritage. But in this area, land carries a high price tag, making it difficult for younger ranchers without inherited land to start their own operations.

The Conservation Fund was able to step in quickly and acquire an easement on a temporary basis for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The easement helped reduce the purchase price and permanently protect the ranch’s native prairie habitat. The reduced cost made it possible for the Crabbs to buy the ranch from the previous owner. Once USFWS received the funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, it took ownership of the conservation easement and we recovered all of the capital we had initially invested.

Why This Project Matters

The plan is a win-win: Matt and Stacy Crabb have a chance to continue their ranching legacy on the land while the conservation easement protects the property from the threat of development. Large working ranches such as the Crabbs’ provide critical fish and wildlife habitat in the Rocky Mountain Front, an ecologically rich region of Montana where the slopes of the Rocky Mountains meet vast prairies. The region is home to grizzly bears, trumpeter swans, and long-billed curlews and numerous other species of grassland birds. Protecting these lands through conservation easements helps ensure that this iconic landscape is preserved, while ranchers and others who depend on the land for their livelihoods are able to continue pursuing their life’s work. To learn more about our efforts to protect working lands, click here.