What if keeping cattle on public lands is also helping keep critical wildlife habitat intact?

In Wyoming’s Upper Green, ranchers move cattle along the historic Green River Drift through one of the epicenters of livestock-grizzly conflict in the Northern Rockies. Public grazing helps sustain private ranchlands—including critical river bottoms and winter range that keep this landscape connected for wildlife.

As grizzlies recover, the challenge of keeping ranches viable while maintaining habitat for wildlife is growing. We ride with a range rider and hear from ranchers and wildlife managers about what it takes to keep working lands, rural livelihoods, and grizzlies on the same landscape.

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Topics discussed

Green River Drift, Upper Green River Cattle Association, public lands grazing, private ranchlands and wildlife habitat, Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, grizzly bear recovery and livestock conflict, calf depredation and livestock losses, range riding, wildlife migration corridors, ranch economics and land development, compensation for livestock losses, conflict reduction tools, grizzly bear management, the Four Cs of conflict reduction

Featuring

Credits

Working Wild University is a production of Western Landowners Alliance and Dr. Jared Beaver of Montana State University Extension, and a proud part of Natural Resources University podcast network. 

Hosted by Hallie Mahowald and Jared Beaver; Produced by Matt Collins and Zach Altman; Editing by Kathleen Shannon and Zach Altman; Executive producers: Louis Wertz, Jared Beaver, Hallie Mahowald and Erik Kalsta.