Each fall and winter, thousands of elk from Yellowstone National Park leave behind the deep snows of the park’s harsh and unforgiving high country and descend to surrounding ranch lands to feed on native grasses. Access to this forage is vital to maintaining the health of these herds. But because this food is often on private land, there is no guarantee that elk will continue to have access to it, or even that the native grasses will remain.
A group of conservationists that I work with proposed a simple idea: What if our nonprofit groups paid landowners to restore critical areas of winter-range habitat so that Yellowstone’s elk herds could thrive?
In 2021, we struck a deal with a rancher to install wildlife-friendly fencing, eradicate invasive cheatgrass and promote the growth of native plants. The habitat lease restored 500 acres of prime elk habitat in Montana’s Paradise Valley and was celebrated by environmentalists and ranchers alike. These leases pay landowners to create, maintain or improve landscapes in ways that benefit wildlife.
Now, under new guidance issued by the Biden administration last month, the Bureau of Land Management, the nation’s largest manager of public lands, with some 245 million acres under its control, is set to begin leasing land to conservation and other groups to carry out similar habitat restoration work. This is a major turn for an agency that was required by law to give priority to extractive industries, leasing lands for grazing, logging, mining and energy development—but not for conservation.
