Meet Jennifer Hayward

As Easement Coordinator and past District Conservationist for Wyoming NRCS, Jennifer Hayward has supported private landowners and land trusts on dozens of easements in Wyoming's Green River Basin. Here, she shares the keys to building successful relationships that make conservation happen.

Photo: Gretchen Yost Photography

Interacting with wildlife is a part of ranching. These landowners respect wildlife, and they enjoy it. What makes their business successful is also intertwined with what sage grouse and big game animals need. So ranchers were watching what was happening in the early 2000s, when a natural gas development boom brought habitat pressures and population change to this area.

At that time, a small group of what I’d call early adopters closed on the first conservation easements in Sublette County. These landowners see new technologies, methods, or tools to benefit their lands and they’re going to try them–then they tell their peers. That’s what happened with easements.

It started with just two ranches: The first landowner didn't have heirs but wanted to allow a neighbor’s son to take over the operation as he aged, and an easement played into his estate planning. A neighbor with five times as many acres caught wind of his experience and established an easement to keep her land intact in honor of her late husband’s ranching family.

It was a big easement and got a lot of attention locally. That word of mouth was essential to get the ball rolling, and here we are 20 years later.

This watershed is unique and its people are special. It’s a harsh place to live and make a living: We’re at a high-desert elevation, surrounded by mountains, with a 45-day growing season. This makes for a fiercely independent population, which is important context when we’re talking about easements.

Because this is not a tool we should push on people, not when it is attached to their land forever and could impact a family for generations. It's each landowner's choice, and the best we can do is give them good information. NRCS is here to help people help the land and achieve conservation goals with the tools we have. So part of our role really is to be honest and recognize that this isn’t a decision to be taken lightly.

Landowners come to us for any number of reasons. A family might need the easement payment to invest in more land and grow their operation. Someone might want to keep their ranch looking like it did when their family homesteaded it. We ask for their goals and objectives for the property and, depending on their answers, we see if easements can help them achieve these things.

~Jennifer Hayward

Landowners work together in the Green River Basin. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Hayward

There’s an important division of duties with highly respected partners that has made this work successful–no one accomplishes anything alone. NRCS provides about 50 percent of the investment, but there are many other funding partners that make each easement possible. The field offices also complete due diligence–it is a major real estate transaction, after all–by making sure there is a clear title, legal access to all parcels offered, and no hazardous materials on site. We review aerial footage and then walk the property to investigate further. We perform the landowner interview and disclosures.

The land trusts come in with additional fundraising effort and actually hold the property in perpetuity, committing to the future stewardship of those lands. In Wyoming, there are five main land trusts and three more out of state that can hold easements here. They perform a baseline inventory, which states the current condition of the property, and a very technical appraisal.

Nationally, it takes an average of 2.5 years to complete this process. In Wyoming, it takes longer. It can get frustrating, and we prepare the landowners for that.

There are generally two kinds of landowners we work with on easements. The first is ranchers, including many whose great-grandparents homesteaded and so the land has been in the family for over 100 years. The other kind is offsite landowners interested in the conservation values of the land, but more for enjoyment than for making a living. Both groups feel that conservation is the right thing to do, but there are additional benefits for the working ranches–and important services provided by the working ranches.

When it comes to habitat, working lands keep the system running: They are irrigating, providing green space, and creating value for wildlife in riparian areas and greenscapes. If they aren't out there doing what it takes to maintain a ranch, we might have a crash in the resources available to our wildlife. Grazing on dry material removes fuel that might otherwise lead to wildfires. And the animals have grown up with grazing since settlement–they know and live with it.

On the other hand, residential subdivision is a major threat to wildlife. Once you introduce that fragmentation, there's no going back. There’s also more noise, light, weeds, and disruption from pets and ATV use. When species have fidelity to their paths and nesting or mating areas, this can be devastating.

This is the case for sage grouse, and in the models, it looked like Sublette County was going to be the last bastion for these birds in the future. So the stakes were high to conserve what we could. In the 2000s, it started out as these “random acts of conservation,” isolated in small pockets–but, of course, you have to start somewhere. Then someone talks to their neighbors, and if they like what they hear, the project starts to grow and the message gets amplified.

Now, when there are deer moving freely across those lands, there is a noticeable impact.

Green River Basin Success Story >

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of NRCS employees like Jennifer Hayward, landowners can gain the multiple benefits that conservation easements provide, while also ensuring wildlife have room to roam.