Meet Jessica Crowder

Jessica Crowder is the executive director of the Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust, which has partnered with 21 families in the Green River Basin to place 35 conservation easements on more than 84,000 acres. Here, she explains the role of a land trust, and why conservation and agriculture go hand-in-hand.

Jessica Crowder, a landowner in Green River, Wyoming

Our organization has been in existence for 23 years, so we started out just a little bit before the first NRCS-funded easement was secured in Sublette County. We work across the state of Wyoming, but we do focus on and prioritize conserving agricultural lands. We really do believe that conserving agricultural lands is good for wildlife, people, clean air, and clean water and that the public benefits.

Interestingly enough, we have a longstanding policy that we do not solicit, which means we don't go to landowners and ask them if they'd like to do a conservation easement. And with that, I would say, comes this really trusting relationship that we have with the landowners who reach out to us or are connected with us by someone we’ve worked with before. They are usually interested in working with us before we even know that they have that interest, and that’s a very different dynamic.

They may have the desire to conserve their lands, improve their operations, and make a succession plan, and we help make their goals a reality. And, with us, the deed of the conservation easement will elevate agriculture and conservation values, instead of one or the other.

The fundraising role of the land trust is critical to these negotiations. We have strong relationships with a variety of funders to be able to bring those funds to the table. The classic set up is for NRCS to provide 50% of the cost of the easement, while we provide 25% and the landowner typically makes an in-kind donation of the other 25%. That has become the norm. The 25% in kind from the landowner is significant–I don’t think that’s lost on anybody. So, that agreement is made up front. At that point we start on the due diligence needed to complete the NRCS application, since they do provide 50% of the funding, and that is a big chunk. Once we have 50% secured, it’s really compelling to a funder to say, oh, there’s only 25% remaining and here are all the benefits this easement will provide.

When a landowner decides to sell to the land trust, it’s usually their development rights and their subdivision rights, or at least some restriction on those rights, in perpetuity. That is, as you can imagine, a major decision.

Just the commitment to start the process is a big deal. When we work with NRCS, those projects take anywhere from two to four years to complete, and landowners have to consider if that timing works for them, their operations, their family, and their goals. We require appraisals and title commitments. We have to negotiate a deed of conservation easement, the portion that's attached to the land in perpetuity. We'll do a minerals assessment and a baseline assessment. There are lots of conversations between us and the landowner, the funding entities, and the NRCS, not to mention plenty of conversations just within the landowner’s own family.

It would be difficult to get through the process if you didn’t feel a connection to the land, the wildlife, your agricultural operations, and that heritage. It's a major real estate transaction and the commitment is, you know, forever. It inspires passion and those are the ranchers and landowners we are fortunate to work with.

~Jessica Crowder

Understanding landowners needs is critical to successful easements. Photo courtesy of Jessica Crowder.

I think that the easement work has succeeded in Southwest Wyoming because of the emphasis on voluntary conservation. In the region, there is a deep recognition of the value of private lands and those who steward them. There is also a widespread awareness of the interconnectedness of people and the land and of private lands and public lands. The watershed as a whole functions best if we recognize that it's all connected and there isn't one piece or part that's more important than another.

Those elements seem to have been in place and have only strengthened. Now, 20 years in, we’re at the point where the people who live in Sublette County and in the Green River Valley know the programs well, they understand their opportunities, and they're willing to act and make changes.

Green River Basin Success Story

Local land trusts play a central role in NRCS’s support of conservation easements. Jessica Crowder shares how her role at the Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust has helped create a legacy of conservation easements in this special corner of the West.