Nation’s First Greater Sage-Grouse Conservation Bank

Senior Department of the Interior and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials joined Wyoming Governor Matt Mead today in announcing the launch of the nation’s first conservation bank for greater sage-grouse. The bank will manage a vast expanse of central Wyoming for sage-grouse, mule deer and other wildlife, allowing energy development and other economic activities to proceed on lands elsewhere in the state. At a ceremony in the State Capitol hosted by Governor Mead, Interior Deputy Assistant Secretary Jim Lyons, Deputy Director for the Service Jim Kurth and Jeff Meyer, Managing Partner of the Sweetwater River Conservancy, formalized the agreement creating the project, which will rank as the largest conservation bank in the country. At the heart of the project is the Pathfinder Ranch, a 235,000-acre cattle ranch located west of Casper near Pathfinder Reservoir that provides significant wildlife habitat for the greater sage-grouse and other native species. Originally purchased for wind energy development, the project was converted to a conservation bank and deeded to the newly created Sweetwater Conservancy with the encouragement of former Governor Dave Freudenthal, who was in the process of building Wyoming’s Core Area sage-grouse strategy. The conservation bank will launch with 55,000 deeded acres. As the demand grows, it could expand to 700,000 acres on other lands owned by the Conservancy. A conservation bank is a site or suite of sites established under an agreement with the Service to protect, and where feasible, improve habitat for species. Entities can purchase “credits” that result from perpetual conservation easements and conservation projects on the land to offset impacts occurring elsewhere...more