ESAP Past Winners

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Presented to Chris, Jay & Gari King

2021 Regional Award Winners

For the last 50 years, continuously improving grazing management has been a fundamental key in the ranch’s sustainability efforts. Joe King, Chris’s father, started those efforts in the 1970s when he sectioned off the ranch into five pastures to begin a rest-rotation grazing program.

The ranch’s deferred grazing and cover crop systems have improved the rangeland, improved soil health and even turned hardpan ground into an area that is beneficial to livestock and wildlife alike.

Implementing a thoughtful and managed grazing system that rotates animals on a regular frequency allows plants to develop deeper roots, recover from grazing faster, and ultimately produce far more grass over the course of the season. This means the soil can store more carbon, allow for water to seep into the soil, and prevent run-off.

The TG Ranch’s environmental stewardship story begins in the 1930s when the long drought got ranchers thinking about soil, water and grass conservation. Today the stewardship goals of the ranch include water conservation and improving soil heath and grazing land.

The ranch’s water conservation efforts include the use of their two reservoirs, utilizing efficient irrigation practices for hay and pastureland, and the addition of stock tanks around natural springs.

Over the years, the ranch has improved their pastures by utilizing some rotational grazing as well as seeding improved pastures.

With a change of management in January 1998, came a renewed commitment to conservation on Castle Mountain Ranch. Over twenty years ago, Ed Fryer along with his wife Bev and two sons moved to Castle Mountain Ranch and began making their mark on the landscape.

This renewed commitment to the ranch resources has led to revised cattle handling practices, twenty five water development projects, increased pasture production – tripling the grass availability in some areas, and countless other improvement projects that benefit the land, livestock and environment.

At the Two Creek Ranch, Wayne and Karalee Slaght manage about 21,000 owned or leased acres and 900 commercial pairs on the southern edge of the complex and greatly celebrated Crown of the Continent ecosystem.

Managing a landscape full of endangered or threatened species – including grizzly bears, wolves and bull trout – plus abundant elk, deer, Sandhill cranes, turkeys and trumpeter swans, requires planning, innovation and a lot of collaboration in order to stay in business and balance a healthy ecosystem. Wayne has been a leader in the industry in preventative predator management, setting the tone for how constructive, collaborative efforts can benefit the ranching community when we work cooperatively with state and federal agencies and non-governmental organizations for common stewardship goals.

They’ve been able to grow the cattle herd over the years by not only making their deeded land more productive with cross-fencing, noxious weed control and focused timber management, but by fostering relationships that have led to new and continued leased grazing opportunities on neighboring state and federal lands. They work to improve owned and leased land alike with strategic rotational grazing, water development and riparian restoration projects.