

Dick, Suzanne, Shawn, Lacy & Kale Mowry represent three of five generations in the more than 100-year history of the Mowry Ranch in the North Platte Valley. The family placed a conservation easement on their property to save the property from future development and lessen their tax burden.
SARATOGA – In order to sustain the open vistas of their historic ranch, a multigenerational North Platte Valley family has entered 2,035 acres of working ranchland into a conservation easement. The land supports a thriving cattle operation, sage grouse habitat and more than 100 years of family history.
The Mowry Ranch is a traditional cow/calf operation located in the heart of the North Platte Valley nestled against the Sierra Madre Mountains southwest of Saratoga. Located in a Sage Grouse corridor, and providing habitat for many important wildlife species, the Mowry Ranch plays a key role in maintaining continuity of habitat and open space between public and private lands.
“I enjoy the openness of our ranch and the sense of freedom I have,” Suzanne Mowry said. “It’s important to us, as well as our children, to keep the land forever in agriculture.”

The Mowry Ranch is a traditional cow/calf operation that is home to dozens of wildlife species. The Mowry family placed a conservation easement on their property to save the property from future development and lessen their tax burden.
The ranch has been in the Mowry family for more than 100 years and is now run by multiple generations. Dick and Suzanne and their son Shane and daughter-in-law Lacy run the operation together. Shane and Lacy’s children are the fifth generation of Mowrys stewarding the land and carrying on the history of the ranch and the area.
“Family lore has it that my grandmother’s father, John Brewer, was the first white man to winter in the North Platte Valley,” Dick said.
While celebrating the past, the Mowry family also looks to the future. In 2009, the family approached the Wyoming Stock Growers Agricultural Land Trust about protecting their ranch through a conservation easement. As with most of today’s ranch families, the Mowrys were faced with the dilemma of how to pass the place on to the next generation without a huge tax liability. The family found their solution by selling a conservation easement on their property. Conservation easements are legal, voluntary agreements between landowners and qualified conservation organizations which permanently restrict the type and amount of development that occurs on private property.
“We want to keep the land from being subdivided and to preserve the wide-open spaces of the area,” Dick said.
The Stock Growers Land Trust chose to purchase the easement based on several key agricultural and wildlife values on the land.
“The Mowry Ranch is a wonderful example of a highly-productive working ranch that supports a multigenerational family and provides incredible wildlife habitat,” Stock Growers Land Trust Field Representative Leah Burgess said.
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