Bennett Family Protects Sage-Grouse Habitat with Agricultural Land Easements

Secret Valley Ranch
Tucked in a valley along West Camp Creek in Baker County, Oregon, the Secret Valley Ranch stretches from the Wallowa Whitman National Forest on its southern border to Higgins Reservoir in the north. The Elkhorn Mountains rise on the distant skyline, which seems to go on forever.

About the Property
Secret Valley Ranch, comprised of 8,877 acres, is considered one of eastern Oregon's greatest ranches. As landowners, Mark and Patti Bennett have been stewarding Secret Valley Ranch for decades to improve grassland conditions for cattle and wildlife. For them, conservation and agriculture go hand in hand. Their efforts to restore, protect, and improve the ecosystem have built a model for other landowners to follow.

The Bennetts’ approach to rotational grazing, consistent rangeland monitoring, and adaptive management techniques are obvious indicators that Mark and Patti have led both their business and land stewardship models with future generations of animal and human inhabitants in mind. Throughout the years, the Bennetts have completed many improvement projects across Secret Valley’s vast landscape. Their goals were two-fold:  safeguard and improve the property’s sage-grouse population and maintain their family’s cattle operation and agricultural business.

Why the Landowner Chose Permanent Protection
The conservation easement protects both sides of the ranch. One is recognizing its high-quality sagebrush steppe habitat that is home to sage-grouse and redband trout. The other is its economic and social importance as a holistically grazed working cattle ranch.

The easement blends ecological protections and habitat goals with the operational needs of a ranch, incorporating a grazing management plan and continuing the rangeland monitoring at sites Mark established years ago.

How the Land was Protected
In a partnership between the Blue Mountain Land Trust and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) through its Agricultural Conservation Easement Program - Agricultural Land Easement (ACEP-ALE), a conservation easement on the Secret Valley Ranch was completed.

ACEP-ALE protects the agricultural viability and related conservation values of eligible land by limiting nonagricultural uses which negatively affect agricultural and conservation values. It also protects grazing and related conservation values by conserving eligible grazing land.

ACEP-ALE helps private and tribal landowners, land trusts, and other entities such as state and local governments protect croplands and grasslands on working farms and ranches by limiting nonagricultural uses of the land through easements.

What was Accomplished
The Bennetts wanted to protect the land for the following generation. They went through the process with their family and realized they weren’t going to come back and run the ranch and realized the ranch would be vulnerable. There was potential the property could be segmented.

As Mark and Patti look toward the future and the promise of another family one day taking ownership, they can be assured their efforts will leave a Secret Valley Ranch with bountiful resources for the next generation of ranching.