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Wyoming ranch wins sustainability award

Roger Wollstadt

A Wyoming ranch has won a Regional Environmental Stewardship Award from the National Cattleman’s Beef Association for the sixth time in the award’s 22 year history. They will now be considered for the national title.

The Padlock Ranch in Sheridan County was already recognized for their environmental sustainability practices earlier this year by a different award.  

Jim Magagna is the executive vice-president of the Wyoming Stock Grower’s Association. He points out that Wyoming has won the national Stewardship Award three times in the past, and that this speaks to a certain tradition in Wyoming ranching. 

“You can do good practices, which these ranches do; the real result is that you do them over time," said Magagna. "I think these recognitions at the regional and national level recognize that in Wyoming’s case, you know, many generations of ranchers have committed to good stewardship,” he added.

The Padlock Ranch has worked for several years on recovering the Tongue River stream bed, which runs through their ranch, and on grazing techniques that promote grass recovery.

Chelsea Biondolillo is originally from Portland, Oregon and comes to Laramie by way of several southern cities, including New Orleans, Austin, and Phoenix. She is currently an MFA candidate at the University of Wyoming in creative nonfiction and environmental studies and her prose has appeared or is forthcoming in Creative Nonfiction, Phoebe, DIAGRAM, Birding, and others. Chelsea loves plants, birds, and rocks, and tries to spend as much time as she can around them.

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