PODCAST: Turtle Rock Ranch Wins Landowner of the Year Award

This year marked the 30th year that the Wyoming Game and Fish Department recognized four landowners from around the state.

These include Turtle Rock Ranch (the Grant Family) in the Glenrock region as well as NL Land and Livestock Inc. by Lander, JBar 9 Ranch Mangers (the Curtis Family) in the Cody region, and Falxa Ranch near Sheridan.

"The occupation of rancher kind of evokes this Hollywood image of a stereotypical rancher and there is a lot to that, but anymore, I think the job title should probably be natural resources manager. You're trying to manage what resources mother nature gives you. Whether it's the water, and the quality of you r soil, that you turn into a product -- for the most part we turn that into grass which our cattle turn into healthy food for people" said Mark Grant.

Since 1995, the Landowner of the Year Award has been presented to Wyoming landowners who have demonstrated outstanding practices in wildlife management, habitat improvement and conservation techniques on their properties. These companies and families have cooperated with Game and Fish to provide access for hunters and anglers on their properties as well.

In our most recent episode of Report to Wyoming, a KTWO podcast, I sat down with Mark Grant for half an hour to talk about Turtle Rock Ranch.

Grant's great grandfather homesteaded the area in 1886. He described him as "kind of a wanderer" from Iowa who had spent time in the North Woods cutting timber before he and his brother headed West to cut timber for the railroad.

Soon after, the Homesteading Act inspired them to find a little piece of Wyoming in a valley they thought would be fertile and would be a good place to raise families.

Now it is home to their great, great grand children. The early years were marked by vicious winter storms. Grant remembers hearing stories about how they had to chop holes in the roofs of buildings to lower down hay and water to the cattle they were trying to keep alive during those hard times.

I won't spoil the other stories, you can listen to the conversation below.