Yellowstone billionaire promotes conservation through science, collaboration
Laura Lundquist
BONDURANT, WYO. (Missoula Current) - Life in the Northern Rockies was simpler 50 years ago, when Montana’s population was two-thirds of what it is today. Towns were still small, affordable - some might say "poor" - and somewhat isolated. Highways and trails were uncongested. Flights into the area were limited, and direct flights went only to Denver, Seattle or Minneapolis. Big Sky was still just a ski hill, not the moneyed behemoth of resorts and mansions it is today.
But it was a bleak time if you were another species, such as a bison, grizzly bear or wolf. Having suffered for decades at the hands of man, the populations of many species were in trouble. Only 132 grizzly bears remained in the Yellowstone region in 1975, and wolves were regionally extinct, the last two having been shot in 1929 by Yellowstone National Park employees. It took a lot of time and effort over the following decades to recover wildlife populations to the point that many of the 9 million visitors that visit Yellowstone Park can glimpse several species over the course of a few days. But people weren’t as much of a hindrance.
Now, that brief upswing in wildlife populations is poised to arc downward as more people, both tourists and new residents, flood into the lands around the park. Signs of decline caused by human pressures are becoming evident, even as scientists are trying to learn more about what wildlife need to survive. But one relatively new resident, TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, is putting his own time and money toward an array of efforts to stem the decline. His hope is that his initiative, “Saving Yellowstone,” will produce new tools to preserve Yellowstone’s ecosystem and other wild parts of the rapidly developing West.
“All these ideas are transferable,” said Doug Smith, Saving Yellowstone Summit coordinator. “I don’t want to pick between ecosystems. The subtitle (of Saving Yellowstone) is “America’s majestic ecosystem.” But everywhere is just as majestic. I realize the human drive is to be unique and special and come up with a great idea. Making the world a better place is taking an old idea and putting it in a new place.”
Last week, more than 200 conservationists and researchers from Montana, Wyoming and Idaho convened at Ricketts’ Jackson Fork Ranch southwest of Bondurant, Wyo., for the 2nd annual Conservation Summit. There, they spent two days learning about wildlife research in the Yellowstone region and discussing ways to identify and conserve land important to wildlife.
The region of concern is not just the area currently designated as “the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.” Scientists tracking migratory wildlife such as pronghorn antelope, mule deer, elk and grizzly bears have shown that we need to conserve at least portions of a much larger area to preserve the populations that depend on those ancient migrations. With that larger region in mind, Saving Yellowstone is putting particular focus on the 7 million acres of private land - the white spaces on the map - that surround and sporadically snake into the 15 million acres of public land that includes two national parks and four national forests.
Ricketts said the greatest threat to the Yellowstone ecosystem is Starlink, the satellite internet service that allows people to receive internet access anywhere, particularly in rural regions. That’s allowed newcomers to move in because they can work remotely. Since the COVID pandemic, the populations of the 20 counties surrounding Yellowstone, including seven in Montana, have surged as subdivisions have filled in river valleys and more mansions dot the mountainsides, in spite of the fact that land prices are skyrocketing. The trend isn’t limited to the Yellowstone region.
Harkening back to when he first bought his ranch in 1990, Ricketts acknowledged that he knew nothing about the Yellowstone ecosystem, so some of his decisions, like fencing large areas, degraded wildlife habitat. But as he learned more about his adopted region, he removed the fencing and made other changes. So he’s hoping that Saving Yellowstone can educate other residents, old and new, and encourage them to protect the region and its wildlife.
“I had picked up from previous generations that you conquer nature. Until I started to learn how precious, how unique, how glorious our Yellowstone ecosystem is,” Ricketts said. “The people that are moving in and buying a few acres, and then starting to live and work, don’t know what they’re doing or what they can do to our ecosystem. Right now, we have an opportunity to save the Yellowstone ecosystem, and if we don’t take advantage of it now, it will be lost forever.”
Saving Yellowstone isn’t the first initiative to recognize the threats that development poses. In the early 1990s, the residents and public land agencies of the Blackfoot River Valley recognized that subdivision, commercial development and recreation could take a toll on their lands and the agricultural character of the valley. So local leaders founded the Blackfoot Challenge to shepherd voluntary, collaborative conservation in the watershed.
Over the past three decades, the Blackfoot Challenge has introduced a number of practices to help landowners improve agricultural operations, stave off development and coexist with a variety of wildlife. Part of its success is due to some strong local leaders and having an organization that can raise money to support programs such as carcass pickup and electric and virtual fencing. Because, unfortunately, conservation efforts aren’t cheap. But as journalist Todd Wilkinson said in his keynote address at the summit, “it’s less costly to prevent something from breaking than to try to Super Glue it back together after the fact.”
But managing and getting consensus across a watershed of 1.5 million acres, more thanl half of which is private land, is relatively easy when compared to Saving Yellowstone's endeavor that spans 22 million acres and three states. Not only is coordination more difficult across a larger area, but also the money needed to conduct conservation projects is astronomical.
Wilkinson gave the example of a citizens’ effort to save from development the 640-acre state-owned Kelly Parcel near Grand Teton National Park, for which the state of Wyoming demanded $100 million in 2024. That’s around $156,000 per acre. Ouch. Taking a county-wide view, the Wyoming state assessor found that the 55,000 acres of private land unprotected by conservation easements in Teton County had a value of more than $15 billion in 2017. Granted, Teton County is the richest county in the U.S. But extend that across 20 counties around Yellowstone and apply 2026 land prices, and it’s clear that buying enough easements to conserve open land is likely cost-prohibitive.
So what else can be done? Being a businessman, Ricketts wants to use data and a bit of a capitalistic approach to private-land conservation rather than regulations. He said because of Starlink, development is going to happen “whether we want it or not,” but he believes that economic development and conservation go hand-in-hand. So he’s supporting the research that shows what the land and wildlife need, and education, based on personal experience.
To raise money, Ricketts suggests involving the millions of tourists who love and visit the Yellowstone area by asking them for donations and then including them in progress updates. Other summit attendees suggested coming up with tools other than conservation easements or zoning that incentivize land preservation. Unfortunately, few if any wealthy landowners use conservation easements, according to land trust representatives.
But one Saving Yellowstone project involves superimposing wildlife migration corridors on Yellowstone’s white spaces to find which private lands are affected. Then using public records to get names and addresses of the affected private landowners, Saving Yellowstone partners would go talk to the landowners about the conservation role they could play.
“We can say to them, ‘Here’s what you can do to improve the ecosystem by accommodating this migration.’ And then we can finally get them to love the ecosystem as much as you and I do,” Ricketts said. “This is a challenge. Some people already love the ecosystem, and they don’t know what’s going on on their land that they could help improve. There are other people who don’t know and don’t care. We’ve got to see if we can continue to work on, to lead them to care about the ecosystem. So it’s going to take a lot of people over the next 10 to 20 years.”
Education, collaboration, trust-building - they all take years. But the Yellowstone ecosystem may not have 20 years. Just during the two days of the summit, events occurred that could set conservation back. The Trump administration announced it decided to repeal the Roadless Rule, potentially opening millions of acres of public land that have been protected from roads and intensive logging. Then, the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission voted to kill 300 wolves this year, even though the wildlife agency recently revealed its previous model for estimating wolf numbers vastly overestimated population sizes. The new estimate is 725 wolves statewide rather than 1,094.
Some people, including Teton National Park superintendent Chip Jenkins, say we’re running out of time. Due to the accelerated pace of development and the effects of climate change, a great deal needs to happen within the next decade to preserve wildlife conservation wins that have occurred over past decades.
“For 40 or 50 years, we have had private property owners who have been acting as role models and stewards,” Jenkins said at last year’s summit. “The pace of change that is happening in this ecosystem is such that we do not have another 50 years to be able to ensure the preservation of this place. We need to figure out soon and quickly how we help private property owners continue their legacy of working in concert with communities and governments in order to be able to preserve this place.”
Ricketts intends to address the private-land conservation piece at next year’s summit. The following year, the summit will take on the big question of how to reconcile the differences between development and conservation.
Meanwhile, amid swirling policy and political questions, the research, including five projects conducted by University of Montana graduate students, will continue. As part of their presentations, each student is asked to explain what Yellowstone would be like without the species they study. Doug Smith hopes they won’t have to find out. But humans are harder to manage than wildlife, and sprawling development can be a death sentence for wild ecosystems.
“Wolves aren’t being managed very well in the state of Montana or Idaho or to a degree Wyoming. We’re not doing a great job with wolf management because of this age-old hatred,” Smith said. “But wolves are forgiving - if we back off and give them a chance, they’ll bounce back. Nature is the same way. But the message to me is that we have to have a sense of urgency. This is the most intact temperate zone in the world. That is precious. What are we going to do? Humans can never agree about what to do, but you’ve got to keep beating the drum.”
Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at lundquist@missoulacurrent.com.