Cows and Conservation

In 2002, we partnered with the Yainix Ranch to demonstrate how ranch profitability can be maintained, while at the same time improving riparian and wetland habitat. The ranch is owned and managed by a multi-generational ranch family. Restoration and monitoring work is done in partnership with the Klamath Tribes.

Yainix Ranch is located in the Sprague River Valley, the primary contributor of degraded water in to the Klamath River system and an area that has experienced deep conflict over natural resource management in recent years. Because of these factors, The Yainix Ranch is a perfect place to demonstrate how restoration and ranching can go hand in hand.

Due to the severely degraded condition of the ranch, including a stretch of the Sprague River that meanders through the property, there were many skeptics. Few people believed that ranching techniques would yield any significant restoration gains.  But even after a few years, the results have been dramatic.

(See before and after photos of Yainix Ranch)

A "Working Lands" conservation easement

Sustainable Northwest worked with the Yainix Ranch and the Klamath Tribes to craft a "working lands" conservation easement in 2004. The easement was the first of its kind, pioneering the use of "affirmative obligations" to establish shared restoration objectives for the property.

A model for the Klamath Basin

Yainix Ranch has provided a place to test new methods of cattle management and riparian restoration. With technical expertise provided by the Working Landscapes Alliance, practices pioneered at Yainix are being adopted and improved by landowners across the Basin.