Jackson Hole Land Trust easement grows JACKSON, Wyo. (AP)
-- The Jackson Hole Land Trust has secured a conservation easement on 80 acres of elk habitat.
The land is part of the Snake River Ranch owned by the Stanley Resor family.
The easement is part of an elk migration corridor between a Wyoming Game and Fish feed ground and the Bridger-Teton National Forest.
The parcel also is late fall and early spring elk habitat. Keeping it undeveloped, which the conservation easement ensures, will allow elk to remain off the feed ground longer.
The land also is a habitat for mule deer and moose, and it is within nesting territory of a pair of bald eagles, according to the Land Trust.
The easement increases protected lands on that ranch to more than 700 acres, managing partner Bill Resor said.
The Resors, who gave the easement to the Land Trust, will continue to use the land for cattle grazing.
"Conservation easements are a very useful tool to meet two of our objectives: to keep the ownership of the ranch and to keep it open," Resor said.
Terms of easements vary by the agreements. The Resor easement prohibits any development on the property. There are no buildings on the property now, and a fence is the only development on it, Resor said.
Provisions of the easement allow for dispersed recreation such as hunting, skiing, and bird watching, Resor said. However, no developed recreation, such as a golf course, will be permitted.
"It has to stay the way it is," he said.
Resor has been working on the easement agreement with the Land Trust since the middle of the summer.
"It's an area that we always wanted to put an easement on," Resor said. "We're glad to do it."
Leslie Mattson, executive director of the Land Trust, said her organization appreciated the gift.
"The Land Trust is grateful for this latest opportunity to work with this dedicated family to further community conservation goals," she said.
