When people think about conservation in the American West, the images that often come to mind are national parks, vast public lands and scenic wilderness areas. But a new report suggests some of the biggest conservation investments in the region are happening somewhere many people rarely see — on private land.
According to a new study commissioned by the Western Landowners Alliance, private landowners across 11 western states spent an estimated $407.5 million of their own money on conservation in 2024. The report, “The Scale of Landowner Investments in Conservation Across the American West,” was conducted by Southwick Associates and examines how ranchers and other landowners are investing in wildlife habitat, water resources and land stewardship on their properties.
“Landowners really care deeply, and they’ve got a lot of skin in the game. They are central partners in our effort to conserve and care for the working lands that make this nation possible.”
Lesli Allison, chief executive officer of Western Landowners Alliance, said the idea for the report came from a conversation that caught her off guard.
“One of the increasingly popular narratives today is this idea that sportsmen, taxpayers, and others fund conservation, and then landowners reap the benefits of that,” Allison said. “I was in a conversation one day with a sportsman who said, ‘I dare you to show me one landowner who has ever invested a nickel of their own money into conservation.’”
Allison said she knew from decades of working with ranchers and landowners that the reality was very different.
“I’ve spent my career working with landowners who are deeply dedicated to conservation, and I know how much money they’re investing in conservation continually,” she said. “So I thought, well, I’ll just go out and get the data.”
What she discovered was that no one had really measured those contributions on a large scale before.
“There were little regional studies, but nobody had ever really asked the question at scale,” Allison said.
Researchers surveyed hundreds of landowners managing properties of 500 acres or more and used the results to estimate conservation spending across Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
The findings show conservation investments are happening across a wide range of activities.
For this ranch in the Southern Great Plains, healthy soil is one of a number of key measures of success. Ranchers here steward a checkerboard of public and private rangeland. They have invested thousands in adjusting grazing practices, re-seeding native species, and combating woody encroachment, and forgone thousands more in potential revenue, to improve soils and protect endangered lesser prairie-chickens, pronghorn, and other species.
Landowners spent an estimated $124 million on range management, including grazing strategies designed to improve soil health and vegetation. About $93 million went toward water resource management, while another $69 million supported forest management projects such as thinning overcrowded trees and restoring fire-adapted ecosystems.
Another $62 million was spent on wildlife management efforts, from habitat restoration to species recovery projects.
Allison said those investments often happen quietly and largely out of public view.
“I think one of the things the public doesn’t understand is that private lands are the essential refuge for most of the nation’s wildlife,” she said.
Much of the West’s private land sits in fertile valleys and productive rangelands that wildlife depend on for food, water and winter habitat. Those lands also connect larger public landscapes, allowing species like elk, deer and pronghorn to migrate between seasonal ranges.
“When you keep a piece of land whole and you keep it healthy, it’s a benefit to wildlife and to people on all sides,” Allison said. “The benefits flow beyond the property line.”
The report suggests private landowners are investing at levels comparable to some of the most widely recognized conservation funding programs.
In 2024, the combined Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson excise tax funds distributed to the same Western states totaled about $342.7 million. The USDA’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program obligated about $341.3 million in those states during the same period.
Beyond spending money directly on conservation practices, many landowners also reported making difficult economic tradeoffs.
Nearly 59 percent of survey respondents said they intentionally gave up income opportunities to benefit wildlife or natural resources. That included choosing not to develop land, scaling back agricultural production or limiting recreation activities that might damage habitat.
In practice, those decisions can look very different from one property to another.
“It might mean changing the way you graze in riparian areas,” Allison said. “It might mean reducing livestock numbers, not going to row crop agriculture, not developing it, not turning it into subdivisions.”
The report also highlights the financial challenges that can come with maintaining wildlife habitat.
In 2024, wildlife caused an estimated $101 million in damage to crops, forage, water systems and livestock across private lands in the West. Landowners spent another $37.6 million repairing that damage.
Only about 16 percent of landowners reported receiving compensation, and those payments covered only a portion of their losses.
According to the report, many landowners say conservation remains a major reason they own or manage land. Nearly six out of ten respondents ranked natural resource conservation among their top motivations.
Despite those challenges, many landowners say conservation remains a major reason they own or manage land. Nearly six out of ten respondents ranked natural resource conservation among their top motivations.
Still, the report found several barriers that limit how much more landowners can invest. The biggest challenge cited by respondents was cost, followed by concerns about losing control over their land and navigating complicated regulations.
Allison said the time and complexity involved in conservation work can also discourage participation.
“People don’t realize the complexity that comes with land management and the time it takes to navigate that complexity,” she said. “It’s amazing how much complexity we’ve built into our system now and how much time it devours.”
Participation in public conservation programs remains relatively low. Researchers found only about 10 percent of surveyed acres were enrolled in federal, state or local conservation programs, and just 8 percent were protected through permanent conservation easements.
For Allison, the findings point to a broader takeaway: private landowners are already playing a major role in conservation, even if much of that work goes unnoticed.
“Landowners really care deeply, and they’ve got a lot of skin in the game,” she said. “They are central partners in our effort to conserve and care for the working lands that make this nation possible.”
She said recognizing those contributions and removing barriers that make stewardship harder could help strengthen conservation efforts across the West.
“Conservation is not a partisan issue. Working lands is not a partisan issue,” Allison said. “We need to stop using it as a political football and get serious about saving the lands that make our lives possible.”