FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact: Darryl Seibel, Darryl@ccalt.org , 720-557-8266

October 1, 2025

Summary: The Snyder family received support from the Routt County Purchase of Development Rights Program and the USDA’s Agricultural Conservation Easement Program to expand their conservation efforts in the County.

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. – The Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust (CCALT) announces the completion of a new 2,348-acre conservation easement with the Snyder family on Fish & Cross Ranch near Yampa. The ranch is in an area known as “The Gateway to the Flattops,” where landscape-level conservation investments through Routt County’s Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) Program have created a stronghold of interconnected agricultural lands and habitat corridors.

This new conservation easement adds to Routt County’s commitment to conserve working landscape and allows the Snyder family to continue taking care of these agricultural lands and wildlife habitat.

“Megan Knott (CCALT Senior Director of Stewardship) and I are happy to have worked with the Snyders to conserve another piece of their spectacular multigenerational ranch,” said CCALT Conservation Manager Monica Shields. “Their commitment to agricultural conservation will carry on to future generations of their family and continue to support the rural economy in South Routt County. As was evident this summer, agricultural lands not only provide important wildlife habitat and scenic views, but the hay meadows and wetlands act as critical wildfire breaks during times of drought. The Fish and Cross Ranch, nestled up against the Flat Tops Wilderness area, serves all these critical community functions.”

“This property links together U.S. Forest Service, BLM and State lands, as well as existing conservation easements, to form a pristine tract that protects views and critical wildlife corridors,” said Routt County Commissioner Tim Redmond.  “It is gratifying to know this landscape will be preserved in perpetuity. Thank you.”

Fish & Cross Ranch lies just west of the town of Yampa. The lands within the conservation easement include sagebrush rangelands, aspen woodlands and irrigated pastures with senior water rights along Watson Creek forever tied to those lands through the conservation easement. The property is utilized as part of a larger cattle and hay operation the Snyders run in the area and as natural habitat with a variety of vegetation. Patriarch Allen Snyder and his family purchased the ranch in 2006, and four generations currently live and work on the ranch. The conservation easement helps to ensure the Snyder family can continue stewarding the property for generations.

“We would like to thank everyone who helped make this easement possible — from the PDR Board and County Commissioners to the CCALT team and NRCS,” said Tyler Snyder.  “We are very blessed to be able to take a step forward in continuing to pass down the generational legacy of ranching in the Yampa Valley to generations to come.”

The Snyder family participated in conservation measures prior to this easement. In the past, they utilized conservation easements to conserve other portions of the Fish & Cross Ranch and also purchased conserved acreage nearby for which CCALT holds easements. Fish & Cross Ranch also shares boundaries with U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and State lands and other privately conserved lands over which CCALT holds conservation easements, including another 8,750 acres of conserved lands within five miles of the ranch. The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provided funding support through the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program to uphold the important agricultural and conservation values the property offers.

“NRCS Colorado is excited to have played a part in conserving this historic family ranch to protect it for agricultural use by future generations,” said NRCS State Conservationist Clint Evans.  “We are proud to have partnered with the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust and the Snyder Family to secure the conservation easement.”

Taken together, these successful conservation efforts play a vital role in Routt County’s agricultural economy, which includes a total of more than 83,000 acres of active working land CCALT and its landowner-partners have conserved across the county. This additional conservation easement on Fish & Cross Ranch is an important piece that expands the area’s conservation ethic and supports the County’s thriving agricultural industry and community. Transaction cost assistance for this project was provided by The Nature Conservancy and Colorado Parks & Wildlife’s Upper Yampa River Habitat Partnership Program Committee.

About the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust

The mission of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust is to conserve Colorado’s Western heritage and working landscapes for the benefit of future generations. Since 1995, CCALT has partnered with more than 400 families to conserve more than 820,000 acres of Colorado farmland, ranchland, open space, and wildlife habitat.

About the Routt County Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) Program

The Routt County PDR Program is a land protection tool in which a property’s development rights are purchased from willing landowners. Funding for the PDR Program is derived from a 1.5 mill levy in County property tax approved by voters through 2035. In exchange for County funds, the landowner grants a perpetual conservation easement, or deed restriction on the property, thereby permanently protecting the land from development. The PDR Program provides landowners an economically attractive alternative to selling land for development by compensating them for the development rights on their land. Ownership of the property remains vested with the landowner, who can use and manage the property consistent with the terms of the conservation easement. Since the initiation of the PDR Program in 1997, the County has helped fund the purchase of conservation easements on 68,535 acres, at a cost of just over $32 million.

About the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service provides technical and financial assistance to help agricultural producers and others care for the land. The Agency prioritizes conservation planning and uses conservation programs in the Farm Bill to implement most of its efforts including the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program which is designed to protect the agricultural viability, grazing uses and related conservation values of prime agricultural land by limiting nonagricultural uses of that land.

Members of the media: for more information, please contact Darryl Seibel, CCALT Director of External Relations, at (720) 557-8266 or darryl@ccalt.org.