A ranch older than Colorado is forging new paths in ecological ranching
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JEFFERSON, Colo. — Every year, hundreds, sometimes thousands, of elk storm Eagle Rock Ranch, a 157-year-old ranch that spans approximately 6,500 acres across the Tarryall Valley near South Park.
And every year, 69 year-old Dave Gottenborg, who owns the ranch with his wife, Jean, drives along their extensive stretch of fencing to survey the damage caused by the migrating herds.
“Elk are gonna come through here whether we like it or not. They’ve been doing it for centuries,” said Gottenborg.
“But what can we do to help maybe keep them from banging up the fences?”
Earlier this year, Eagle Rock Ranch entered a five-year elk migration agreement with the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC), a conservation nonprofit based in Montana that partners with farmers and ranchers on environmental conservation projects.
This agreement is an early example of privately funded, research-backed agricultural conservation partnership that could help farmers and ranchers balance business with ecology.
For years before the agreement, the Gottenborgs ship their cattle to Yuma, Colorado in the winter, when grazing land is typically empty through the beginning of spring. During that time, hundreds of elk that had been grazing in the surrounding hills make their centuries-old migration through the valley, grazing on Eagle Rock Ranch’s land and hay — and destroying its fences.
Video: Chase McCleary, Rocky Mountain PBS
The Gottenborgs understand the benefit of the elk. The animals promote soil health, benefit hunters and visitors and indicate the ranch is ecologically healthy. But the costly annual damage trampled the ranch’s bottom line.
Barbed wire fences can reach over $2,000 per acre to purchase and install, and they sometimes cost more when buying in smaller quantities.
Gottenborg connected with PERC through the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust. In 2021, PERC launched two conservation projects regarding elk migration in Montana, each of which used funding to offset elk migration damage.
“Agreements are made to address the needs of each ranch based on what we’re hearing from ranchers and our research,” said Travis Brammer, PERC’s director of conservation who is leading the Colorado project, the first of its kind outside of Montana.
According to the Eagle Rock Ranch agreement, Gottenborg will graze his cattle in a “rest-rotation” fashion, meaning that in any given year, about half of the ranch’s land (including the deeded and un-deeded land) will remain untouched and available for foraging elk.
PERC will pay Gottenborg according to the lease rate for that property, though Brammer emphasized that the payments will be less than 100% of the land’s value, so they are not in competition with agricultural leasing rates.
Gottenborg agreed to install more wildlife-friendly fencing to permit easier elk migration in an effort to reduce future damage costs.
Erin Michalski, Dave’s daughter, and Gottenborg looped in “high-vis” fencing, thin, white strands of wire that run along the top of barbed fences to show migrating elk how high they need to jump when crossing through at night (elk herds are most active after dusk and before dawn).
They also added stretches of “lay-down” fencing. The father-daughter duo can temporarily pull the fence down to lie flat on the ground, allowing elk herds to walk directly over the top. When migration season ends around April and the cattle return, the lay-down fencing can easily be pulled upright.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife currently offers a similar Habitat Partnership Program that “aims to reduce wildlife conflicts related to forage and fences,” according to the CPW website. It includes wildlife-friendly fence improvements, research and monitoring and minor repair projects.
Gottenborg said that this program is “wonderful,” and his partnership with PERC is just another way ranchers can access funds to improve their land.
“This is the first, but certainly not the last, partnership,” said Brammer, who added that PERC is looking into future elk and potentially wolf-related projects in the future.
Gottenborg is an environmentalist at heart. He studied geology in college, operates a personal environmental laboratory out of a repurposed shipping container and he frequently references conservationist greats like Aldo Leopold and Wendell Berry, both of whom are quoted on wooden signs he’s posted around the ranch.
One reads, “‘Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you’ - Wendell Berry.”
After college, Dave and Jean Gottenborg worked a number of non-ranching related jobs to save up for their dream retirement: owning and operating the Eagle Rock Ranch, which they purchased in 2012. The Gottenborgs own 3,000 acres and privately lease another 3,500 for grazing.
“Ranching is one of those things where people will work three jobs just to do it,” said Gottenborg. “I think it has something to do with the land, being able to manage, steward… and see things grow.”
Tucked in the Tarryall Valley, Eagle Rock Ranch carries a storied history. Gottenborg described the area as “a main highway” that saw the likes of John Fremont and Kit Carson moving through in search of gold and land.
Louis Holst, a gold prospector, passed through around the 1880s. Upon finding that the gold-rich Leadville area was already full, he returned to the Tarryall Valley and homesteaded the Eagle Rock Ranch in 1868.
“This ranch has been going for 150 years,” said Gottenborg. “We can’t mess it up. We got to do it right, too.”
Today, Dave and Jean Gottenborg operate the ranch with help from Michalski and usually one seasonal intern. They manage 150 pairs of cattle (a mother and her nursing calf). The ranch has space for more, but the Gottenborgs said the smaller number helps manage grazing rotations and workload.
Gottenborg underlined the importance of “natural harmony” for the sake of the ranch’s history, present and future, all of which Gottenborg hopes to maintain as both profitable and environmentally-sound.
“When everything is winning here — fish health, antelope, cattle, soil — that is conservation,” said Gottenborg.
“We’re only here for the blink of an eye in the grand scheme of things, so our goal is to leave it in good shape when it’s our turn to pass it on… not to do too much messing around, but to enhance things.”
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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