Ogden Driskill: Rancher, Steward of the Land
Posted: 09-Mar-2007; Updated: 26-Apr-2007
Rancher Ogden Driskill works to create wildlife habitat, reduce the use of pesticides, and protect open space. (Photo: Povy Kendal Atchison)
Ogden Driskill produces more than beef and bison. He also produces clean water, habitat for wildlife and protects open space.
Ogden’s 13,000 acre Wyoming ranch, Campstool Ranch, is adjacent to the Devils Tower National Monument and includes meadows and bottomlands around the Belle Fourche River. His family has been on that land for seven generations- raising cattle, horses, and recently buffalo. Ogden and his family are not only pioneers of Wyoming ranching, but also of ranching methods that provide wildlife habitat, reduce the use of chemical pesticides, and protect open space.
Pioneering Ranching Practices
Campstool Ranch, thanks to Ogden and his father Jesse, was one of the first operations in the area to start using animals for weed control, rather than spraying pesticides. Leafy Spurge an invasive, non-native plant species that chokes out native grasses, had taken over 80-90 percent of the ranch’s grazing land. In 1993, Ogden began using sheep which eat Leafy Spurge, rather than chemicals to control the weed. It has been highly successful and Campstool Ranch now has about 700 sheep and almost all of its pasturage has been restored to good health.
The Driskill’s ranch includes many rivers, streams and waterways, including the Little Missouri and the Belle Fourche rivers. Waterways are especially susceptible to runoff and erosion and Ogden has been careful to protect those rivers and streams and the special areas along them called riparian areas. Riparian areas are host to unique plants that not only keep sediment and nutrients such as fertilizers out of streams, but also provide habitat for nesting birds and other wildlife. About 10 miles of riparian areas are fenced to allow controlled grazing and 70 percent of the ranch’s riparian areas are under intense grazing control, keeping these sensitive areas healthy.
Managing for Wildlife
Campstool Ranch is home to an astounding variety of wildlife and the Driskills have been managing the ranch to promote wildlife habitat for forty years. On Campstool Ranch live: owls, eagles, peregrine falcons, whitetail deer, antelope and elk. To keep wildlife on the ranch, Ogden and his family leave their pastures open and manage alfalfa crops to provide feed for some wildlife species.
Ogden has been a leader in the effort to promote open space through conservation easements on Western ranchland. A board member of the Wyoming Stockgrowers Agricultural Land Trust, he has spent years working to keep large ranches intact. In his view, too many of Wyoming’s large ranches have been broken up into development “ranchettes” which can create problems for wildlife and conservation.
Policies Could Do More
Regrettably, due to misplaced spending priorities, three out of four farmers and ranchers in the United States are rejected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture when they offer to share the cost of a healthy environment through practices like those at Campstool Ranch. In 2004 alone, over 1,200 ranchers and farmers in Wyoming were turned away.
Unless we reward private landowners like Ogden, we can't meet some of America's toughest environmental challenges, such as clean drinking water and saving rare species.
Renewal of farm and food policies by Congress this year creates a rare opportunity to reward—rather than reject—farmers and ranchers when they offer to help meet our environmental needs.
Read a dozen fresh ideas for farm and food policy and learn what you can do to help ranchers and farmers like Ogden.
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