Pankey Ranch receives 2022 Colorado Leopold Conservation Award

Pankey Ranch has been selected as the recipient of the 2022 Colorado Leopold Conservation Award. Keith and Shelley Pankey and their children raise beef cattle and hay in Moffat and Routt counties. The conservation practices that the Pankeys have implemented are improving wildlife habitat, water quality, and soil health.

The award, given in honor of renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold, recognizes ranchers, farmers, and forestland owners who inspire others with their voluntary conservation efforts on private, working lands. The Pankey family’s resilience was put to a test when a wildfire burned nearly half of their ranch in 2018. Among the devastating impacts of the fire was livestock and wildlife could no longer drink from ponds because they were covered in ashes.

Keith and Shelley raise beef cattle with their sons, Kevin and Justin, and their families. They have a history of doing right by their land.

Following the fire, they cleaned the ponds and aerially reseeded native grasses on 900 acres in the fire’s path. It’s not the first time investing in conservation practices has paid off for this family and the landscape they share with livestock and wildlife. Keith’s great grandfather homesteaded an area of high desert known as Great Divide.

The Pankeys are still able to graze cattle in the drought-prone region from spring through fall thanks to improved water distribution and rotational grazing systems. Precipitation, range conditions, and animal performance all impact how the Pankeys plan pasture rotations and stocking rates. They analyze pasture rotations to determine which areas benefit from early, middle or late season grazing.

They’ve also found that some areas benefit from longer or shorter periods of grazing, while others benefit from being grazed twice in the same season. Pankey Ranch borders Colorado’s largest Greater sage-grouse lek, a breeding ground for this declining species.

The Pankeys hosted Colorado State University students to study grasses, insects, and Greater sage-grouse habitat in the Great Divide range. Their study was helpful in determining which conservation practices to adopt.

The Pankeys fenced off a large area around a natural spring to provide cover. They also equipped water storage tanks with overflows that provide water and prolonged green vegetation to encourage production of insects that grouse chicks consume.

The Pankeys also provide public hunting opportunities on their land. In 2011, they obtained a conservation easement on their Routt County property through the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust to ensure future agricultural uses on the land. As a longtime volunteer with the Moffat County Fair, Keith shares his land ethic and conservation practices with youth, neighbors and the general public.