wyoming game and fish department

Cattlemen, woolgrowers, anglers, hikers and hunters will continue to enjoy Beartrap Meadows in the Big Horns of Wyoming thanks to a conservation easement that will forever protect a stock trail used by many ranchers.

The project conserves part of a stock trail, or stock rest, in western Johnson County that has been used by agricultural producers for almost a century.

Located high in the southern Big Horn Mountains near the headwaters of Beartrap Creek, ranchers in the region rely on the area as a stopover for rest for their cattle and sheep while driving them to summer grazing pastures. More than 20,000 head of livestock travel the trail annually to take advantage of the area’s plentiful water and forage.

A new land conservation agreement will protect key wildlife habitat in Wyoming’s Green River Valley. The agreement, which establishes two conservation easements on the Fish Creek Flying W Ranches near Big Piney, was coordinated by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and The Conservation Fund.