An agreement to protect the ranch from development means the family can continue to raise livestock there

LETHBRIDGE, Alta. – A deal to protect a sprawling ranch in southern Alberta from development is the largest of its kind in the country, the Nature Conservancy of Canada says, and will allow the family that owns it to continue raising livestock there to hold.

The 22,000-acre McIntyre Ranch was founded in 1894 south of Lethbridge, Alta. founded by William McIntyre and remained in his family until his son Billy died in 1947.

Longtime family friend and employee, Ralph Thrall, purchased the property after Billy’s death and the Thrall family still owns and operates the property.

“We just kept up the legacy of sustainable ranching that the McIntyres started when they came from Texas and saw the overgrazing that had taken place in the Midwest, and so they learned from the mistakes of others and left the grass for all to take,” Ralph Thrall III said in a telephone interview from Lethbridge on Sunday.

The agreement, which was formally announced Monday in honor of Earth Day, is a partnership between the Thrall family, the Nature Conservancy of Canada and Ducks Unlimited, which gives both organizations perpetual easements on the property to prevent it from falling into the future is being developed, crops are being planted or even wind and solar farms.

In return, Thrall says his family will continue to own the property while receiving a financial boost for their ranching business.

The Nature Conservancy says McIntyre Ranch contains some of Canada’s most important continuous blocks of rough fescue grasslands and more than 1,000 hectares of wetlands, which it says are home to an abundance of wildlife. It also offers carbon storage and water filtration.

More than 80 percent of native prairie grasslands in the three Prairie provinces have been lost to other uses, the Conservancy says.

The property is home to more than 150 species of birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles and fish. Recent wildlife research has shown that 27 species of concern live there, including the iron hawk, the chestnut-necked snakespur and the American badger.

The Conservancy says it is important to keep the land sustainably grazed by livestock because their grazing behavior approximates the historical actions of bison.

“The successful completion of the McIntyre Ranch campaign underscores the power of collaboration and community involvement in conserving Canada’s prairie grasslands,” said Tom Lynch-Staunton, regional vice-president of Nature Conservancy of Canada.

“We hope this important milestone is just one of many future achievements in our efforts to protect our planet’s most threatened ecosystems.”

The Nature Conservancy says hundreds of donors made the deal possible. It says contributions also came from the Alberta government through the Alberta Land Trust Grant Program, and from the federal government through the Natural Heritage Conservation Program.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and private donors also contributed.

Thrall himself was not always interested in ranching. At one point in his younger years, he spent a year as a professional golfer. But he says he and his siblings grew up knowing the family ranch was unique.

He encourages other farmers interested in protecting their land from development to explore similar easements.

“If it were about the money, yes, we would sell the ranch and live much more comfortably on the interest on the proceeds,” Thrall says.

“That’s the price our family is willing to pay to preserve something that there isn’t much left of.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 22, 2024.

–By Rob Drinkwater in Edmonton

The Canadian Press