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Easement is largest ever for Kansas Land Trust, one of eight active land trusts protecting ecologically important lands in Kansas.

PJ Griekspoor, Editor, Kansas Farmer

August 27, 2010

1 Min Read

The Moyer Ranch, 6,700 acres of pristine Kansas Flint Hills prairie, will remain a working cattle ranch in perpetuity, thanks to action taken in July by owner Rod Moyer.

Moyer, a third generation Flint Hills rancher, said he began thinking about the ranch and his family's legacy in the Flint Hills several years ago when he realized his son, who lives in New York, was not interested in returning to Kansas to run the ranch.

"He expressed an interest in seeing it preserved, but not an interest in any hands-on participation," Moyer said.

Then Moyer learned about the Kansas Land Trust, a non-profit organization dedicated the management and preservation of ecologically important land.

It doesn't get much more ecologically important than the Flint Hills, which represent more than 90 percent of all the virgin Tallgrass Prairie left in North America, a tiny remnant of the vast oceans of grass that once covered all of mid-America.

Working with the Fort Riley Army Compatible Use Buffer Program, the Natural Resources and Conservation Service, Farm and Ranchland Protection Program and the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, Kansas Land Trust was able to put together a conservation easement for Moyer Ranch. That easement was dedicated on July 22.

To see some of the history, scenery and sheer beauty of Moyer Ranch, click on the slideshow below.

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