🔥 Smokey wasn’t wrong about preventing destructive wildfires, but he was wrong about fire itself.
Fire is a natural part of healthy forests, and we must bring it back to the landscape.
Controlled burns and mechanical thinning reduce fuel, restore ecosystems, and make forests more resilient.
Good fire, used the right way, is one of conservation’s greatest tools. Sorry Smokey.
#wildfire #smokeythebear #fixourforests #rxfire #conservation
The New York Times showcased PERC’s virtual fence projects at Wyoming’s Pitchfork and E Spear Ranches in their “50 States, 50 Fixes” conservation series. The story highlights how GPS-enabled virtual fence collars and digital fence lines help ranchers manage livestock while improving conservation outcomes for wildlife.
By replacing miles of traditional barbed wire with flexible, wildlife-friendly boundaries, ranchers are opening migration routes, reducing fence-related conflicts, and enhancing rangeland stewardship.
Recipients of our Virtual Fence Conservation Fund earlier this year, these iconic ranches show how innovation can benefit ranchers and improve land, water, and wildlife conservation.
This coverage underscores the growing recognition of virtual fencing as a scalable conservation tool and PERC’s leadership in bringing it to the landscape.
The Pitchfork Ranch project wouldn’t have been possible without our incredible partners at @rmef_official , @greateryellowstone , and @ricketts.conservation .
📰 Read the full story for free at the link in our bio or perc.org/pitchfork.
#conservation #ranching #wildlife #wyoming #yellowstone #montana #gye #nyt #newyorktimes
📡🐄 The technology revolutionizing the West? Here’s how it works. ⬇️
With GPS collars, solar-powered towers, and a smart app, ranchers can set and adjust boundaries from anywhere — even from home.📱 That means safer herds, less barbed wire, and fewer fence repairs.
For wildlife, it means open migration corridors, safer passage, and healthier landscapes. 🐻🦌
It allows for precision grazing that balances ranching needs with healthy land.
🔗 Learn all about how this revolutionary technology works at perc.org/virtualfencing.
#conservation #virtualfencing #wildlife #cattle #ranching #landstewardship #migration #GYE
This Endangered Species Day, we’re asking an important question: Why is preventing extinction easier than achieving recovery? More than 50 years after the Endangered Species Act became law, 99% of listed species have avoided extinction—but only 3% have fully recovered.
The same policies that help prevent extinction can also create barriers to long-term recovery. Lasting conservation works best when it aligns incentives and works with people, not against them.
#EndangeredSpeciesDay #speciesrecovery #wildlife #conservation
A California court case could reshape how the entire state allocates water, and not necessarily for the better. PERC’s new amicus brief argues that a rigid “release water for fish, no questions asked” rule would bypass a century of water law and crowd out the voluntary tools that make lasting conservation possible.
Read why cooperation beats litigation. Link in bio.
#conservation
The walls at PERC HQ reflect the people, landscapes, and traditions that shape the American West. We’re honored to showcase the work of Montana photographer and rancher Barbara Van Cleve in our office collection.
From women fixing fences to starry-night horses and cattle drives across open country, her work captures the grit, beauty, and stewardship woven into life lived with the land. These are the people and landscapes at the heart of the West we care about, where conservation is lived, not just discussed.
As a Montana woman who built a legendary career documenting ranch life from the inside, Barbara’s perspective continues to shape how people understand Montana working lands, and we’re proud to celebrate her work here at PERC.
#montana #ranching #western #yellowstone #conservation
Our research team spent this week in Yellowstone National Park discussing the future of park conservation with a group of incredible folks.
Stay tuned for more.
#yellowstone #conservation #yellowstonenationalpark
An area larger than Nevada has burned in the past decade.
A century of fire suppression has disrupted natural fire cycles, leaving forests overly dense and vulnerable. Fires are now burning more acres, lasting longer, and stretching into a “fire year.”
As more people live along the forest’s edge, the risk of catastrophic wildfire grows.
Tools like prescribed fire and thinning can restore healthier forests but regulation, litigation, and funding barriers limit their use.
Fixing our forests starts with removing those barriers.
Learn more at the link in our bio.
#wildfire #rxfire #foresthealth #wildfireseason #fixourforests
For decades, wildfire policy has focused on suppression. But new PERC research shows that investing in prevention pays off for communities, forests, and taxpayers alike.
Our newest report, Beyond Wildfire Suppression, finds that fuel treatments can dramatically reduce firefighting costs, smoke exposure, and property damage across the American West. Between 2017 and 2023 alone, these treatments prevented an estimated $2.8 billion in wildfire-related losses. In some regions, every $1 invested returned up to $6 in reduced federal suppression costs.
The research behind this report was also just published in Science, underscoring the rigor and significance of the findings.
As wildfires grow more destructive each year, the case for proactive forest management has never been clearer.
Read the full report at the link in bio.
#Wildfire #ForestHealth #Conservation #WildfireSeason #AmericanWest
Ted Turner was a conservation giant in the truest sense. A man who put his resources, his land, and his life behind his convictions.
Ted brought something distinctive to the tradition of the conservation rancher: the scale, the visibility, and the conviction to prove that large private landscapes managed for wildlife could change what the conservation movement believed was possible. The Flying D alone—113,000 acres in the heart of Montana—became a living demonstration of what private land stewardship could look like at its most ambitious.
Ted was also a generous friend to PERC. The Turner Foundation has supported PERC’s work on everything from wildlife migrations and to the care of our national parks.
PERC CEO Brian Yablonski, who personally knew Ted and his family for over 20 years, today reflected: “When the history of conservation in America is written, there ought to be a chapter dedicated to Ted Turner and how he, in essence, created the concept of conservation ranching, using large private landscapes primarily for wildlife habitat and conservation purposes. Ted was a true southern gentleman, a lion of conservation, and source of inspiration until the very end.”
The West is quieter today. But the land Ted loved endures, and the legacy he forged is stronger than ever.
Read our full blog post at the link in bio.
Rest well, Ted. 🦬
#TedTurner #Montana #Conservation #PrivateLandStewardship #Bison
