County, local agencies issue, begin distribution of conservation guides

The Big Horn County Commissioners and supervisors of the county’s two conservation districts announced the release of “The Big Horn Handbook,” a countywide conservation guide, in a press release dated Feb. 4. 

The guide — available as both a physical book and online — is an updated version of the conservation guides historically issued by local conservation districts, which oftentimes doubled as handbooks for rural living. Conservation districts were created in the wake of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, which displaced 2.5 million Americans in what became known as the Great Migration and inspired John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath.” In beginning, conservation districts concentrated on providing communities with critical information to keep their soil and water supplies healthy, but their work has evolved with the times.

Today, these guides provide information on not only water and soil, but native flora and fauna, invasive weed control, fence guidance, and tips for responsible recreation and outdoor safety.

“This handbook is intended to help new, prospective and existing residences learn about, steward and safely enjoy the many shared natural resources of Big Horn County,” said Bruce Jolley, on behalf of the commissioners.

Nolan O’Neal, who served as a project coordinator with the Big Horn County Citizens for Economic Development (BCED) stated, “It’s been a pleasure for BCED to serve as project coordinator in delivering this project to our districts, the county and our residents as a public service.”

O’Neal explained that the project, which took over two-and-a-half years to reach fruition, emerged as a way to introduce the county’s sudden influx of new residents to their new home.

“We went from 250 new residents annually to over 300, that’s a lot for this county,” he said. “This was during Covid, so you couldn’t really get out to meet the new people we wanted to welcome. We then realized there’s a history of this for over 100 years. 

“We tried to bring in not just the conservation districts, but also all of our big landowners. It didn’t take more than two minutes for the agencies to join and agree to play together. They were super helpful.”

O’Neal said that the groups involved researched historic and modern conservation guides to draw inspiration. He name-checked Johnson County, Fremont County and Teton County as Wyoming-based conservation guides that generated excitement among their group.

“Johnson County put out one that’s a mix, very old school, but also new. It almost looks like a scrapbook and has a retro feel, it’s really evolved from the past to the present,” he recalled. “It had lots of articles. Fremont seems to have an effective program, too, but theirs is more like a virtual bookshelf.”

Teton County’s conservation guide was the one that the project leads took the greatest care to mimic, however. O’Neal explained that the Teton County guide was published early in the Big Horn County guide’s planning process when “we were thinking of a brochure to welcome new residents to the county and discussing what we wanted to do (…) We initially looked at it as we had limited communications because of Covid, so it became a question of how do we welcome (new residents) and how do we inform them on important issues that would help their wallet and their neighbors?”

The team realized, upon seeing the Teton publication, that “(our handbook) would be more well-received if it had the endorsement of the people who would historically be doing this.”

In addition to contacting both the Shoshone and South Big Horn Conservation Districts, O’Neal contacted the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Parks Service, the State of Wyoming and Big Horn County Weed and Pest. BCED also reached out directly to the team behind the Teton guide and learned that many of the same issues that had inspired Big Horn County’s desire to create a guide were happening in Teton County.

“It was a really good conversation,” said O’Neal. “Even though they had greater resources, more rules, regulations and enforcements, they were still having issues with residents (who simply did not understand their new home). They told us people would feed elk or install ponds on their property where moose would get tangled up in cables and drown.”

O’Neal maintained contact with the Teton publishers and said that they reported their guidebook as having a positive overall effect on the community’s relationship with the land. Since the guide’s publication, there has been less need for enforcement and fewer violations overall.

“Their psychology was not to make it about the new person, but to make it about the community,” said O’Neal. “If we focus on what’s good about what we love, a newer person will feel comfortable following suit. They’ll want to join in.”

O’Neal said 5,000 copies of The Handbook were printed in the initial run, but that the plan, as of now, was to periodically update the physical editions once every several years.

“It won’t change very often, but once we have an estimate of how many are going to go out into the community, we hope to have enough on hand to last several years.”

The digital edition will, however, receive periodic updates to ensure all links are working.

O’Neal also said that BCED and the agencies behind the guide hope to expand its scope.

“Barb Fiedler will be holding a workshop on conservation here with nationally recognized conservationists on June 21,” he said. “That’s going to be a roundtable with panelists who have a national perspective on what we’ve accomplished and are doing here. The agencies will be involved and it will be open to the public as well.”

In addition, O’Neal said that it’s possible federal agencies may wish to become involved in the program. He noted that the Teton guide was promoted by the National Park Service on a podcast to encourage communities adjacent to other national parks to develop similar stewardship programs. 

“It could also find its way into the local public schools as a resource in specific classes,” he continued. “We want to make it available. It belongs to the public and is based on information owned by the public.”

Realtors have also shown an interest in sharing the guide with prospective landowners because “it will inform new homebuyers what they’re getting into.”

While all Big Horn County residents received a copy of a postcard with a QR code in the mail that provides them with access to the digital edition, those who would like a hard copy have been invited to exchange their postcard for a book at no cost at one of several distribution points throughout the county: the South Big Horn Conservation District in Greybull (Ashley Coenen, supervisor), the Shoshone Conservation District in Lovell (Elise Rose, supervisor), Big Horn Weed and Pest at the intersection of U.S. Highway 14 and Highway 310, the county clerk’s office, the Big Horn County Sheriff’s office or Big Horn Rural Electric Company in Basin.

“For some people the postcard is enough, but it’s not meant to be a static item,” O’Neal said. “We want people to take their postcard and go meet a new friend. If you go in and meet the Weed and Pest guys, you’re more likely to go back there.

“And the economic takeaway is that if you do this the right way, you’re now part of a club that owns the whole county.”