Across America’s valleys, foothills, and open plains, private lands form the quiet majority of our landscape. These working lands feed communities, sustain families, and, often unseen, provide some of the nation’s most vital wildlife habitat.
For those who live this life, sharing space with wildlife is both a privilege and a challenge—elk flatten fences, wolves take livestock, and beavers flood pastures. The wildlife that conservationists revere can bring real costs to those who steward the land every day. The next era of conservation depends on bridging this gap, turning wildlife into an asset rather than a liability, and uniting those who love the land with those who love the wild.
The photos that follow were taken on ranches that partner with PERC to advance collaborative conservation, showcasing the people, places, and wild spirit that define the American West.
Photos by Lindsay Coe
