In 2003, Dick McGuire made a lot of changes. He sold an environmental consulting business he started in 1976. And he decided to donate a 3,100-acre conservation easement on his 3,500-acre ranch south of Laramie.

"The whole idea of preserving open space, to me, should be one of the top environmental priorities," he said. "When I had the opportunity to do it myself, I took the opportunity."

His donation to The Nature Conservancy means there will be no development on most of the ranch. It also meant he could take some tax deductions that overlapped with the sale of his consulting business. But the McGuires also identified what they would allow on the ranch: a right to divide the ranch into three parcels, with one five-acre building parcel per unit.

"We may never exercise that right, but we thought if we sold the ranch, we could sell it easier," McGuire, 62, said.

The ranch is just north of the Colorado border in a swath of country attractive to both people and wildlife. It's so popular, in fact, that more and more developments have sprouted up along the foothills, squeezing wildlife.

McGuire describes seeing all that development as "heartbreaking," and he is pleased his ranch will be home to the sizeable elk herd that uses the property in the winter.

"There's a great feeling of satisfaction, that's part of it," McGuire said. "I had hoped it would set an example. There was no previous conservation easement in the Laramie Basin. I was kind of hoping The Nature Conservancy would get more active in our part of the state and other landowners would consider putting their land in conservation easements."

It's a strategy that's becoming more and more popular with large ranch owners as they see open spaces across Wyoming dwindle. But make no mistake: A conservation easement is done first with the heart, then with the pocketbook.

It's a decision that has to come from a desire to see the land protected. It's not a way to get rich, although there are tax benefits to a donation - even more for a straight sale. A conservation easement won't garner as much revenue as, say, selling out to residential or commercial development. But for many in Wyoming who value the vistas, the benefit is in knowing you did what you could for the place you love.

About 300,000 acres have been placed in conservation easements across the state. Most of these are facilitated through land trusts or nonprofit groups including The Nature Conservancy. According to the American Farmland Trust, 2.6 million acres of agricultural land in Wyoming may be converted to other uses by 2020.

Roger Coupal, department head and associate professor in agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wyoming, said loss of open space is one of the biggest issues facing the state.

Trickling down from the loss of open space is an impact to wildlife and an impact to water quality, he said. There is also a fiscal issue. While real estate values are higher for residential property than for agricultural land, communities also have higher expenditures stemming from development, often outstripping their revenues to meet social demands.

"For fiscal stability, keeping land in agriculture is probably better, and better for wildlife, too," Coupal said.

'Good for the family'

For some, ensuring that land remains in agriculture is more important than any monetary windfall from selling to development.

Stacey Scott's parents, Oliver and Deborah Scott, decided in the early 1980s they wanted to see the deeded property of their ranch in a conservation easement.

"He didn't want to have it developed," Scott, now 49, said of his father and the Eagle Ridge Ranch near Casper. "We were all on board. The objective was to protect it from development."

More than 8,000 acres were donated to The Nature Conservancy as a conservation easement. The family kept a 20-acre envelope around the existing house.

"This was good for the whole family," Scott said. "We're continuing the ranching operation." Oliver Scott died in 1996.

Stacey Scott said there was no real financial benefit to putting the ranch in a conservation easement. "The tax deduction for most ranchers isn't worth anything," he said, as incomes aren't that high. But the point is to be proactive about preserving open space and lands that are important to both a family and to a society.

Still, Scott said there are some restrictions he couldn't have foreseen, including a proposal to erect a cellular phone tower, which he can't do because of the easement's restrictions.

"I would have changed some of the wording and given The Nature Conservancy a lot more leeway to do more things with the objective of keeping the ranch," he said. Scott said people should be "very careful" when placing land in an easement and identify the objectives, such as enhancing deer habitat.

Will society help pay?

Scott said easements are a "good deal" because many people aren't willing to pay for open space. In fact, in a recent survey done by University of Wyoming researchers, only 30 percent of people interviewed in Sheridan County would give money for conservation easements, and only slightly more would donate time.

That's a concern for Bob Budd, executive director of the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resources Trust board. He said it's not reasonable to expect all ranchers to donate conservation easements.

"The problem is, for a long time we've lived with the notion that these would be donated," he said. "That still has some value to some individuals, but to most people working a ranch, they don't need a tax write-off - they need a business opportunity.

"We may decide as a society we don't want to go there, but some people are saying we can't expect private landowners to provide all of these biological values and services free of charge," he added. "How do we get tools in their hands to give them more options than simply owning or selling? People are getting closer and closer to that point."

State Editor Chad Baldwin contributed to this report.

Star-Tribune environmental reporter Whitney Royster can be reached at 307-734-0260 or via e-mail at royster@tribcsp.com.