Farming on the Sunny M Ranch

Check back often for updates about farming on the Sunny M Ranch.

Wildlife-friendlier fencing

If you’ve been out on the Sunny M trails in the Upper Winthrop Trail and Power’s Plunge areas lately, you may be aware of the fencing work we’re undertaking this summer.

As land managers we have to balance competing needs and interests on the Sunny M and on neighboring properties. The Sunny M hosts a range of uses, including farming and wildlife habitat, and is bordered by land that is often used for grazing. Our management goals for the property, therefore, need to support maximum free movement of wildlife within the property while still keeping livestock out of ecologically sensitive areas, like wetlands, and out of the agricultural fields during the growing season.

We’re currently doing three things:

• Reconstructing the historic fence line located in the forested and shrub-steppe uplands, so that we may remove fencing from the remainder of the property including the wetland areas. Not only do the wetland areas host more wildlife activity than the other areas, but also fencing in wetlands is often difficult for animals to see, due to abundant vegetation. By maintaining only one fence line in a more visible area, we can remove fencing from lush wetland areas. This also aligns fencing with property boundary lines, freeing up as much of the Sunny M as possible to free movement of wildlife.
• Replacing the traditional four strand barbed wire fence line with wildlife-friendlier design that permits safer and easier passage for wildlife.
• Removing miles of derelict fencing that crisscrosses the property and is a hazard to wildlife because it is down on the ground, intertwined with foliage, and/or sagging, presenting entrapment potential.

In the process of determining which fencing designs our fencing professional would use in different areas of the Sunny M, we evaluated the many different types of wildlife-friendlier fencing used by other land managers (such as public land managers and other land trusts) with similar management goals.

One of the things we learned, for example, is that if smooth wire is used as a top strand in areas where livestock graze, they will press on the fencing, which reduces tension in the wire, eventually presenting enough slack that it becomes an entrapment hazard for wildlife, who can get tangled in it. Adjacent to the Sunny M Ranch are properties where livestock have historically grazed, so we made the decision to use barbed top wire on all new fence lines in those areas.

Ultimately, we settled on three different types of fencing to exclude three different uses.

• In the Upper Winthrop Trail and Power’s Plunge area, where livestock sometimes graze on a neighboring property, our fencing professional is using only three (not four) strands of barbed wire, with the bottom wire 18” inches from the ground and the top wire no higher than 42” inches from the ground, allowing adult deer to jump over the fence while fawns and other animals have enough room to duck under the bottom wire.
• In an area adjacent to cattle grazing, we are replacing traditional 4-strand barbed wire fencing with three strands of barbed wire (the top wire no higher than 42” inches from the ground) and a fourth, smooth wire on the bottom (16” inches from the ground).
• In an area with no adjacent grazing, we are retrofitting the existing barbed wire fencing to entirely smooth wire in coordination with the neighboring landowner.

Other wildlife-friendlier fencing measures (where fencing is necessary) include:

• Installing gates that can be opened once grazing animals have left the adjacent properties and when the growing season has wrapped up, allowing free wildlife passage between habitat areas.
• Selecting generous spacing between wire strands in areas without adjacent cattle grazing (ie, recommended bottom wire height is 16”, we are allowing 18” between ground and bottom wire).

Grazing adjacent to the Sunny M is dynamic, and our property management will adapt accordingly. When we make changes, we will do so thoughtfully and we will communicate our management goals and any upcoming changes with interested parties.

If you have specific questions about fencing, please let us know at sunnym@methowconservancy.org.

FAQs

Why did you hold onto the farmland? Why not just put a conservation easement on it and sell it to a farmer?

Even with the reduced price that a conservation easement would create for a large piece of irrigated farmland, the land would not be affordable to a farmer in the the current Methow Valley real estate market. As a non-profit organization and an accredited land trust, we are not allowed to sell land at below appraised value since that would be conferring impermissible private benefit to the purchaser. We have found that our best tool for supporting agriculture in the Methow Valley is to purchase land and lease it to a farmer at a favorable rate.

Will Wes Hover keep farming the agricultural fields?

We’re very happy that Wes wants to continue farming these fields for the foreseeable future. With land so expensive in the Methow Valley, leased farmland is one way to ensure that farming can remain viable.

What happens when Wes doesn’t want to farm the fields?

We’ll hold an open request for proposals and secure a lease with a different farmer. Farmland is expensive in the Methow Valley. Leased farmland is a way for farming to remain a thriving part of the Methow Valley economy and rural landscape.

Will those fields always be alfalfa?

We don’t know, but the core farm fields will always remain agricultural. When/if the current farmer no longer wants to farm the land, we will hold an open process requesting proposals for leasing the farmland. Down the road a different farmer, or group of farmers, may want to grow something different, or a series of different crops. By protecting this land for agricultural use, we preserve possibilities for the future.

Will grazing that has sometimes happened in the past continue on the property?

In 2024 the Power's Plunge and Barnsley-Bitterbrush areas will be rested. Grazing on and adjacent to the Sunny M is dynamic, and our property management will adapt accordingly. When we make changes, we will do so thoughtfully and we will communicate our management goals and any upcoming changes with interested parties.

What role will the Methow Conservancy have in monitoring and/or regulating the farming practices of the farmer leasing the agricultural fields?

We have generally found it quite difficult to regulate and enforce specific farming practices, but certainly hope that as we build a relationship with the farmer on Sunny M we'll be able to have open and productive conversations about conservation practices.

On some of the dryland parcels, we are conducting restoration and weed mitigation efforts.

Contact us:

sunnym@methowconservancy.org