Foy Ranch highlighted during WSGA Environmental Stewardship Tour

Xavier Montoya (far right), State Conservationist, NRCS Wyoming, presents framed map of Foy Ranch to Rocky and Nancy Foy during the 2009 Environmental Stewardship Tour on July 2. Pictured from left to right:  Nancy Foy; Rocky Foy, Robin Bayley and Tim Becket, NRCS, Wheatland Field Office; Xavier Montoya.

July 2 was a great day for conservation in Wyoming as over 200 people gathered for the Wyoming Stock Growers Association Environmental Stewardship tour of the Rocky and Nancy Foy ranch northwest of Glendo.  The ranch reflects the outstanding resource stewardship of the Foy Family (Rocky, Nancy and children Josh, Paul, and Emily and Rocky’s parents, Leo and Ann Foy). The family received the 2009 Environmental Stewardship Award and the Aldo Leopold Award for Conservation.

As Xavier Montoya, Wyoming State Conservationist, presented the family with a framed NRCS map of the Foy Ranch, he said, “Congratulations.  It is people like you that make it so easy to do our job because you are dedicated to conservation; dedicated to making your place better.  We talk about our partnerships within the state, but being partners does nothing unless the producers want us to be out there, on their ranch, providing assistance at their request.  So to you I say ‘Thank You’ for being an agent of change – to know that every plan that we have out here can change at any moment depending on what the resources are and what’s going on at that particular time with you and your family.

The Environmental Stewardship Award Program nomination was submitted by the Platte County Partners.  That partnership consists of the SE Wyoming RC&D Council, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Wheatland Field Office, Platte County Resource District (PCRD), Wyoming Game and Fish Department – Ryan Amundson, University of Wyoming Extension Service – Platte County, and the Platte County Commissioners. 

Rocky has worked with NRCS and the PCRD since the 1990s.  Always working to improve the land, he has used both technical assistance and financial incentives available through NRCS.  A prescribed grazing management plan was developed several years ago and the Foys have implemented many of the practices identified in the plan.  EQIP has helped the family drill 8 stock water wells, install 13 stock water tanks, develop several springs, install solar water pumping systems, install over 8 miles of cross fence and perform over 1600 acres of brush management.  Big Gun sprinklers and pipelines have increased irrigation efficiency on irregular shaped hay meadows with more available water benefitting wildlife as well.  No-till and inter-seeding practices have enhanced vegetation production

Rocky commented about his working experience with NRCS during a presentation at the tour  “When I had an idea about something that I thought would be a good change, I would go in and talk to the NRCS field office staff.  When they came up with a plan, we would sit down and figure out how we were going to implement it.  They have been a big help.”

Always open to change, proactive, and looking for ways to increase efficiency and sustainability on the Foy ranch, Rocky told tour participants that when he tries something new and it doesn’t work out as well as he had hoped, he just keeps working with it and tweaking it until he gets what he wants.  Rocky said that when you go through that process, you learn as you go and know every step along the way.