Western Landowners Alliance

WLA's long-range goals include:

• An organized landowner community to inform and promote good policy and stewardship;

• Policies and economic conditions that support the conservation and sound management of land, water and wildlife on working lands in the North American West;

• Working lands that are resilient to stressors, healthy and biologically diverse, and provide for prosperous rural business and critical ecological services.

In addition, collaboration is essential to the successful management of the West's multiple-use, multi-jurisdictional landscapes. WLA is working to foster collaboration and increase mutual understanding among stakeholders.

WLA's theory of change rests on three premises: 1) The fate of the West's lands, wildlife, natural resources and communities rests in large part on the decisions, actions and influence of private landowners; 2) sound stewardship requires knowledge, financial resources and supportive public policy; and 3) collaboration is essential to managing the West's multiple-use, working landscapes.

To support landowners working to keep their land whole and healthy, WLA provides a direct voice for landowners on policy and economic matters, shares knowledge and information among peers across our West-wide network, and works to improve public dialogue and mutual understanding among stakeholders.

WLA was founded and is led by conservation-minded landowners and managers representing more than 14 million acres of deeded and leased public land under management. WLA members are politically, socially and economically diverse and yet share a land ethic and the lived experience of owning and managing land in the West. This enables WLA members to bring informed and nuanced insights to both policy and management. With members in 10 Western states, WLA is well positioned to advocate at the regional and national levels and to share knowledge across a broad network of landowners and partners.

WLA's 14-member board is comprised of landowners and managers representing a diversity of land ownership and management interests, ranging from working cattle ranches and guest ranch operations to conservation properties.

WLA's staff and advisory committee bring a wide range of expertise to the organization, from land and natural resource management to policy, finance and communications.

WLA was founded in 2011 and since that time has grown into a West-wide organization representing more than 14 million acres under management.

WLA has hosted dozens of field tours and forums in multiple states to help landowners exchange knowledge and information with one another. In 2017 alone, more than 400 people participated in WLA-hosted events and webinars. WLA also led a multi-year research project to identify the outcomes of various rangeland management strategies, culminating with publication of the findings in a peer-reviewed journal. WLA has also presented at numerous conferences around the West on topics ranging from policy to land and natural resource management.

In partnership with the Montana State University's Graduate School of Film and Photography, WLA has produced seven films featuring exemplary land stewardship. One of these films won the 2017 "Student Film of the Year" award from the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival. WLA articles, op-eds and mentions have appeared in numerous local, regional and national media outlets. WLA has also produced various landowner guides and publications.

WLA helped Colorado adopt operator guidelines for oil and gas development that improved protection for certain water resources, and initiated a successful agreement in New Mexico that enables public and private land managers to collaborate on prescribed fire across boundaries. WLA helped initiate and lead a coalition in developing a joint statement of western values that received 134 signatures from diverse organizations and landowners. WLA worked closely with initiatives of the Western Governors Association (WGA) on endangered species, and forest and rangeland health, including participation in WGA-hosted panels and webinars. WLA developed a federal policy platform and has worked closely with partners and coalitions in advocating for the Farm Bill conservation title and federal appropriations supporting agriculture, conservation and collaborative partnerships. WLA recommendations are reflected in a number of policy positions and recommendations by various organizations.

Among our priorities, WLA is working to find ways to improve the economics of family farms and ranches so that they can remain intact and available to meet the needs of both people and wildlife. A WLA-hosted conference on this topic is scheduled in the fall of 2018. In addition, WLA is collaborating with landowners, agencies and NGO's in the northern Rockies to reduce conflicts with wildlife, and in the Southwest to advance regenerative agriculture and conservation stewardship.

WLA has two more films currently in production and plans to produce three publications on working lands economics, wildlife management and water resource management in 2018.