CONSERVED FOREVER
Nebraska’s Wildcats just got a little wilder
Photo: RMEF
by Paul Queneau
For the majority of elk hunters who depend on public lands, it’s easy to get excited about opening up new acres. But in Nebraska where just 3% of the state is publicly accessible, the need has never been more urgent.
Things are looking up, though, in the Wildcat Hills of the western Panhandle region, a 60-mile escarpment of sandstone bluffs and buttes running from the Wyoming border along the southern rim of North Platte River Valley.
In 2022, RMEF contributed $50,000 from its Torstenson Family Endowment toward the acquisition of 2,562 acres in the Wildcats at the headwaters of historic Kiowa Creek. The area protects Carter Canyon, as well as surrounding native grasslands, ponderosa-dotted bluffs and other canyons cradling lush hardwoods, shrubs, willows and cottonwoods. Located near the Signal Butte National Historic Site, it borders existing public lands for five miles.
Anyone who claims Nebraska is dead flat hasn’t hunted here. These rugged breaks are the nexus where the central shortgrass prairie and the northern great plains steppe meet up, creating a superb mix of habitat that’s a magnet for elk, mule deer, pronghorns and Nebraska’s largest herd of more than 200 bighorn sheep, as well as wild turkeys and a vast array of migratory birds.
The previous owners of this ranch had a dream of seeing their land conserved and opened to the public. They reached out to Platte River Basin Environments Inc. (PRBE), a conservation nonprofit started by a group of sportsmen in western Nebraska concerned about fragmentation of important wildlife habitat and the natural areas in the North Platte River Basin. With this acquisition, PRBE and Nebraska Game and Parks now own or manage 23,000 acres in the Western Wildcat Hills, with 20,000 contiguous acres open to the public. The Kiowa Creek Ranch will continue as a working ranch under the guidance of PRBE’s range management, which aims to maximize habitat for quality, and includes guaranteed walk-in public access for hunting and other recreation.
“The community in this area has really embraced our approach,” says Henry “Hod” Kosman, PRBE board member. “We don’t take properties off the tax rolls, and we don’t burden our neighbors, because we fix our fences, and we take care of our invasive weeds. And yet these animals can thrive on contiguous acres, and the ranching families that sold their land get to see it remain just as they’d hoped—preserved forever. And RMEF has been a great partner in getting that done.”