About 14 years ago the Denver owners of the Albany County Y Cross ranch donated it to the University of Wyoming and Colorado State University. A clause of the accepted donation was that the schools could sell it after 14 years. They now intend to do so.
I don't know much about how the ranch was used in the 14 years the schools have owned it. It was supposed to be used for the purpose of teaching agriculture, but from what I read, it wasn't used much. The former owners now say that they regret donating it to the schools, and frankly they should regret it.This is hard to understand. A 50,000 acre ranch, situated near both schools, should have provided a variety of opportunities for both schools to both teach practical agriculture and, in this day and age, perhaps also experiment a bit with "sustainable" agriculture, a topic which has been hot in agricultural fields in recent years. Now those opportunities will be lost, and the ranch will simply be sued to generate money.
On that both schools would be well advised to note the history of the results of ignoring the wishes of donors. Potential donors to both schools are now on notice that the schools feel free to sell donated assets as quickly as they can. Not all donations are suitable for long term keeping and preservation, of course, but if that is the wish of the donors, they now know that neither UW or CSU can be depended upon to do any more than accepting the donation requires. That may give such potential donors pause, or at least put them on notice that a restrictive clause in any donation may be necessary. For some it may mean no donation at all, something that at least UW, which is under orders to cut back financially, may wish to rethink.
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This letter to the Editor, relevant tot his topic, appears in the July 8 Casper Star Tribune. I'm re-posting it here, as I thought its view interesting and relevant:
Selling ranch is a mistake
Posted: Sunday, July 8, 2012 12:00 am
Editor:
I am lucky enough to be an intern at the Y Cross Ranch this summer. Located in Horse Creek, the ranch was bought by Courtenay Davis and his family in 1941, and they added to it over time. It now spans more than 50,000 acres. The conservation easement on the ranch is one of the largest held by The Nature Conservancy.
In 1997, Amy Davis gifted the ranch to the University of Wyoming Foundation and the Colorado State University Research Foundation. The universities are planning to sell the ranch, but are making a grave mistake. The land has an enormous amount of educational potential.
The ranch was donated with the intent that it would be used as a teaching tool in agriculture and natural resources, but has been woefully under-utilized. CSU claims that this is because the Y Cross is too far away, but it takes the same amount of time to get to the Y Cross as it does to get to Pingree Park, where a good deal of natural resources teaching takes place.
No, it is not the location of the Y Cross Ranch that has made it under-utilized. It is the lack of awareness by professors. This ranch is the only place that I know of where hands-on education can take place about beef cattle in a range and grassland setting. Most of the other facilities that I know of deal only with cattle in a feedlot setting, which is not entirely applicable to the way cattle are raised and live their lives.
If CSU and UW sell the Y Cross, the only benefit will be the money gained, which will be pocket change compared to their operating budgets. What will be lost is a ranch that cannot be replaced, no matter how much money it sells for. What will be lost is the potential to pass on a vast amount of knowledge to a new generation that will one day be stewards of the land themselves.
And what will also be lost, if the ranch sells, are donations. After the way Amy Davis has been treated, no other land owner or philanthropist will want to give anything to either university.
As CSU President Tony Frank said last spring, donors all have a purpose behind their willingness to donate. If CSU and UW show that they are willing to ignore that purpose and alienate one donor, then they might as well be alienating all donors.
BEN WURZ, Horse Creek
Carrying on with this, this matter is now in suit, so the sale has been postponed pending the resolution of that matter. The schools continue to argue that they should be allowed to sell the ranch, the donor is arguing that this defeats the gift, and the school should be returned to the donor for proper gifting.
While not related, I'll note that this old post occurred to me due to the recent adopted of the Uniform Bar Exam by the Wyoming State Bar, a topic which I've otherwise written about, and which has at least some connection to the University of Wyoming, in perception if not in fact. Given all these activities I have to wonder at what point the University will be on thin ice with at least some legislators.
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