Conservation Development

Madison Valley’s Famed Sun Ranch on the Block

By Jonathan Weber , 4-27-09

	The Sun Ranch

The Sun Ranch in Montana’s Madison Valley, a spectacular 18,500-acre spread that’s been at the heart of an ambitious conservation development program created by owner Roger Lang, is on the market for $55 million.

In an interview, Lang characterized the move as “a personal decision” that would free up capital to further expand his ranch conservation efforts in Montana and elsewhere in the West.

“Ninety-eight percent of Sun Ranch is protected by conservation easements,” said Lang, who made a fortune in the tech business before turning his attention to conservation. “The business plan was to sell eight to 10 homesites. But we decided that rather than battle the recession and make the business plan work, we’d take some capital off the table and put it to work buying other ranches.”

“These next 3-4 years are critical from a conservation perspective,” Lang added, because the economic downturn was making property cheaper and slowing the pace of development. The market for high-end homes and homesites in the Mountain West has all but disappeared in the face of the economic downturn, though most economists and developers believe it will recover eventually, perhaps in three to five years.

The listing boasts the Sun Ranch as a “an awe-inspiring masterpiece of nature representing one of the last remaining balanced ecosystems in North America” that “sustains an abundant variety of wildlife including elk, moose, grizzly and black bear, mule and whitetail deer, mountain goats, big horn sheep, wolverines, mountain lions, and pronghorn antelope.” The property is a primary migratory passageway for elk and antelope entering and leaving Yellowstone National Park and the listing estimates that 4,000 elk winter on the ranch.

Lang had managed the property to allow development, wildlife and agriculture to co-mingle. He stressed that he is a true believer in “market-driven conservation” and would not have sold Sun Ranch now if the easements - which apply to all future owners - had not been in place. He said the Sun Ranch Institute, which does research in support of conservation development, would continue to operate as in the past.

Lang said he did not necessarily expect the new owner to stick with his plan of selling a small number of homesites. “There’s been a lot of interest from a pretty diverse group of people,” he said.

Last year Lang purchased the 7,000-acre Schroeder Ranch south of Missoula and near the site of the proposed Bitterroot Resort. That property is now being restored and a development plan created which also calls for conservation easements and sale of a limited number of homesites.

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