Description
Located in the Wood River Valley of central Idaho, the 10,400-acre Rinker Rock Creek Ranch provides a unique “living laboratory” through which land managers, students and researchers are learning how to best manage rangeland for the benefit of people and nature.
The ranch encompasses the entire Rock Creek drainage southwest of Hailey and consists of high-quality sagebrush-steppe habitat, aspen forest and river miles along Rock Creek. Several tributaries to the Big Wood River run through the ranch: Rock Creek, Little Rock Creek, Big Poison Creek and Little Poison Creek, along with several unnamed streams.
Because of its diverse range and water sources, the ranch supports a myriad of wildlife that include beavers, moose, short-eared owls, eagles, many species of songbirds and waterfowl, and the yellow-billed cuckoo, a species whose populations are in steep decline.
Habitat found at the ranch is also critical to stabilizing and increasing greater sage-grouse, which is considered threatened in most of its range. Sage-grouse occupy two leks on the property and five more leks within one mile of the ranch.
In 2019, the University of Idaho (U of I) acquired a 99-year lease of the ranch from The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the Wood River Land Trust (WRLT), which first purchased the ranch in 2014 from private landowner Harry Rinker and his family. This long-term lease gives U of I control over the management of the ranch, including agricultural practices and conservation research.
The ranch is jointly managed by the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and College of Natural Resources. Through a land-use agreement with The Natural Resource Conservation Service, the property is managed to conserve the area’s grasslands and to prevent future development. An advisory board with representation from TNC, WRLT, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Idaho Cattle Association and others is in place to guide decisions on the property.
