About Project

Barnyards & Backyards

The Small Acreage (Rural Living) Outreach Project:

Mission Statement:

"To foster a culture of stewardship among small acreage land managers by promoting sustainable practices which enhance the ecological, economic and social aspects of the land and its people."

Wyoming and the Western United States in general are undergoing a very rapid shift in land use. Thousands of acres of former ranch, farm or wildlands are being subdivided into small acreage parcels. As this occurs, the number of small acreage landowners is growing. To meet the educational needs of these landowners a collaborative, multi-pronged approach to land management education is needed. Recognizing this need a broad group of organizations has come together to collaboratively create the Small Acreage Outreach Project.

The mission of this project is to provide Wyoming landowners with the information they need to sustainably manage their land. We strive to help landowners maintain or improve the quality of life in Wyoming by raising healthier crops, lawns, and animals, while protecting their natural resources such as water, soil and plants.

Working in cooperation with landowners this project includes a variety of components some of which are:

Magazine:

Barnyards & Backyards is a quarterly informational magazine that contains articles written by natural resource experts on topics such as; feeding or grazing animals, maintaining pastures, landscaping, irrigation, drinking water quality, weed control, and septic system maintenance. Each issue also features landowners who practice good land management. They discuss the challenges they have faced as landowners in Wyoming and the strategies they used to overcome them.

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Rural Living Workshops:

Another aspect of this project is informational workshops which are locally organized and held in different locations in the state. These workshops are an opportunity for landowners to get together and talk about problems they have encountered and to attend expert-led sessions to learn about different topics regarding land management. Feedback gained from these workshops helps the project team improve future programming efforts. All these activities are made possible through cooperation with partnering organizations and sponsors.

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Informational tools & Publications:

We strive to create concise user-friendly informational tools, videos, publications and other resources for landowners in addition to linking to other useful tools created by others. You can find over 300+ links to these items in our "Resources" page.

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Listserv:

Join our email listserve to receive very brief emails announcing events in the state, new publications,  videos or other informational resources.

All these activities are made possible through collaboration with partnering organizations and sponsors.