The Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust awarded Mike Healy the sixth annual Kurt Bucholz Conservation Award at its annual Roundup Barbeque Saturday, held on August 24 at Sheeprock Ranch in Saratoga.

Mike is the current president of the Wyoming Game & Fish Commission and operates the LU Ranch, also known as the L.U. Sheep Company, which lies between Thermopolis and Meeteetse and runs from high desert to valley peaks.  The LU was incorporated in 1899 by a Scotsman named Dave Dickie and Mike’s grandfather bought controlling interest in the mid-1930’s upon Dickie’s death.  The ranch ran both sheep and cattle until 1984 when the last of the sheep were sold. The ranch is nearly 150,000 acres with 80% being publicly owned and supports a 1,400-head mother cow operation.  The LU ranch allows free access to hunting through the Wyoming Game & Fish Department Hunter’s Management Program and is a past recipient of the Wyoming Game and Fish Landowner of the Year award

"It is great to be recognized for efforts we have made in cattle management practices and conservation easements that we have completed to make the ranch a better place for future generations. I appreciate the recognition by the Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust.” – Mike Healy

Mike has been very active in his community serving on the local county planning board, local BLM district’s multiple use advisory committee and the local county’s economic development association.  Mike also served as the regional vice president for the Wyoming Stock Growers Association and former chairman of its Tax and Finance Committee.  Mike was elected to and served six years in the Wyoming State Senate serving at different times on the Appropriates, Agriculture, Travel, Education and Revenue Committees. He is also a former member of the Wyoming Chapter of The Nature Conservancy advisory board.

Mike married Jean Bailey in 1981 and together they raised two boys who now reside in San Francisco. One is an advisor to young entrepreneurs in the bay area helping them with their business planning and organization. The other is an attorney for a community type foundation. Jean died in 2009 and Mike is now married to Sarah Floyd, a recently retired high school math teacher.

"Mike exemplifies all that the Kurt Bucholz award stands for.  He has given to both his community and to our state, and I am delighted that an active rancher was chosen to receive this honor." Laura Bucholz.

The Kurt Bucholz Conservation Award is named for the late Dr. Kurt Bucholz DVM, one of the Stock Growers Land Trust’s early supporters who, along with his wife Laura, ranched in Carbon County. For many years Dr. Bucholz devoted countless hours to his county and state. He demonstrated a keen understanding of state and local water issues, and was adamant about protecting the upper North Platte Valley's vital and historic water rights. A rare cancer claimed Kurt’s life in December 2006. The Stock Growers Land Trust and Laura Bucholz created the Kurt Bucholz Conservation Award in 2008 to be presented annually to an individual who exemplifies Kurt's conservation values, particularly those that center on protecting and nourishing Wyoming's working ranches.

The Bucholz award honoree receives a bronze statue sculpted by Wyoming artist Jerry Palen that depicts the Stock Growers Land Trust horse and rider logo. Past recipients are Bob Budd, Jim Chant, Joe Glode, Dennis Sun, and Dr. John Lunt.

About the Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust

The Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust is dedicated to conserving Wyoming's working family ranches and farms and the wide-open spaces, natural habitats, and rural communities they support. Founded by a vote of the general membership of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association in December 2000, the Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust has conserved 190,000 acres of working ranchlands through 68 conservation easements with 53 families throughout Wyoming. For more information visit www.wsgalt.org or contact the Land Trust at 307.772.8751 or info@wsgalt.org.

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