Powell resident now leads open lands organization

Posted 2/28/23

Alex Few found herself staring out the window of her Washington laboratory longing for fresh air and open spaces. She was supposed to be looking through a microscope for research. Instead she stared …

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Powell resident now leads open lands organization

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Alex Few found herself staring out the window of her Washington laboratory longing for fresh air and open spaces. She was supposed to be looking through a microscope for research. Instead she stared at Mount Ranier dreaming of adventure. That’s when the neurophysiologist realized it was time to change.

She didn’t care that she had just spent most of her entire adult life chasing a Ph.D. in the discipline, which deals with the measurement and assessment of the nervous system function. She wanted to spend as much time as she could in the great outdoors.

“I wanted to be connected to nature, I wanted to be able to be outside. And it’s just really hard to do that in big cities,” she said.

Now a farmer in the Willwood area with husband Grant Cadwallader and stepchildren Tug and Kaia, Few found herself passionate about preserving Park County’s western agricultural way of life with its wildlife, unobstructed views of the mountains and open lands. Instead of spending her career in a dark room with her eyes glued to a microscope, she spends her professional life working with landowners in Wyoming, Montana, and throughout the West to preserve and enhance their agricultural way of life. Few is happy.

“I fell in love with the mountains in grad school and made a decision that I wanted to live in a small town near the mountains,” she said. “I’ve been doing that pretty much ever since.”

Also on the board of the Powell Economic Partnership, Few has now been named the Regional Director of the Park County Open Lands, which works with willing landowners to create conservation easements to maintain their private property forever free of development.

“Working at the intersection of wildlife conservation and working lands management for more than a decade, I have a deep respect for the knowledge of those who steward working lands and provide valuable habitat for our region’s iconic wildlife,” Few said.

Park County is filled with spectacular landscapes ranging from mountain wilderness to high desert sagebrush steppe while ranches and farmlands at lower elevations produce livestock and crops, providing critical habitat for wildlife. The county’s towns welcome tourists, promoting a western culture of outdoor recreation. Yet, our quality of life is attracting unprecedented population growth and traditional ranches and irrigated farmlands are being fragmented, said Kelly Spiering, a member of the Park County Open Lands Advisory Council. The growth is causing the loss of open spaces and wildlife habitat, and threatening the agricultural economy.

“Farming and ranching have been a vital contributor to the economic prosperity and unique culture of Park County for over a century,” Spiering said. “Conservation easements will ensure future generations can experience these gifts.”

The council, a team of 11 Powell and Cody residents was assembled to move the local land trust program forward. In 2022, the group sought support from the Jackson Hole Land Trust, an organization with more than 40 years of experience and a successful track record of regional conservation work in Teton, Sublette and Fremont counties.

“We’re really fortunate to be able to tap into that already existing organization, because it means that we can immediately respond to a landowner needs,” Few said.

Some may grumble about the Jackson roots. But the Park County chapter will be locally focused thanks to Few and the advisory council, said Max Ludington, president of the Jackson Hole Land Trust.

“On a landscape scale, Park County functions as part of the greater Northwest Wyoming area, with wildlife species migrating in and out of our iconic national parks,” Ludington said. “But as far as communities go, this area is proudly unique and a world away from Jackson Hole. That’s why local leadership in the form of a staff director and an active advisory council will be essential to the success of this program.”

Park County Open Lands is already working with several landowners to create voluntary conservation easements to maintain their private property forever free of development, the group reported in a press release last week. In her role, Few will work closely with the Advisory Council to advance conservation projects that maintain the region’s iconic open spaces and protect the agricultural industry, an important sector of our rural economy.

Longtime Park County resident and advisory council member Anne Young sounds the warning.

“Having lived in Park County for almost 53 years, I’ve watched many of our productive and astonishingly beautiful lands completely disappear to development,” she said, adding it’s important to take this “important step forward to ensure that vital habitat for wildlife and important agricultural lands are protected for our future well-being.”

The organization has scheduled a picnic June 10 in Cody to introduce Few and the council to area residents.

“I look forward to the opportunity to meet with landowners wanting to learn more,” Few said.

The location of the picnic will be announced in the coming weeks as plans are finalized. The group hopes to have their first area conservation easement inked by the end of the year, she said. To learn more about the program, visit jhlandtrust.org/PCOL or contact Few at alex@jhlandtrust.org.

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