Wheels Up! Grass, Birds, and Good Food Take Off at Rafter W Ranch
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Lance Wheeler may have grown up in a Los Angeles suburb, but he always knew he wanted to be a cowboy. It was in his blood. His family raised cattle in Texas from before the Civil War until the 1930s, but young Wheeler’s only exposure to cowboy culture was his favorite TV show, Bonanza.
Now, as co-owner and manager of Rafter W Ranch, Wheeler knows those episodes are far from the actual realities of ranching. Alongside his wife Lisa, their children and grandkids, Lance operates a regenerative cattle and chicken ranch in east-central Colorado and cares deeply about restoring the landscape and providing quality wildlife habitat.
In 2018, Rafter W Ranch became certified as bird-friendly land through Audubon Conservation Ranching, meeting the program’s rigorous standards for habitat management, environmental sustainability, and animal welfare. Across the United States, more than 150 Audubon Certified Bird-Friendly ranches support vital habitat for grassland species, among the nation’s most imperiled group of birds. Because most grassland habitat is privately owned, voluntary conservation action on working lands is key to stabilizing the decline of bird populations.
“We’ve always appreciated the wildlife that shares this space with us, but we’ve gained a much deeper understanding of them since joining Audubon’s program,” Lance said. “We’re managing not just for livestock production, but for all the species in this ecosystem.”
Conservation-minded food production has been a priority for the Wheeler family since the start. Lance and Lisa’s first foray into agriculture was raising grass-fed meat, poultry, and eggs on a small plot in Elizabeth, Colorado, in the early 1990s. As their knowledge of regenerative agriculture grew, they realized an opportunity to do something larger. In 2014, the Wheelers purchased land in Elbert County, and just two years later, they also bought the acreage and home next door. Today, Rafter W Ranch sells its meat, poultry, and eggs through an online ordering platform.
“We’re not just raising meat, we’re actually farming grass,” Lance said. “You need healthy grasslands and soil to have quality meat. That realization grew into knowledge of soil health and a business model built around selling nutrient-rich meat and eggs.”
Lance and Lisa take an adaptive, holistic approach to caring for their ranch, incorporating bird surveys, water and soil monitoring, and rotational grazing into their land management. Raised on grass for the entirety of their lives, Rafter W Ranch’s cattle are moved strategically to create a mosaic of short and long grass habitat that helps different bird species fulfill their life cycles. The family’s free-range chickens are also an essential part of the operation, trailing the cattle with a mobile coop, picking through the manure and incorporating it into the soil.
“Rafter W Ranch has all the components that make a good bird-friendly ranch: interest in the research and science, heart behind the regenerative agriculture, and a desire to build up the water, soil, and land health,” said Dusty Downey, Audubon Conservation Ranching Director for Audubon’s Rockies region. “That trifecta makes for a wonderful, wonderful partner.”
In the eastern high plains of Colorado, Rafter W Ranch provides important grassland habitat for Western Meadowlarks, American Kestrels, Upland Sandpipers, Lark Buntings, Vesper Sparrows, Loggerhead Shrikes, among other species. Since joining Audubon’s program, the Wheelers have enhanced habitat on their ranch, as proven by their monitoring results. In their surveys from 2019 to 2025, the total bird species (called species richness) increased from 29 to 37, and grassland bird detections on their ranch grew from 178 to 356. Their score on the Bird-Friendliness Index (Audubon’s metric for a bird community’s abundance, diversity, and resilience) has grown 4% annually, which is a 26% cumulative increase since monitoring began in 2019.
“Rafter W Ranch has improved its Bird Friendliness Index over the years, which ultimately means that they’re providing more opportunities for birds to thrive than comparable ranches, state parks, and lands around them,” Downey said.
Downey says these results come from Lance and Lisa’s exemplary work in adaptive grazing. The Wheelers are “lifelong learners,” always wanting a better understanding of how to apply different management principles and scientific learnings to their land. For example, the Wheelers are experts at rotational grazing, moving their cattle daily to achieve specific goals, such as grazing down invasive plants to help native species.
“Lance and Lisa came into ranching without any preconceived notions, just wanting to educate themselves as much as possible,” Downey said. “They do an amazing job taking the principles they’ve learned and adapting them for the system they work in.”
Over the eight years that they’ve been a part of the Audubon Conservation Ranching program, Lance and Lisa have also been involved in several research and restoration projects, such as the Saving Tomorrow’s Agricultural Resources (STAR) soil health monitoring program, the construction of low-tech process-based restoration (LTPBR) structures for erosion control, and a keyline project to increase water infiltration and drought resilience. In 2022, Downey and Lance also presented together at the Edible Institute, a sustainable food system conference in Denver.
“We would not be where we are today without the help of the Audubon Rockies team,” Lance said. “We’re seeing the land respond, with more biodiversity expressing itself and an increasing level of resilience. We certainly have a long way to go, but if we can keep maximizing the ability for the birds to spend time here, then that’s a huge win.”
The Wheelers have been generous partners of Audubon’s programming, opening their ranch for educational events, such as bird walks with Denver Audubon and a ranch experience for 10 teens involved in a new partnership program between FrontLine Farming (a Denver-based food advocacy group) and Audubon.
These partnerships exemplify Lance and Lisa’s excellent work in building community with other ranchers and advocates of regenerative agriculture. With this robust network in mind, Lance says the ranching lifestyle is not at all what he envisioned as a kid.
“Ranching is the most rewarding and the most humbling work that I’ve ever done,” Lance said. “It’s incredibly rewarding to see the outcome, not just here, but for the other people I’ve met along the way. There’s a strong sense of community in this work, not seen in the rugged individualist, cowboy-style narratives I had watched as a kid.”
About Audubon Conservation Ranching
Audubon Conservation Ranching partners with ranchers to sustain healthy grasslands, abundant birdlife, and resilient rural communities. Through our bird-friendly land certification and science-based approach, we empower land stewards to enhance habitat, improve soil health and water quality, and strengthen the connection between conservation and ranching. By purchasing products from Audubon Certified Bird-Friendly Land, consumers become conservationists, helping protect America’s grasslands and the birds, wildlife, and people that depend on them. For more information, visit www.audubon.org/ranching.