He now tries to manage the N-Bar as a community in which animals, humans, water, land, plants, and insects are all equally important. Pesticides and chemical-based fertilizers are no longer used on the ranch. The practice has provided some surprising benefits. Since beavers regulate the water flow of Flatwillow Creek, there is very little flooding on the N-Bar. Timber is selectively cut with wildlife habitat and forest health in mind, and much of the profit from the timberland comes from wildlife instead of wood.
Hunters pay thousands of dollars each to hunt elk, antelope, and deer on the ranch.
Elliott is also working on a genetics project he hopes will develop a line of cattle that can produce marbled meat directly from eating grass, cutting out the need for feedlot grain rations. All this has come about, at least in part, from his long war with a noxious weed, a battle Elliott believes he is finally about to win. Last summer, the sheep were pulled off the N-Bar a month early because there wasn't enough spurge to keep them fed. A neighboring ranch with its own spurge problems readily accepted the sheep. But now we're catching up with it.