To assess these impacts, the research team surveyed individual ranches in the exchange area. The researchers analyzed both the immediate and long-term effects of the exchange for each of the three groups. Under the proposal, one group of ranches will have acreage moving from public to private ownership. This group will lose more of their leased land to future development. Ranches with acreage moving from private to public ownership will maintain more of the leased land.
Some ranches have acreage both going from public to private and vice versa.
The exchange will allow this group to maintain a smaller, yet consolidated operation. The researchers assessed the economic viability of these different ranches under favorable and unfavorable future market conditions. We tried to give them a range of values to help them plan. In addition to analyzing the long-term effects of development under the proposal, the researchers also looked at how development would have impacted the ranchers if the exchange had not taken place. For some ranches, their viability will be threatened by development, regardless of the exchange.