A few columns back, I sang the praises of the Okanogan Conservation District (OCD). I recently received the summer edition of their newsletter and noticed that several people in the Methow Valley were honored with awards at their 2025 Conservation Celebration.
Vic Stokes, a fourth-generation rancher, received the Norm McClure Lifetime Conservation Achievement Award for his decades of dedication to voluntary natural resource conservation. Vic has not only implemented conservation measures on his ranch but also, through his willingness to speak to landowners, farmers, and ranchers about his many conservation projects, has convinced others to follow his lead.
I spent over an hour talking with Vic about the impact of the Carlton Complex Fire on his ranch, water rights and irrigation, the cattle business, our mutual attendance at classes in the Animal Science Department at WSU, and his involvement in conservation projects. In 2005, Vic was named Wildlife Habitat Farmer of the Year by the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). He has served several terms as president of the Okanogan County Cattlemen’s Association and was president of the Washington State Cattlemen’s Association in 2013 and 2014. In 2006, he testified before the Committee on Resources of the United States House of Representatives on “Wildfire and Their Aftermath: Protecting Communities, Watersheds, and Wildlife.”
Vic is modest about his influence and accomplishments, saying, “I’m not afraid to engage people. Just because it’s controversial, I don’t necessarily want to build a wall and not hear what others are saying. I want to be part of the solution.”
Conservation decisions must benefit his ranch while also enhancing riparian areas and improving wildlife habitat, he said. He works closely with agencies like OCD and the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), which offer cost-sharing programs and technical assistance to support conservation projects. He’s worked with multiple agencies on four different conservation issues: piping ditches, irrigating with pivots, managing grazing on WDFW land, and, most controversial for Vic, salmon recovery efforts.
Most of the ditches in the valley have been piped. Piping the ditches was expensive and involved the elimination of “artificial” riparian areas by cutting down hundreds of cottonwoods. Vic deemed this project a success because “as an irrigator, I want to get water from point A to point B as efficiently as possible, and in the heat of the summer, all the cottonwoods along the open ditches were sucking up water.”
Generous cost-sharing programs with the NRCS and OCD have replaced labor-intensive hand lines with pivots. Vic does not have fond memories of hours spent changing hand lines. Pivot irrigation is time-saving and water-conserving, helping to restore much-needed water to the river for fish.
In the late 1980s, after years of limited grazing on the Methow Wildlife Unit, WDFW considered whether grazing cattle on state wildlife range could improve habitat for mule deer. OCD sponsored a Coordinated Resource Management Plan with stakeholders. The goal was to scientifically study the effects of cattle moving and grazing across the landscape. NRCS provided a range ecologist to study plant communities, soil types, and how cattle foraged. If properly managed, cattle can be beneficial to the health of the ecosystem. After the study, WDFW opened more of its units to grazing, especially valuable to ranchers after the Carlton Complex Fire in 2014, a fire that killed 220 of Vic’s cattle, wiped out much of his rangeland, and destroyed miles of fencing.
Vic struggled with the habitat part of his conservation efforts, which, according to a Limited Factors Report, showed there wasn’t enough woody debris in Beaver Creek. After talking with his family and Tom and Gina McCoy, Vic made the tough choice to add rocks and wood to his section of the creek to create better fish habitat and slow the water flow. He said, “I’ll take the slings and arrows for making that decision, but I hope it’s the right one.”
Vic said we can all agree on one thing: Everyone has an opinion on whatever goes on in the natural resource world. His strategy is thinking things through carefully, watching to see if someone else tries it out first, not shirking from controversy, and remaining open-minded. It appears to be working.
