No expert knows everything about every place, not even everything about any place.
                                                                                     ~ Wendell Berry

Ranch managers are too often unfamiliar with today’s heightened stewardship demands, which require professional expertise in finance, ecology, emerging natural resource markets, and government regulations. Carrus is a diversified team of professional land and natural resource managers with extensive experience and the proven skills and experience to successfully manage large landscapes. Headquartered in Logan, Utah, our members are dispersed throughout the West.

PRINCIPALS

Daniel K. Dygert, Esq., President. Dan spearheads Carrus’ operations, including project evaluation, land acquisitions, and management. Dan has managed operations on the Birch Creek Ranch for the past two years, in addition to conducting negotiations on land acquisitions, utility easements, and conservation easements.  Dan has also been the primary liaison with Carrus' financial partners. Dan’s work as an attorney includes acting as counsel for a hydropower development firm throughout its growth from start-up to merger with an international renewable energy firm, as well as many other transactions involving mergers and acquisitions, real estate transfers, leveraged-lease transactions, and miscellaneous corporate matters, with individual transactions in excess of $250 million. In 2010 Dan was invited to sit on the Utah Governor’s Stream Access Task Force after working closely with state legislators to pass a bill restoring streambed ownership to landowners following an adverse 2008 Utah State Supreme Court ruling. Dan received his law degree, summa cum laude, from the University of Arizona, College of Law, in 1999.

Burke Teichert, General Ranch Manager. For 30 years, Burke worked as Operational Vice-President and General Manager for the Mormon Church, with management experience on numerous cattle ranches in the U.S., Canada and Argentina, including the Rex Ranch in Nebraska, the Handcart and Sheridan Ranches in Wyoming, the Winnecook Ranch in Montana, and the 200,000-acre Deseret Ranch in Utah.  During his career, he developed a reputation for organizing ranches to be very cost-effective with efficient, small crews.  Burke has been engaged as a consultant and speaker on agricultural production throughout the world, and played a key role in seven major ranch acquisitions.

Sheldon Atwood, PhD., Board Member. Sheldon led Carrus’ development upon its inception in 2005, playing pivotal roles in client fulfillment and value-creation through profitable agricultural investments and refining management systems and tools. In particular, Sheldon negotiated ranch purchases totaling over 25,000 acres and served as lead negotiator in resolving a $13.4 million pool of distressed agriculture loans acquired from the FDIC. Prior to Carrus, Sheldon’s work with Banner Resource Management, LLP helped increase revenues from its 5,000-acre western North Dakota ranch by 270%, including signature surface-use transactions involving oil and gas interests (recently completing a single 5-acre pad lease and access agreement at over $200,000; 10x traditional market value). In addition, Sheldon has authored peer-reviewed and popular articles and spoken by invitation at numerous local, regional and national conferences including: The Society for Range Management; Western Canada Grazing Conference; The Quivira Coalition; The Australian Rangelands Society; The Australian Native Grasses Association (Stipa); Utah Bioneers; Montana Soil Conservation Service; Alberta Foothills Forage Association; and many others. In the process of pursuing degrees studying agriculture, natural resources, and economics, Sheldon helped co-author a $4 million USDA grant to establish the ‘BEHAVE’ consortium (www.behave.net) – a group of world-class scientists and land managers focused on improving vegetation and ecosystem management using low-cost practices based on principles of behavior. Beyond classroom and boardroom, Sheldon successfully managed a 1,200-acre hay farm and 120-head cattle operation in Alberta, Canada before buying Beaver Creek Ranch with his Banner Resource Management partners.

MEMBERS

Bill Hopkin. A former Regional Manager for Farm Management Co., Bill is a resource manager at the highest level who has managed ranches in Utah, Texas, and Florida. Throughout his career, Bill has consistently demonstrated his ability to simultaneously enhance profitability and ecological sustainability through team leadership. A few of the many innovations pioneered during his career include using livestock grazing to increase both game and non-game wildlife habitat, forming public-private alliances to achieve management objectives, and creating environmentally adapted, low-cost livestock herds. Before retiring in 2005, Bill was directly responsible for more than 80 employees, 40,000 mother cows, and land assets worth several billion.

Mark Kossler. Mark is a highly experienced large ranch manager, currently managing a large ranch in New Mexico. Mark has also managed large ranches in Montana, operated a commercial feedlot, and partcipated in significant timber harvests, oil and gas development, and endangered species programs

Nicole McCoy, PhD. Nicole received her PhD in Forest Economics from Colorado State University in 1999. A dynamic natural resource economist, Nicole has pioneered innovations in forest management and biological incursion models used around the world. An expert in private-public hunting partnerships, Nicole serves as national and international adviser in developing cooperative wildlife programs that create incentives for wildlife stewardship. Her passion for synthesis and systemization complements the rest of the group and allows her to balance current and future needs. Nicole’s experience in federal and state agricultural and natural resource policy allows her to keep abreast of changes in the political environment that may impact private landowners.

Rick Danvir. As the Wildlife Manager for major western ranches in several states, Rick is an experienced biologist and manager, with over thirty years experience in wildlife research and management. Rick has demonstrated the ability to enhance habitat and populations of game and non-game species using innovation and cost-effective techniques. In addition to being an accomplished biologist and outfitter, Rick is frequently invited to speak at range and wildlife symposia throughout North America.

Charley Orchard. As the Founder of Land EKG® rangeland consulting firm, Charley’s innovative system for upland range monitoring is widely accepted by progressive ranchers and many agency personnel and has been effective at visually demonstrating trends in rangeland function and land health. Charley will oversee the land monitoring program and work with wildlife, aquatic, forest, and riparian biologists to develop equally effective tools for cost-effectively tracking ecological phenomena. Land EKG’s strengths are multi-format repeatability and easily accessible data storage, which can be seen at www.landekg.com.

Rob Peterson, Esq. Rob is a water law and real estate attorney who earned a bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Biology and a master’s degree in Natural Resources focusing on public policy. A lifelong outdoorsman, Rob has worked for years in the outdoor recreation industry guiding fishing, hunting, and whitewater rafting from Alaska to the Grand Canyon.

Agee Smith. As a fifth-generation rancher in Elko County, Nevada, Agee has weathered ecological and environmental storms in an area rife with conflict. He and his family established one of the first and now longest lasting and most successful cooperative resource management (CRM) groups in the U.S. Comprised of agency personnel, environmentalists, and landowners, the group credits much of its success to the Smiths’ progressive efforts. They also operate a reputable outfitting enterprise and an acclaimed guest accommodation business.