Banking on a Bird
Audubon magazine, 2025
Growing up in southeast Colorado, Dallas May watched as the prairie around him was plowed for farming and development. After leasing ranchland for 32 years, his family took out a mortgage and purchased it in 2012, in part to ensure that it would remain as habitat for wildlife. Keeping the ranch—and the prairie intact—requires the Mays to maintain a profitable ranch while keeping the prairie healthy. They have done so through a committed stewardship ethic and support from NGOs. Since 2012, Dallas has become a prominent spokesman for conservation and an example of the role private landowners can play.
In 2019, I produced a multimedia profile about May Ranch for Audubon. In 2025, Audubon magazine published a feature story about Lesser Prairie-Chicken conservation that highlighted Dallas May’s efforts to bring the bird back to his ranch. The story featured 10 of my photos alongside Morgan Heim’s.
