The 321,000 acre (1,299 km2) ranch (more than one third the size of the state of Rhode Island - 3140 km2) was bought in 1990 by The Nature Conservancy, which took the unusual step of selling it in the mid-1990s to the Animas Foundation, a private organization founded by poet and rancher Drummond Hadley and funded in part by the Anheuser-Busch family (as opposed to selling it to an arm of the U.S. government). The Foundation is intended to practice "sustainable agriculture in harmony with the environment."
In 1990, The Nature Conservancy acquired a large ranch (321,000 acres or more than one-third of Rhode Island) and later sold it in the mid-1990s to Animas Foundation. This private organization, initiated by poet and rancher Drummond Hadley with support from the Anheuser-Busch family, seeks to implement "environmentally sustainable agriculture."