Since its renovation in 1981, the Foundation's Big Red Barn has served as a regional consensus-building resource and educational facility. In 1999, the Foundation established a conservation easement on the majority of the Ucross Ranch with the Wyoming Chapter of the Nature Conservancy. The Conservation Program was established to restore, improve and sustain the components of the historic open space at Ucross and to promote the idea that commerce, aesthetic beauty and the environment are mutually compatible.

The water resource management program is the first phase in a series of conservation initiatives designed to benefit not just the environment of Ucross, Wyoming, but the American West as a whole.