On the hit television series Yellowstone, Montana’s Dutton family faces relentless threats to their ranch from greedy developers, grasping private equity firms, rival landowners, and even their own questionable style of family-conflict resolution. Our favorite characters live and die to save the ranch in a roller-coaster ride of murder and mayhem.  

But what if I told you that a ­simple legal agreement — a conservation ­easement — could have spared the Duttons a lot of heartache and more than a few lives?  

Kayce’s Solution to Save the Ranch:
Noble But Fatally Flawed 

In the final episode of Yellowstone, John Dutton’s remaining two children, Beth and Kayce, sell the Yellowstone Ranch to their Broken Rock Indian Reservation neighbors for pennies on the dollar — if and only if the tribe agrees never to sell or divide it. The ranch becomes a wilderness area, returned to its native people for eternity. It’s a noble ending — pan the sweeping Montana sunset and cue the country music — but unfortunately, it is an ­unrealistic way to avoid estate taxes.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the idea of returning the land to the tribe. Here at The Conservation Fund, we partner with dozens of tribes across the country to do exactly that kind of work. But in this case, the show got it wrong when they implied the estate taxes could be avoided with this solution. 

When John died, estate taxes became due. You know the saying; only two things are certain: death and taxes. ­

Selling the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch to the tribe after John’s death does not alter that reality. Sadly, if Beth and Kayce sell the ranch for pennies on the dollar after John’s death, not only would the ranch be gone but so would some of the potential cash they need to pay those hefty estate taxes.

Talk about getting tangled up in the barbed wire. In the real world, such a noble solution wouldn’t have worked for the Duttons. But you know what could have saved the Dutton Ranch?  

A conservation easement. 

What’s a Conservation Easement? 

A conservation easement is like a “Do Not Disturb” sign for the land. It’s a legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust (or a government agency) that places restrictions on how the land can be used in order to protect its natural and ­agricultural values. In return, the landowner can receive significant tax breaks and potentially a pile of cash.  

For the Dutton Ranch, it would have kept the ranch whole, allowing the ­Duttons to keep cowboying, keep hunting and fishing, keep protecting the land — but no skyscrapers, no strip malls, no golf courses, and definitely no airports. 

Now imagine John Dutton sitting in his lodge looking at a conservation- ­easement proposal while sipping ­whiskey and discussing it with a land trust.

He’d ­probably say something like, “You’re ­telling me I can keep my ranch exactly how I like it, and the IRS will cut me some slack? And you’ll pay me to keep the property as it is? And no one will have the right to access the ranch, so I can keep out anyone I want to?” 

Yup. That’s right.

And John did, actually, make this choice. He placed a conservation ­easement on the ranch back in ­Season 4. The storyline where it is magically withdrawn in Season 5 was inaccurate, though deliciously dramatic.  

LAND USE. A conservation easement could have legally restricted the Dutton Ranch from being used for anything other than its intended purpose: ranching, agriculture, wildlife habitat, and open space.

How a Conservation Easement Could Have Saved the Dutton Ranch 

All ranches, including the Dutton, enjoy certain private-property rights. Think of them like a bundle of sticks. Each stick represents a ­specific right or ­privilege that comes with ­ownership. John can choose what to do with each individual property right in that bundle. These property rights include:

The right to use the land to graze cattle, to conserve wildlife habitat, to maintain the ranching way of life, and to protect his family’s legacy.  

The right to conserve or develop the land, to keep it in ranching, ­subdivide it, and even to build an airport.   

The right to exclude others. That’s right. Even an easement wouldn’t change how Dutton deals with ­trespassing motorcycle gangs.

The right to sell or transfer the ­property — to give it away or leave it to heirs (excluding Jamie and ­including Rip, of course). 

The right to lease the land to a ­grazing lessee or to a hunting outfitter.

Exercising these rights is ­exercising a personal freedom. Throughout the series, John Dutton exhibited unwavering ­loyalty to the land — every single acre of it — no matter the cost. He declared, “This is my home. I made a promise to protect it, and I will.” 

FAMILY FEUD. Current family members — especially Jamie — and their heirs are bound in perpetuity by a conservation easement and can never alter the ranch’s use.

So it’s not surprising that in Season 4, he chose to restrict development and subdivision and keep the land ­working through the use of a conservation easement. By putting one on the ranch, he would have ensured the following:

1. Stop developers in their tracks.
Market Equities and their endless ­proposals for airports and subdivisions? Gone. John’s use of a conservation easement enables him to legally restrict the land from being used for anything other than its intended purpose — ­ranching, ­agriculture, wildlife habitat, and open space. Imagine the look on Sarah Atwood’s face when she realizes that she had been snookered and that she wasted all of that time with Jamie. Her billion-dollar development plans are now worthless because John Dutton played the ­conservation-easement card. Priceless.

Imagine Beth Dutton defending the easement placed by her father if someone, especially her despised brother Jamie, tried to undo it. That person would reap the whirlwind. As Beth infamously declares, “You are the trailer park. I am the tornado.”

2. Lock out future betrayers.
A conservation easement doesn’t just ­protect the ranch while John ­Dutton is alive — it binds future owners too. Betrayers beware. So even if Jamie managed to weasel his way into inheriting part of the ranch, the conservation easement would ensure the land stays protected and intact.

3. Gain financial compensation.
What about the taxes? By choosing to restrict development of the Dutton Ranch with a conservation easement, John reduces the ranch’s value, thereby eliminating or vastly shrinking the estate taxes due upon his death. John fulfills his lifelong mission while he is alive, he realizes a bunch of tax benefits, and he would likely get paid a significant amount of cash for doing exactly what he wants to do anyway: keep the Dutton Ranch a working outfit. As John said, “Leverage is knowing if someone had all the money in the world, this is what they’d buy.” The Dutton Ranch is priceless and ­irreplaceable. A conservation easement would enable John to keep it that way and keep it in the family.

4. Elicit good public relations for the ranch.
John Dutton was elected ­governor on a land-preservation ­platform. During his campaign, he tells his ­supporters that “Montana is seen as the rich man’s plaything, New York’s novelty, and ­California’s toy. Not anymore.”

Now imagine him continuing that speech with the announcement that he placed a conservation easement on his family’s historic ranch. He’d likely be awarded both a belt buckle and a conservation award, all for the same decisive act of protecting Montanans’ ranching ­heritage and preserving Montana’s landscape in ­accordance with the state’s proud slogan, “the Last Best Place.” 

The Conservation Fund’s Alternative Ending  

With the sun setting amid soaring peaks of Big Sky Country, John ­Dutton seals the conservation-easement deal astride one of Travis Wheatley’s ­spectacular ­cutting horses, dramatically culling cows from a herd as he delivers a stirring soliloquy about land, legacy, and sacrifice.

Gravel churning and dust flying, Beth peels out in her Bentley Continental GT Coupe to record the easement. A steely-eyed Rip tips his hat to Dutton. Kayce breathes a sigh of relief as he realizes that the easement saves him and his son, Tate, from a never-ending series of decisions about the ranch.

John Dutton was right. A ­conservation easement would have saved Dutton Ranch and made the family’s estate tax woes disappear without a visit to the train station. 

Admittedly, Taylor Sheridan’s gut punch of an ending was far more gripping. Would any of us have kept tuning in without all that murder and mayhem? I certainly wouldn’t have. 

That’s why I’m a conservation attorney, not a screenwriter. Got a ranch worth saving? The Conservation Fund would love to work with you.

Dan Schlager is The Conservation Fund’s Wyoming state director.

Published in The Land Report Summer 2025.