Board Member
Deborah Empey grew up in the Henrys Lake valley, on a cattle ranch. Her father had been a wrangler and cook for the Yellowstone Boys ranch near Ashton, Idaho. Every summer the family would take breaks from the ranch work, and pack into Yellowstone or the nearby wilderness areas. She learned to love and respect the bears and other animals through being in close proximity.
Deborah worked for veterinarians, and wrote human interest stories, as well as agriculture industry related articles for the Post Register in Idaho Falls. She taught children’s art classes for the Art Guild and in the school system. In the 90’s, she helped her husband in his blacksmith shop and with his farrier business. Today, she manages the family ranch. Her hobby is fiber art made with wool from her Navajo-Churro sheep.
Although she doesn’t remember the earthquake in 1958, a creek stopped flowing on the northern area of the ranch. It still comes out at a spring head up a canyon, but disappears about a hundred yards down stream. It became essential that elk and deer could come onto the ranch for water after losing the stream in the canyon. Growing up hearing about the loss of water for the canyon and that section of the ranch influenced her thought on working for a community that includes all species.
Deborah has a conservation easement on the ranch, and has researched how other countries have successfully maintained agriculture with wolf and large carnivore populations.
A creek restoration project on Duck creek ,brought the return of spawning cut throat and brook trout. Deborah views water management amid the continued drought and escalating development of the Greater Yellowstone area as one of the most challenging problems the area faces.