Upper Green River Conservancy

What Upper Green River Conservancy does

Upper Green River Conservancy (UGRC) is a Wyoming-based private company that operates as the nation's first Co-Op Conservation Bank, developing and certifying Greater Sage Grouse (GSG) Credits on privately owned ranchlands in the Upper Green River watershed of southwestern Wyoming. UGRC sits at the nexus of energy development, ranching, and habitat conservation, certifying credits under the State of Wyoming's 2018 Compensatory Mitigation Credit Provider Approval Process and selling them to energy companies and developers pursuing projects in the Service Area who need to achieve net conservation gains under Wyoming's Greater Sage-Grouse Core Area Protection policy. The Co-Op model unites ranchers (who supply qualifying habitat on private land), energy companies (who purchase credits for regulatory compliance), conservation stakeholders, and impact investors (channeled through its parent company i2 Capital).

The company's underlying technology is primarily institutional and contractual rather than software-based: a partnership architecture that onboards rancher-held land, certifies habitat credits through a state regulatory process, and transacts credits bilaterally with energy developers. There is no public API, software platform, or AI component disclosed; the defensible artifact is the state certification and the rancher network. Leadership includes a Chairman with prior U.S. Senate-confirmed service as Assistant Secretary of the Interior, a President who serves as a Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission Commissioner, a co-founder/veteran PE and investment banking professional, and senior staff with conservation finance and corporate ranching backgrounds.

UGRC generates revenue through transaction-based credit sales to energy developers; pricing is not publicly disclosed and presumably negotiated per transaction. The company is headquartered at 420 W 12th Street, Casper, Wyoming, operates solely within southwestern Wyoming, and is branded as "An i2 Capital Company," with i2 Capital functioning as the impact-investment parent entity.

Name

Upper Green River Conservancy

Legal name

Upper Green River Conservancy

Website

https://uppergreenriver.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Upper Green River Conservancy operates the nation's first Co-Op Conservation Bank, developing and certifying Greater Sage Grouse habitat credits on Wyoming ranchlands and selling them to energy developers seeking regulatory compliance under the state's Core Area Protection policy.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Conservation Banking / Habitat Mitigation Credits

NAICS

Support Activities for Forestry (1153)

akta.pro primary industry

Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) Program Development & Administration (AFAMAMAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

Ecosystem Services & Natural Capital Programs (Water, Biodiversity Credits, PES) (IMAMAJAK), Nature-Based Credits Trading (Forestry/REDD+, Soil Carbon, Blue Carbon) (EUAGAIAK)

Keywords

• Conservation banking
• Sage grouse habitat
• Compensatory mitigation
• Habitat credit services
• Ranchland conservation

Headquarters

HQ city

Casper

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. GSG Credits Sales: Sale of Greater Sage Grouse (GSG) Credits to energy companies and developers pursuing projects in the Upper Green River watershed. The credits are certified by the State of Wyoming and provide developers the ability to achieve net conservation gains under Wyoming's Core Area Protection policy.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Upper Green River Conservancy operates the nation's first Co-Op Conservation Bank, developing and certifying Greater Sage Grouse (GSG) credits on privately owned ranchlands in the Upper Green River watershed of southwestern Wyoming. These state-certified credits are sold to energy companies and developers pursuing projects in the Service Area, enabling them to achieve net conservation gains under Wyoming's Greater Sage-Grouse Core Area Protection policy and the State's 2018 Compensatory Mitigation Credit Provider Approval Process.

Product overview

Upper Green River Conservancy operates as a single unified offering—the Co-Op Conservation Bank (UGRC)—which enables energy companies and other organizations to purchase Greater Sage Grouse (GSG) credits that provide net conservation gains in alignment with Wyoming's Greater Sage-Grouse Core Area Protection policy. The company partners with ranchers to develop and certify GSG Credits on private ranchlands within the Upper Green River watershed in southwestern Wyoming, with credits certified by the State of Wyoming.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Greater Sage Grouse (GSG) Credits

Quantifiable outcome

• Net conservation gains for energy development projects

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Wyoming RancherscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerRanchers are integral partners in the Co-Op Conservation Bank model, providing private ranchlands for development and certification of Greater Sage Grouse credits on lands occupying critical sage grouse habitats.
• Energy CompaniescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEnergy companies purchase GSG Credits from UGRC to achieve net conservation gains when pursuing development in the Upper Green River watershed, aligning with Wyoming's Greater Sage-Grouse Core Area Protection policy.
• State of WyomingcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGSG Credits receive certification from the State of Wyoming in accord with the State's 2018 Compensatory Mitigation Credit Provider Approval Process. Mark Doelger serves as commissioner at the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
• WRA (Wildlife Resources Alliance)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerBen Guillon, VP of Conservation Banking, previously served as a principal with WRA where he managed financial and strategic aspects of rural land management and ecosystem conservation.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• The Conservation Fund: National nonprofit that uses private capital and partnerships to acquire and manage conservation lands, including working-forest and mitigation-bank assets. Comparable in operating model (private capital + multi-stakeholder partnerships + ecosystem services revenue), but at much larger scale and broader asset-class mix than UGRC.
• BlueSource: Developer and aggregator of nature-based climate and ecosystem credit projects, including forest carbon, Improved Forest Management, and conservation projects in the U.S. Comparable as a developer of certified ecosystem-service credits sold to corporate buyers, though its primary product is climate-focused rather than habitat/species-focused.
• Resource Environmental Solutions (RES): Largest U.S. provider of ecosystem-restoration and compensatory mitigation services, including species and wetland mitigation banks across multiple states. RES is a broad incumbent whose mitigation-bank portfolio overlaps with UGRC's sage-grouse habitat credit product but operates at much greater geographic and asset-class scale.
• Finite Carbon: Forest carbon credit project developer that aggregates improved forest management and afforestation projects for the California cap-and-trade and voluntary carbon markets. Comparable as a private-credit provider monetizing ecosystem services on private land, though its product is carbon rather than species-based habitat credits.

Direct peers

• New Forests: Conservation investment manager that originates, underwrites, and manages forestry and ecosystem-services assets, including mitigation credit projects. UGRC's VP Conservation Banking (Ben Guillon) was previously Manager of Acquisition at New Forests, and the firm's model of monetizing conservation outcomes on private land directly mirrors UGRC's Co-Op Conservation Bank approach.
• Wildlife Resources Alliance (WRA): Conservation finance and rural land management organization that supports ecosystem conservation through financial and strategic structuring. WRA is explicitly named in UGRC's own partnership data as a prior affiliation of its VP Conservation Banking and is a near-direct operational peer in species/habitat mitigation banking.
• Ecosystem Investment Partners (EIP): Private equity-backed mitigation bank sponsor focused on stream and wetland mitigation credits under federal Clean Water Section 404 frameworks. EIP operates a similar 'conservation bank → private capital → regulatory credit buyer' model that UGRC uses, but applies it to aquatic rather than upland sagebrush credits.

Others

• Forest Trends: Nonprofit ecosystem-market convening organization that develops standards and infrastructure for forest-, water-, and biodiversity-credit markets (e.g., the Ecosystem Services Marketplace). Relevant as an enabling infrastructure player in the same nature-based credits space UGRC operates in, though Forest Trends is not itself a credit-issuing bank.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ugrc

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Upper Green River Conservancy