Philmont is the largest youth camp in the world. It offers year-round youth programs. Every day in the summer, 350 Scouts and leaders arrive, 350 depart, and 3,500 are already hiking across its 140,000 acres.
It is also a working ranch with hundreds of horses, buffalo, and cattle, and thousands of deer, elk, and antelope. It has an active timbering program and produces 300 tons of hay each year. It is the quintessential “mixed-use” ranch.
Philmont lost thousands of acres to fire in 2018 and 2022. It regularly deals with floods, droughts, soil issues, and other “predictable unpredictables.” We think our challenges and responses, highlighted in this Symposium, can help others plan, protect, and preserve their own ranches and properties.