Earl and Terri Youngmeyer faced a dilemma familiar to many other ranching families. They had no heirs, but they wanted to make sure that their "baby" — a 4,703-acre Flint Hills ranch — would be cared for after their deaths.

In June, five years after Earl's death, the Kansas Land Trust officially dedicated the Youngmeyer Ranch conservation easement, which guarantees that the property will remain a working ranch, protected from subdivision, housing construction or wind farming, in perpetuity.

The single exception is a 10-acre area carved out near the cattle corrals on the property that is dedicated as a research site for Wichita State University. The easement allows WSU to build a laboratory building, storage facilities or other structures that researchers determine are necessary to help them do research on the ranch.

The Youngmeyer estate donated access to the ranch for research to WSU in 2014.

"The property goes back at least three generations and was once twice the size of the property we dedicated in June," says Daniel Offidani, trustee for the Youngmeyer Family Foundation.

Earl Youngmeyer inherited his father's half of the ranch, and he grew up on the ranch, hunting and fishing, exploring and learning and growing to deeply love every square inch, Offidani says.

"I first met Earl and Terri about 30 years ago when I helped resolve a legal issue for them," Offidani says. "They were unhappy with the way it was being managed, so I helped them terminate that arrangement, and Earl and I took over management and leased it to the Flint Hills Land and Cattle Co."

When Earl's only sibling died about 25 years ago, Earl and Terri began to seriously explore future options for the ranch.

"The Youngmeyers did not have heirs," Offidani says. "The ranch was their 'child,' and they were passionate about making sure that it was cared for long after they were gone."

They set up a trust after Terri's death in 1999, with Earl Youngmeyer and Daniel Offidani serving as co-trustees. The Earl W. Jr and Terri Youngmeyer Family Foundation was set up in 2013, after Earl's death in 2012, with Offidani as trustee.

The Foundation funds ranch operations, WSU educational and research activities and charitable disbursements.

"The Foundation has been quite successful," Offidani says. "The value has doubled since 2012. Our goal, as funds become available, is to expand the ranch as adjacent properties may become available. We intend to add to the protected property."

Kansas Land Trust director Jerry Jost says the easement only allows mineral leases and production already in progress on the ranch, and after that production is exhausted or leases expired, further leasing will not be permitted.

He says the conservation easement permits best management ranching practices such as grazing, prescribed burning, elimination of invasive species and livestock water projects, as well as research projects undertaken by Wichita State University.

The Youngmeyer Ranch is home to more than 500 prairie plant species, including green dragon, bottle-brush sedge, ground-plum milkvetch, breadroot scurf pea, inland ceanothus and two-flower celestial lily. It also provides rich habitat for the greater prairie chicken.