FAST FACTS

■ The Oxley Ranch is one of Canada’s oldest working ranches, beginning operations in 1882.

■ The property sits on 917 hectares in southern Alberta’s foothills.

■ When it was established, the massive ranch spanned more than 80,000 hectares.

■ The ranch was operated by the descendants of former Calgary Stampede Big Four member George Lane, who have lived on the land since 1919.

■ The southern foothills are one of the few remaining territories with relatively intact fescue grasslands in Alberta.

■ Alberta’s Eastern Slopes contain the last one per cent of the Canadian Great Plains that remain intact, and have enough space to accommodate natural large wildlife.

■ The four preserved ranches that Oxley Ranch joins in the area, despite covering only four per cent of the province, provide fresh drinking water to some 45 per cent of Albertans.