During their 58th Annual Meeting, the Public Lands Council (PLC) honored two individuals who have made significant contributions to the federal lands ranching community. Association of National Grasslands (ANG) President Ty Checketts was selected for the 2026 President’s Award and rancher Joe Guild from Nevada, was selected as the 2026 Friend of PLC.
Checketts owns and operates the historic Fiddleback Ranch with his family in northeastern Wyoming. Along with his duties as ANG President, Checketts is a member of the Wyoming Stockgrowers, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, and serves as a PLC Board member. He is a constant presence on policy talks surrounding grazing on national grasslands and working to prevent catastrophic wildfires.
“The President’s Award goes to someone each year that has gone above and beyond the call of duty to advocate for grazing permittees. Ty Checketts is the strongest voice and advocate for those who ranch on national grasslands, but he also does so much work to help all federal lands ranchers,” said PLC Immediate Past President Tim Canterbury. “Checketts has testified in Congress and led engagement with state and local officials for years, which is a costly endeavor to spend time away from your operation, even though the impact for ranchers across the West is clear. Checketts is well deserving of the President’s award, and I am proud to serve with him on the PLC Board of Directors.”
Guild is a rancher and lawyer that got his start working in natural resource and water law, before founding his own consulting business supporting other ranchers in the industry. Joe manages a cow/calf operation on 25,000 acres on national forest land and is also part of a ranch management team with both cows and sheep on one million acres of land. He is a past president of the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association, former Treasurer of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, and a longtime member of PLC.
“There is no better friend to PLC than Joe Guild, he has been in western policy battles we have faced for years and is always working to do more to advocate for and protect the American rancher,” said PLC President Ron Cerri. “He has spent his career standing up for livestock producers in court and our nation’s capital, while managing multiple livestock operations. I do not know where we would be as an industry without Joe’s leadership because he has really set us up for the successes we are seeing today, due to his extensive body of work. Thank you, Joe for everything you have done for PLC and the western grazing community.”
