Bugs on the Ranch

Working with a National Geographic photographer opened Jaclyn Wilson's eyes to the vast diversity of insects that call her Nebraska Sandhills ranch home.

- By Lisa Foust Prater

Father-daughter duo Blaine and Jaclyn Wilson on the family ranch in Nebraska.

When Jaclyn Wilson was a little girl growing up on the Wilson Flying Diamond Ranch in the Sandhills of northwest Nebraska, her grandparents gave her a subscription to National Geographic magazine every year for Christmas.

Each issue transported young Jaclyn to exotic locations around the globe. “I’d unfold the maps and hang them all over my bedroom,” she said. The articles taught her about the importance of conservation, lessons echoed by her grandparents and parents, who restored wetlands and made other efforts to care for the environment on their ranch.

In 1998, National Geographic published a feature on the Nebraska Sandhills by photographer Joel Sartore. Wilson was a teenager when it was delivered to her mailbox. She was astonished to read that Sartore was from her home state. “You never really heard of famous people coming from Nebraska, so the fact he grew up here was so cool,” she recalled.

Back on the Ranch

After attending the University of Nebraska, Wilson came home. She is the fifth generation in the family cattle business, which was established in 1888. Working roughly 700 head of Red Angus and Red Simmental alongside her father, Blaine, Wilson continued the environmentally conscious efforts her ancestors began.

“Everything always focused on conservation,” she said. “My grandparents built a house up on the hill, and the pasture that it overlooked was specifically for wildlife use. Grandma would yell bloody murder if she saw a cow in there.”

Her grandparents also restored a plot of hay ground to its natural state as wetlands. “Now, it’s a huge stop for migratory birds,” Wilson said.