Walt ‘Nick’ and Francie Meyer

Inducted in 2015

Mar 2

Florence - Pinal County

Inducted in 2015

The Meyers and Wood families settled in Arizona in the 1870s. Walt and Francie are ranchers and conservationists who work to conserve the land and wildlife that surround their ranch.

The Flying UW Ranch near Dudleyville, one of two ranches owned by Walt and Francie Meyer, has been in Walt's family since 1875. This long-standing connection to the land is a testament to the Meyer family's deep roots in the region and their commitment to its preservation.

His grandfather, a prospector and miner, bought a claim from three miner soldiers stationed at Camp Grant. Around the twentieth century, he moved the family from Pearce and became engaged in the mining of copper on the property. He also raised cattle. The mine was operational until 1923. In the early days, the home Walt and Francie occupied was the primary office. It was also the home where Walt grew up.

At first, the Meyers ran Red Poll (Short Horn) cattle but eventually switched to Herefords. "My grandfather bought the first Hereford Bulls from the University of Arizona," Walt remembers. Going through the Florence school system, Walt needed to consider himself a better student to go to college, even though he had always excelled in subjects dealing with agriculture. "We'd go to Florence and live there for the week and then come home over the weekend and work," he said.

After Walt graduated from high school, Dale Gibson, his Vocational Agriculture teacher from Florence High School, and Dr. Raymond Klein, the head of Agricultural Education at the University of Arizona, came to see Walt at the ranch and convinced him to continue his studies at the U of A's c College of Agriculture He did. Once he got a taste of college ~ he just kept going. He earned his BS. Range Science at the U of A before attending New Mexico State University to earn a master's degree in Range Science and a minor in Statistics. He came back U of A to earn a Ph.D. in Range Science with a minor in Solis in 1983. Walt and Francie Wood, a rancher's daughter from Aravipa, met through an unlikely matchmaker in 1971 and married in 1973. "Our families had known each other, but I had tiny memories of him when they came to the ranch," Francie recalls. A range deputy named Burl Kent got them together. "He knew Nick was single, and he knew I was single. He'd come to our house and tell me all about how wonderful Nick was, or he would come up here and tell Nick about how fantastic Francie Wood was. One day, he just brought me up here. That's how we met." They courted for two years while Walt returned to New Mexico to work on his Master's degree. Francie laughs, saying they had all their children before Walt got his last degree. "His professor at the U of A, Phil Ogden, said, "Walt, you've been here longer than I have." It became a running joke.

Throughout the years, the Meyers have been very active in conserving the land and its wildlife. When Walt discovered burned tortoise shells in the campfires of illegal aliens who had invaded the ranch to gather jojoba beans on their property, he began an in-depth study of the Sonoran Desert Tortoise in the area. "He got to thinking about riding this country his whole life and seeing tortoises, and he wondered what this was doing to them,' Francie said. Curious, he started learning more about the desert tortoise, tagging them and conferring with the local game warden. The area game biologist finally said, "Nick. maybe you should get a scientific collecting permit for this", which he did. That's how it started." The study has become a family project, and daughters Lilah, Jenny, Katie, and Nickie got involved.

At last count, Walt had tagged more than 700 tortoises in an area that covers approximately 15,000 acres. Phil Ogden, a Range professor at the U of A, helped set up the research area and the monitoring protocols. He also conducted fecal studies to learn about the tortoise's diet. Walt was the principal author of a scientific report on his research, Desert Tortoise. He has also been involved in compiling books on subjects as diverse as illegal dumping and field plants. Domming another hat, Walt taught various courses and was a principal research specialist at the School for Renewable Natural Resources, a post from which he retired in 2009.

Walt and Francie, along with the Winkleman National Resource Conservation District (NRCD), have been involved with projects around the state, including participating in the team that sought funding and participation from groups to work with erosion control re-vegetation of the area burned by the Aspen Fire in the Santa Catalina Mountain. "We were one of the first groups to go up after the fire," Walt said. "It was actually during the fire that we went to Summerhaven to evaluate the damage." They worked with the BAER Team (Burn Area Emergency Response) Team, facing numerous challenges and obstacles along the way. To avoid conflict, the team acted as a go-between between the residents and the agencies. "Through the District, we got some Federal Emergency Water Protection dollars and did a lot of the seeding on private property. So that was an avenue that helped the Forest Service and the residents," Walt said. Another neat thing about it was that it wasn't just Winkleman District that got involved. We had the Pima NRCD, Redington NRCD, and The Santa Cruz NRCD. So, four NRCDs were engaged in the work.