YETI Co-Founder Co-Owns the Big Bend Ranch Facilitating Trump's Wall

A Conservation Brand’s Co-Founder and the Wall

Public records show Ryan Seiders, who co-founded the Austin outdoor brand YETI, is one of the owners of a Big Bend ranch now helping build the Trump administration’s border wall. Marfa Public Radio reported on June 11, 2026 that the Moody Bennett Ranch sits in the wall’s path. A company called Trans Pecos Ice LLC bought the ranch in 2023, and Texas Secretary of State filings list Seiders as a member.

The owners are also selling the materials to build it.

What the Records Show

The ranch is large and fronts the river. It spans Presidio, Jeff Davis, and Hudspeth counties with 12 to 15 miles of Rio Grande frontage and groundwater access. State filings name Seiders and three others as members of Trans Pecos Ice LLC, one of several Seiders real estate companies that share an “Ice” name, alongside Paloma Ice and Zilker Ice.

Seiders co-founded YETI in 2006 with his brother Roy and remains a public face of the brand. The brothers sold a controlling interest years ago and no longer run the company. SEC filings last recorded Ryan Seiders’ YETI stake in 2019 at about 5.9% and have not listed him among significant shareholders since 2020.

A Choice to Cooperate

Most West Texas landowners have fought the wall, not helped it. About 95% of Texas land is private, so Customs and Border Protection usually has to seize it through eminent domain, a process ranchers have tied up in court since the 2006 Secure Fence Act. More than 300 condemnation cases from the last build are still open.

The Moody Bennett owners took the other path. They signed a voluntary right-of-entry that let federal crews start without a court fight, agreed to sell the ranch’s sand and gravel for the wall, and granted access to the water CBP says it needs to mix concrete and hold down dust. Barnard Construction, a Montana firm run by a Trump donor that holds a roughly $1.7 billion contract for the Big Bend wall, moved heavy equipment onto the land in May 2026.

The Least-Crossed Stretch of Border

The wall is going up where the fewest people cross. The Big Bend sector recorded 3,096 Border Patrol apprehensions in fiscal 2025, about 1.3% of the more than 237,000 along the southern border.

$1.7 billion is the federal contract for a wall through the least-crossed stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The canyon’s economy runs on the open landscape the wall would close off. Brewster County, home to Big Bend, took in about $60 million in tourism in 2025, and roughly one in five jobs there depends on visitors who come for the river and the dark skies.

What the Wall Does to Big Bend

The barrier is being built only because the government set aside the laws that would normally stop it. In May 2026, the Department of Homeland Security waived dozens of federal laws to fast-track construction, including the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act.

The plan keeps changing, but not on the ranch. After bipartisan backlash, CBP dropped the wall inside Big Bend National Park, then pulled it from Big Bend Ranch State Park too. What is left of the 100-plus miles of 30-foot steel wall runs through the Lower Canyons and private land. The Moody Bennett Ranch is still in the path, because its owners agreed to let it cross.

Two rare Rio Grande mussels lie in the path, the Texas hornshell, listed as endangered, and the Salina mucket, proposed for listing. Conservationists say the barrier and its roads would fragment wildlife corridors and cut animals off from their only water. Seven former superintendents of Big Bend National Park signed a letter urging DHS not to waive the laws.

The wall also brings light. The same federal program strung 1,800 stadium lights along the Arizona border, and the Center for Biological Diversity says the glare drives off the animals that hunt and breed in the dark. Big Bend holds some of the darkest night skies left in the country.

The Brand and the Land

YETI sells itself on the outdoors. Its website says “what is good for the planet is synonymous with what is good for business,” and the company partners with conservation groups including American Rivers, Trout Unlimited, and the Boone and Crockett Club. Seiders sits on the advisory board of the Borderlands Research Institute, a land conservation program at Sul Ross State University whose director has publicly questioned the wall’s effect on wildlife.

The company says the ranch is not its business. After the story published, a YETI spokesperson told the Austin American-Statesman that “YETI Holdings does not have any involvement or ownership in Moody Bennett Ranch or Trans Pecos Ice, LLC.” The records back that up. The ranch belongs to Seiders’ personal real estate LLCs, not to the publicly traded company he no longer controls. The “Ice” name is his, not the brand’s.

What Is and Is Not Documented

The records establish the ownership, the contractor’s presence, the gravel deal, and the voluntary access agreement. They do not show the size of Seiders’ stake in the ranch, what he personally decided, or how much the wall work will pay. His current ownership in YETI itself is unconfirmed in SEC filings after 2020.

What You Can Do

Contact your members of Congress at 202-224-3121 about the law waivers. DHS used the 2005 REAL ID Act to set aside the Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Act in Big Bend. Ask for oversight hearings on the waivers and support for repealing that waiver authority.
Support the groups in the fight. The Center for Biological Diversity is suing over the Big Bend waivers, and the Big Bend Conservation Alliance organizes locally against the barriers.
Read the records. Marfa Public Radio published the property and LLC filings behind this story. Primary documents let you check the reporting yourself.
Back the outfitters and parks. River guides and Big Bend’s parks depend on an open canyon. Visiting and supporting them keeps the economic case for protection visible.