A co-founder of the global lifestyle and outdoor brand YETI, Ryan Seiders, is one of the owners of a sprawling West Texas ranch that has in recent weeks been involved in construction activities related to the Trump administration's planned border wall in the state's Big Bend region, according to public records obtained by Marfa Public Radio.
Ryan and his brother, Roy, founded YETI in 2006 and remain the public face of the brand, though the brothers sold a controlling interest in the company years ago and are no longer involved in its day-to-day operations. The company's origin story centers around the Seiders' Texas Hill Country upbringing, love of the outdoors and desire to create a heavy-duty cooler for hunting and fishing.
Headquartered in Austin, Texas, the billion-dollar company advertises a focus on environmental stewardship and sustainability.
"At YETI, we believe that what is good for the planet is synonymous with what is good for business," the company's website states. "Our approach to keeping the wild, wild is science-based, data-driven, and encompasses the entire life cycle of our products."
The Big Bend region has been featured in YETI's marketing materials, including when a brand ambassador floated the Rio Grande with a local outfitter to photograph the night sky. One line of the company's drinkware commemorates Big Bend National Park.
Across the Big Bend, locals are continuing to express outrage over the Trump administration's plan for a 30-foot-high steel wall along the river outside of the national park and related infrastructure within the park — which they argue would cause irrevocable harm to wildlife populations, dark skies, cultural heritage and the local tourism-driven economy.
Still, some property owners in the wall's path are beginning to work with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and its contractors — who have been awarded billions of dollars in recent weeks to see the Big Bend projects to fruition.
Ranch is already involved in border wall construction activities
The Moody Bennett Ranch, located along the Rio Grande, crosses Hudspeth, Jeff Davis and Presidio counties and is in the path of the planned border wall.
In recent weeks, Barnard Construction — one of the companies awarded billions of dollars in federal contracts to build the wall — has started utilizing the ranch as it gears up for construction.
The ranch sits at the end of Chispa Road, one of few public roads leading to the U.S.-Mexico border in the region and one that's been identified as a key thoroughfare for the companies building the wall. In May, Marfa Public Radio reported that Barnard had begun moving heavy equipment for the project down that road to the ranch, where Barnard had entered into an agreement to purchase sand and gravel from the ranch to be used for the wall project.
Presidio County Commissioner Deirdre Hisler – who has spoken directly with Barnard multiple times in recent months – told Marfa Public Radio this week that the ranch's owners are now cooperating with contractors on several fronts, including on possible worker housing and actual building of the wall.
Public records obtained by Marfa Public Radio show Ryan Seiders is one of the ranch owners, along with at least three other people.
A CBP spokesperson declined to confirm any specific landowner's involvement in the project, but said the agency has obtained, for the wall's stretch in Hudspeth County, "voluntary Rights of Entry for Construction (ROE-C) with some landowners which allows CBP immediate access to private property to complete surveys, landvaluation/appraisals, and to begin construction activities." Border wall panel installation is scheduled to start in late summer or early fall, the CBP spokesperson said.
YETI did not respond to requests for comment for this story. Ryan Seiders also did not respond to a request for comment.
State records tie YETI co-founder to West Texas ranch
Seiders' co-ownership of the ranch is spelled out in multiple public property and business records obtained by Marfa Public Radio.
County-level property deed records show a company called "Trans Pecos Ice LLC" purchased the Moody Bennett in 2023. Documents from the Texas Secretary of State's office show Seiders — and three others — are "members" of that LLC. Owners of an LLC are called "members," according to the IRS.
Among the state records tying Seiders to the ranch is a routine business founding document — known as a "certificate of formation" — for Trans Pecos Ice LLC.
One such filing from 2022 listed Seiders as the initial registered agent and manager. An amended version the next year removed him from those roles — and instead listed two people named Greg Boling and Ebb Flynt — but Seiders was still listed as the manager of the company in separate "public information reports" from the state filed in 2023 and 2024.
The latest public information report from 2025 lists an entity called RRS ICE LP as an owner of the company, and Texas Secretary of State records show the owner of that company is Ryan Seiders.
The state's business records show that Seiders is affiliated with YETI and several LLCs whose names contain the phrase "Ice," including "Trans Pecos Ice LLC," "Paloma Ice LLC" and others. The various "Ice LLC" companies appear to represent Seiders' various real estate interests across the state. For instance, the Seiders brothers own a ranch in South Texas that they refer to as the "Paloma Ranch."
Hisler, the Presidio County official, told Marfa Public Radio there is currently a "mud pit" and heavy equipment on the Moody Bennett Ranch, and that Barnard Construction is working on creating a staging area for materials. She said the company is also exploring the possibility of housing employees on the ranch, and that surveying for imminent construction of a wall has begun.
Hisler said much of the work seems to be taking place on the north end of the ranch.
The Moody Bennett ranch is currently listed for sale for $5.7 million.
James King, whose real estate firm King Land & Water is handling the ranch sale, declined to comment for this story.
The ranch's involvement with the border wall plan is notable in no small part because of its location and natural resources.
The Moody Bennett has a sizable chunk — roughly 12 to 15 miles — of border frontage, according to a location map included in the property listing. The ranch is also rich in water resources, which CBP has stated will be needed for wall construction and dust suppression.
The ranch is located above an aquifer that is unregulated by groundwater districts. The Hudspeth County Underground Water Conservation District's jurisdiction is limited to the northeast corner of the county, far from the border. Presidio and Jeff Davis County groundwater district managers told Marfa Public Radio that they have no involvement with the ranch.
Apart from his ties to the Moody Bennett, Ryan Seiders is also connected to the Big Bend region via his status as an advisory board member of the Borderlands Research Institute, a land conservation program at Sul Ross State University in Alpine. His board member biography notes that he has "ranching interests" across the state, including in the Trans-Pecos region.
While the research institute itself has not weighed in on the border wall debate, its director Louis Harveson recently spoke about its potential to harm native wildlife populations at a panel discussion hosted by the advocacy group No Big Bend Wall.
Harveson and the BRI did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
Public records available from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission do not confirm Ryan Seiders' current stake in YETI or even if he's still a shareholder in the company.
The last reference to his shareholding, in 2019, states he has a 5.9% stake in the company, but he hasn't been included in lists of significant shareholders on the company's annual proxy statements since 2020.
Disclosure: King Land and Water is an underwriter of Marfa Public Radio. Underwriters are not involved in the newsroom's editorial decision-making.
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