I am writing a poem in my naturalist journal. The poem is about the plant I chose for the specimen to study. My plant was rye grass.

We were learning how a seed germinates and grows when Cowboy Joe joined in. We were having so much fun we forgot we were learning at the same time.

 We were making wildflower seed balls, but Cowboy Joe didn’t want to get his hands muddy.

Cowboy Joe and I have just picked a winecup. I’m going to draw a picture of it in my naturalist journal.

Julie, Karen, and Natalie, three of the volunteers for the day’s activities, asked to have their picture taken with Cowboy Joe.

Julian, Luke, and Jack R. summed up the day by saying, “All the stations were wonderful. Everybody at a station did an excellent job. This was the best field trip this grade has ever had.”

She also gave a presentation on “A Holistic Approach to Watersheds” for the Rio Grande Advisory Council (RAC). The RAC is a network of citizens—educators, students, professionals, land owners, federal, state, and local governmental agencies, and other stakeholders—who share a common concern for the conservation of the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo watershed. The RAC provides a communication tool for groups and organizations on both sides of the international border, which are actively engaged in Rio Grande/Rio Bravo watershed issues and concerns.

If you’d like one of the experts from HMI to speak to your community about sustainable agriculture, please contact us.

So she asked just how I considered putting my horses out on grass so newly recovered from the 2011 drought to be good land stewardship. I invited her to come over for a hike around the land to see what I have learned from my years in Holistic Management.

• Tilling the Soil – Due to the drought and other reasons, I had not grazed this land in three years. I showed her the hard, capped soil and we found a hoofprint so she could see how within it the soil was softened and there was a tiny catchment for the next rain to have a chance at soaking in and softening whatever seeds might be lurking.

• Planting the Seeds – Just walking on the Earth allows those hooves to push plant-tosssed seeds into contact with the soil so they have a chance at growing.

• Applying the Mulch – I showed my neighbor tons of gray, petrified grass—still standing but brittle and oxidized and doing nothing at all except preventing the sun from nourishing the new growth. The horses knock those decadent stalks over and trample them into the soil where they can do some real good – shading the soil and beginning to feed it during times of moisture.

• And the Compost – Then comes the real gift – the poop and pee of it. She is already familiar with the benefits of organic fertilizer, so I showed her the dung beetles carrying all those nutrients deep into the soil.

• Pruning – Biting the tips off the grasses and forbs stimulates them to grow more leaves and more roots. The bite causes the root to die back a little, and in so doing it excites and feeds the soil food web around those roots, which in turn facilitates more growth and creates new soil.

• A Little Massage – As they walk, run, roll and yank at bites of grass, the horses are putting kinetic energy into the ground and massaging things around a little. The Earth likes it.

• And a nice long nap – Plants need time to recover from being grazed. Roots and leaves grow back at different rates, based on time of year, location and moisture. It takes a little awareness to match grazing and growth cycles.

“OK, OK, I get it,” she says, “but why do you have to have so many fences?”

“Predators!  Or rather the lack of them.” I responded. “In nature, predators keep the herds bunched and moving on so they don’t bite the same grass twice. They might not make it back to this spot for a year. I do that with the fencing.”

Her favorite view was of my hillside. She liked it wild and free.

“Sorry to ruin your view……and it IS just temporary.”

“Not at all!” she said, good neighbor that she is. “I am now seeing that fence in a whole new way—as a beautiful electric-streamlined work of art housing the most beautiful of gardeners.”

• Mutual Aid – So many benefits for all come of this grazing process. The mulch & compost on the ground improves the water cycle and the mineral cycle. The roots are pulsing and growing deeper to store water and carbon deep within the soil. Wildlife thrives on the diversity attracted to the health of the ecosystem. The horses are healthy because they move away from parasites and pests and because they have fresh healthy salads to eat and freshly oxygenated air to breathe. And I am happy not to be buying expensive hay.

It’s a win-win-win. How clever of Nature to have thought all this up.

The Weatherford  Democrat recently published this article, which explains how the foundation, which manages several ranches in Texas, practices Holistic Management.  The Dixon Water Foundation is no stranger to HMI. Our board member, Clint Josey, is also on their board and they have  supported HMI over the years. Their Bear Creek Ranch raises Red Angus and crossbred hair sheep – which don’t produce wool – on native grasses alone, producing meat that is certified organic – without hormones, antibiotics or other feed additives. The article gives really great explanation of how Holistic Management grazing planning mimics nature and the benefits it brings to the soil, the animals and the ranchers who practice it.

Albuquerque, NM

WHAT:  A two day workshop for anyone interested in learning how to effectively manage land for a healthy diverse landscape which supports wildlife and livestock.

WHEN/WHERE: July 13 – July 14, 2012, Circle Ranch and Hotel El Capitan, Van Horn, Texas.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?  Ranchers, land stewards, hunters, and environmentalists interested in learning how Holistic Management® grazing planning helps wildlife and livestock thrive together.

ATTENDEES WILL:

• Learn how to sustain and grow a healthy, diverse landscape and habitat which supports wildlife and profitable livestock operations
• Understand how the relationship between livestock & wildlife management can reduce the need for burning, bulldozing, herbicides and other costly methods
• Receive a practical how to get started program with specific action steps that address a variety of landscapes and situations
• Create a grazing plan for how you can improve your land
• Learn which monitoring and tracking tools can assist in benchmarking and proof of performance
• Network with fellow ranchers in a casual and fun atmosphere

HOW TO REGISTER: Go to http://holisticmanagement.org/training/cows-quail-workshop/

Registration closes July 9, 2012. You must register in advance to attend. Registration is $250 per person.

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT GRAZING PLANNING BENEFITS WILDLIFE

Quail and pronghorn are just two of many species whose populations have declined in recent years. The pronghorn population in the TransPecos region of Texas is at an all-time low, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. According to the National Audubon Society, the population of quail has been declining for decades in the 25 states where they are indigenous. Through the practice of Holistic Management grazing planning, ranchers and other land stewards can learn how to look at the relationship between land, livestock, and wildlife and make decisions that benefit all three while achieving high productivity and significant cost savings.

Peter Holter, CEO of HMI says, “We’ve seen Holistic Management practitioners from West Texas triple the number of pronghorn during the same period in which the West Texas herds declined by 80%. They have lots of bighorn, elk, deer and at times, 1,000 cattle on 32,000 acres.” He further states, “This workshop will be a great introduction to Holistic Management.”

Holistic Management is a Whole Farm/Ranch Planning System that helps farmers, ranchers and land stewards better manage agricultural resources in order to reap sustainable environmental, economic, and social benefits. This “triple bottom line” of benefits can be achieved by maximizing the management of current resources. Whether land is used for ranching, food production or public land conservation, its health can be improved and its productivity greatly increased without large infusions of cash, equipment or technology.

ABOUT HMI  (www.holisticmanagement.org) HMI is an Albuquerque-based international non-profit organization whose mission is to educate people to manage land for a sustainable future.  They believe people count, healthy land is essential, and money matters. They accomplish their mission by delivering a variety of programs and services designed to educate and support farmers, ranchers and land stewards in their efforts to enhance the land through Holistic Management. Currently, there are 40 million acres of land on four continents managed under this planning system. -30-

TO COVER THIS WORKSHOP OR SCHEDULE INTERVIEWS: Contact Sandy Langelier, Director of Communications & Outreach, Holistic Management International, 505-842-5252 Ext. 102, sandyl@holisticmanagement.org

When parents of students at Christ the King School called and wanted me to prepare a program, I said that first we needed a site.  They already had the land steward’s permission to have the event on his family ranch about 70 miles north of Dallas.  My next concern was who would help me with the event.  Many of the Texas regulars, NRCS agent, Ricky Linex of Weatherford and Dr. Paul Martin of Seguin, Bryon Haney of Whitney, Katherine Dickson of Maryneal, Charlie and Suzie Davis of Sweetwater, and Karen McGinnis of San Angelo wanted to be a part.  There would need to be training for the other volunteers.  I call these folks LINKs (Learning In Nature with Kids).   In all there were 20 parents involved, plus my regulars, and Peggy Cole, program director for HMI .

When April 27^th arrived, everyone was ready for the 50 students who came by chartered bus.  The program was called “This Land Is Prairie Land.”  Students began the day by creating a timeline of historical events of the Blackland Prairie eco-region beginning 10,000 years ago.  The theme of prairie land was designed to connect the urban students to the land beneath their feet, whether in Dallas or on the grasslands of the ranch.  There was emphasis on the value of the once vast grasslands known as the Blackland Prairie which included much of north central Texas.  The rest of the day was spent in different activities that included: learning about native plants while walking on the prairie and ending with a hayride back to the headquarters to continue the other activities; making wildflower seed balls after learning how nature disperses seeds; creating Native American talking sticks and learning about the Caddo Indians; and doing the work of a naturalist by creating nature journals about Blackland Prairie vegetation.  Lunch time included a sing-a-long of songs of the prairie by Charlie Davis.

I was very pleased with the result because once again, the event showed how KOL program can go anywhere.  The KOL program began in the Trans-Pecos Region of Texas where my husband, Joe, and I managed Holistic Management International’s Learning Site in Crockett County.  We have expanded the program for students in the Western Cross Timbers, Rolling Plains, and now to the Blackland Prairie Eco-Region of Texas.  It has worked with students from rural schools and now students from an urban school in Dallas,Texas.

KOL is unique among environmental programs because it is designed to teach children about their place where they live, using the property of local land stewards and since children have an innate need to be in nature and nature needs a new generation who are reconnected to the land to take us to a more sustainable future, we hope to see the program continue to evolve as it adapts to meet new environments.  Since its inception in 2003, over 2450 students have been participated in the program. The KOL booklets for the Trans-Pecos Eco-Region are available as Free Downloads.  There is also a guide called, “How To Develop Your Own Program” available. The program continues through the generosity of land stewards offering their property as a site, from in-kind donations for supplies and mileage, to the continued support of Holistic Management International.

In my observation of natural landscapes, I have found the Pareto principle to be a useful concept.  For whatever reason, natural systems often express unequal distributions, in what certainly seems to be a corollary to the principle of spatial heterogeneity.  Learning to view a landscape through the lens of Pareto distributions can help you to optimize your effectiveness as a decision maker.

Moving from the abstract to the specific, I highlight an example from some work HMI did on the West Ranch, a location outside of Ozona Texas that was under HMI’s management for about a decade.  Characterized by shallow, rocky, upland soils and low-lying, ephemeral riparian draws, the West Ranch offers a classic example of a Pareto distribution in soil types, as 8% of the total soil coverage is of the low-lying type.

HMI used the USDA soil survey data from the West Ranch to calculate three key soil characteristics by soil type: soil organic matter (SOM), soil organic carbon (SOC), and available water capacity (AWC).  To conceptualize the dataset, the reader must imagine that the soil behaves at least in three-dimensions.  Soil horizons extend well below the soil surface; on the West Ranch, the primary soil types (ERD and ERG) cover the vast majority of the two-dimensional ranch surface, but are steep, shallow, and rocky, with a maximum depth of between 8 and 18 inches.  The two low-lying soil types with greater depth (RdB and DvB) cover 1 and 7 percent of the two-dimensional soil surface respectively, but have a maximum depth of up to 80 inches.  This, combined with more favorable soil characteristics, has significant ecological and management implications. RdB and DvB, which again only account for 8% of the ranch’s soil surface, account for 49% of the ranch’s total soil organic matter capacity, 49% of the ranch’s total soil organic carbon capacity, and 49% of the ranch’s total available water capacity.

A graphical representation of this distribution is presented below.

Presented in a summary table format, the data is as follows:

Pareto Analysis by Soil Type

This distribution led us to conclude that the potential for brush clearing, improved grass production, and ground water recharge were best served by focusing our attention on these relatively small areas on the landscape.  The economic and production implications of this data proved critical in assisting our decision-making, and in designing further areas for research and investigation.

Once you begin to view the world through the the lens of a Pareto distribution, you will notice that these disproportionate relationships exist everywhere: 80% of your profit may come from 20% of your product line, 70% of your water may come from 30% of your wells, 90% of your time may be spent on 10% of your land area, etc.  While these observations may or may not lead to items of direct action in your decision process, your awareness of these patterns will improve your ability to manage complexity with optimum results.

When I first began reading The Holistic Orchard by Michael Phillips, I was struck by his ability to distill down to the essence the paradigm by which we must view orchards to work with them holistically. He explains that the orchard ecosystem (forest edge ecology) is best served by listening to tree wisdom. It seems rather obvious, but most common sense ideas are. Just as many holistic managers are learning to listen and observe the ecosystem processes at the soil surface, the holistic orchardist must do so as well.

Phillips talks about how the soil food web needs to be fungal dominate for healthy fruit production. We must focus on a healthy mineral cycle rather than appearances. Feed the soil with wood chips, rotted hay, compost, and shredded leaves. He notes that not all wood chips are alike. Most commercial wood chips are from soft woods, like pine, that are high in tannins and suppress the healthy growth of deciduous trees. Likewise he advocates that people not use weed barriers as they negatively impact the ecosystem function.

This book is not only a great resource of knowledge but also has great pictures of practices and microscopic views of leaf surfaces and illustrations of below the soil surface that bring these ideas alive. He covers individual chapters on all the major tree and berry fruits with great details on numerous other topics including varieties, horticultural skills, companion planting, and techniques for building soil.

Phillips is able to inspire the beginner and still offers the experienced grower in-depth information and new research on ways to address pest and disease issues. My one criticism is that he does write predominantly from a less brittle perspective, but most of his knowledge can be applied across different eco-regions. In fact, he includes case studies/success stories from different climates.

His second chapter is all about orchard life and considering the timeframe of the management of the orchard. Of even greater importance is the big picture thinking of how much is enough so that we balance production/profit with quality of life.

I was particularly interested in the “Orchard Dynamics” chapter where he explores the concept of community dynamics within an orchard into play. As Phillips notes, “Stewarding what needs to be right while intelligently setting limits on what might go wrong describes health-based orcharding to a tee.” [emphasis added by author]. This means building system health within the orchard and moving beyond the focus of weed and pest to look at the orchard dynamics. Diversity of plants and animals (including bugs) is key. In fact, he also suggests integrating livestock as holistic approach to orchard health.

With a focus on the importance of biodiversity and building on system health, The Holistic Orchard is an essential book for any holistic manager who manages an orchard, big or small.