1 a new environmental intelligence

HolisticManagement:
A New Environmental
Intelligence
A Publication of
Holistic Management International
June 2001

“Thisisagoodworld.
Weneednotapproveofalltheitemsinit,
Norofalltheindividualsinit,
Buttheworlditself,
Whichismorethanitspartsorindividuals,
Whichhasasoul,aspirit,apull,
Afundamentalrelationtoeachofus
Deeperthanallotherrelations,
Isafriendlyworld.”
JanChristianSmuts
HolismandEvolution,1926

Contents
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Environmental Achievements: Holistic Management Practitioners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi
Land Restoration: Addressing Habitat Loss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Enhancing Productivity—Gene Goven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
A Change in Values—The Red Bluff Ranch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Developing Wetlands—Bunker Sands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Healthy Rural Communities: Creating a Strong Resource Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Doing the RiGHT Thing—The McNeil Ranch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Of Microsoft and Dung Beetles—The Hansons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Community Building Down Under—Peter Howarth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Truly Sustainable Agriculture: Keeping Agricultural Land in Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The Quality of Farming—The Northland Sheep Dairy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Adversity and Creativity—Claude and Annette Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Turning Round the Family Farm—George King . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Answers Not Agendas: Beyond Environmental Conflict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Guaranteed Land Reclamation Specialists—The Tiptons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
We’re Making it Work—West Elk Allotment, Gunnison National Forest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
What the Research Shows: Enhancing Quality of Life, Production, and Landscape . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Holistic Management Gets Results in the Northern Rockies—
Cliff Montagne and Charley Orchard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Biodiversity, Agriculture, and Holistic Management—Deborah Stinner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
About Holistic Management International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
About Holistic Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
iii

v
hen I first learned about Holistic Management, like many
others, I thought it was about cows. But as I talked with Holistic
Management practitioners, I soon discovered the myriad ways
that Holistic Management has improved peoples’ lives and land
base, even if they didn’t own any cattle or any land.
I heard from members who used this process to make all
kinds of personal decisions to help themselves and their
community, but the stories that stuck with me the most were
those that demonstrated the grassroots environmental
restoration efforts that are the heart of the Holistic Management
movement.
In a time when environmental issues loom so largely and in
such devastating proportions, these stories gave me hope that
there were answers out there.
People were already finding ways
to address the loss of wildlife
habitat, productive agricultural
land, and rural communities;
pollution; desertification, global
warming; and the need for healthy
food production.
I will not inundate you with
statistics that demonstrate the
seriousness of the situation. As a
person concerned about our
environment, you know what we
are up against. The news carries
the grim details on a daily basis.
What is often lacking, however, is
the stories about the everyday
heroes and heroines who are
doing something to turn the tide.
That is why we are sharing these
stories with you.
These people are not only
effectively addressing these
problems, they are doing it in a way that increases their quality
of life and helps their communities. And the simple and
common sense approaches they use only add to the beauty of it
all.
What underpins all these stories is a passion for the
land, a deep belief that we must reverse the degradation
we have caused as a species. Their agenda is not conservation,
but restoration in a truly sustainable manner. They know that if
environmentalism is divorced from the human need for stable,
thriving communities, then such a movement or solution will
never succeed or address the root cause of environmental
degradation.
A new environmental intelligence is called for to
help all of us see the bigger picture of how nature
works so we can make the decisions necessary to be positive
contributors to the planet’s health whether we
live in urban or rural areas. Nature sustains civilization and we
must create a civilization that works with nature,
using resource management that mimics nature.
The people in these stories have used Holistic Management
to help them tap their human creativity
and the resources in their community to
produce truly astonishing results,
especially given the issues they’ve faced. I
also believe that the number of Holistic
Management practitioners who have won
environmental awards for the work they have
accomplished is an indicator of what is
possible as momentum grows within this
movement.
The stories compiled here are a small
sample of the accomplishments of our
membership. Choosing which ones to
include was a challenging task, as each
person or group has addressed numerous
issues in such unique ways. To me,
that is the beauty of Holistic Management –
people can use this innovative process in a
manner that feels right to them. With that
kind of ownership, they can move
mountains.
As you read these stories, I hope you are
inspired to consider how you might address
the environmental concerns that face your community. I also
hope these stories demonstrate to you that no matter how
insurmountable these problems appear, there is an answer if
people are willing to make use of the tools and resources
available to them and keep their minds and hearts open to the
possibilities.
Ann Adams
Introduction
Whatunderpins
allthesestoriesisapassion
fortheland,a
deepbeliefthat
wemustreverse
thedegradation
wehavecaused
asaspecies.
W

vi
1989 Jerry & Ann Palen and Joe Foster, Cheyenne, WY—Environmental Protection Agency
Outstanding Environmental Service Award
1989 Butch Ellis, CO—Excellence in Grazing Management Award (Colorado Section of
Society for Range Management)
1989 Alan Kessler, Mayer, AZ—Range Manager of the Year (Arizona Society for
Range Management)
1990 Rollie & Gloria Stab, Ord, NE—Nebraska’s Good Earth Family
(National Soil and Water Conservation Programs)
1991 Frank Hayes, Los Lunas, NM—Conservation Professional of the Year
(New Mexico Wildlife Federation)
1991 The Maddox Family, Colorado City, TX—Renew America’s Searching for Success
Merit Award (Successful Environmental Programs)
1991 Tom Sidwell, Capitan, NM—Outstanding Accomplishments for Resource Conservation
(Goodyear/National Association of Conservation Districts)
1991 Rollie & Gloria Stab, Ord, NE—Renew America’s Searching for Success Merit Award
(Successful Environmental Programs)
1992 Gordon Claassen, Paso Robles, CA—California Farmer/Rancher of the Year
(National Endowment for Soil and Water Conservation)
1992 Gerda Hyde, Chiloquin, OR—Environmental Leadership Award
(Oregon Cattlemen’s Association)
1992 J. Rukin Jelks III, Elgin, AZ—Range Manager of the Year (Arizona Section of the
Society of Range Management)
1992 Bart and Debbie Gillan, Llano, TX—Land Stewardship Award for Excellence in
Wildlife Conservation (Texas Chapter of the Wildlife Society)
1992 Gerda Hyde and family, Chiloquin, OR—Alexander Calder Conservation Award
1992 Frank & Johnny Mestas, Alamosa, CO—Outstanding Conservationists
(Soil Conservation Service)
1992 Jack & Teresa Southworth, Seneca, OR—Conservation Ranch of the Year
(Grant County Soil & Water District)
1994 Roger Bowe, San Jon, NM—Environmental Stewardship Award
(Regional Award by the National Cattlemen’s Association)
1994 Blair & Joseph Fitzsimons, Carrizo Springs, TX—Texas Cattlemen Environmental
Stewardship Award
1994 Doc & Connie Hatfield, Brothers, OR—Renew America (honored for role in
watershed management project)
1994 Kirk Hanna, Pueblo, CO—Colorado Riparian Steward of the Year
1994 Gerda Hyde and family, Chiloquin, OR—Environmental Stewardship
Award (Regional Award by the National Cattlemen’s Association)
1994 Tom Sidwell, Capitan, NM—Outstanding Accomplishments for Resource Conservation
(Goodyear/National Association of Conservation Districts)
1994 Tom Sidwell, Capitan, NM—Outstanding Rancher (Upper Hondo Soil and Water
Conservation District)
1994 Phil Knight, Wickenberg, AZ—State Environmentalist of the Year
(Arizona Game & Fish Department)
Environmental Achievements
A Partial List of Awards given to Holistic Management practitioners

1994 Billy Cordasco, Babbitt Ranches, Flagstaff, AZ—National Cattleman’s Association
Environmental Stewardship Award for Rangeland Improvement and
Enhanced Biodiversity
1995 Sid Goodloe, Capitan, NM—National Cattlemen’s Association Environmental
Stewardship Award
1995 Tony Malmberg, Lander, WY—National Stewardship Award
(Bureau of Land Management)
1995 Clarence Mortenson, Pierre, SD—National Cattlemen’s Association Environmental
Stewardship Award for Preventing Soil Erosion and Rangeland Improvement
1995 Argo Rust, Windhoek, Namibia—Land Degradation and Desertification Control
Success Story (United Nations Environment Programme)
1995 Frank and John Mestas, Alamosa, CO—Excellence in Grazing Management Award
(Colorado Section of the Society for Range Management)
1995 George Work, San Miguel, CA—Farm Steward of the Year (Farm Journal)
1996 Kirk Hanna, Pueblo, CO—Smart Growth and Development Award (Colorado)
1996 Tony Malmberg, Lander, WY—Wyoming Stockgrowers Environmental Stewardship Award
1996 Bunker Sands, Dallas, TX—National Wetlands Award for Land Stewardship & Development
1998 Dylan & Colleen Biggs, Alberta, Canada—Alberta Society for Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals Farmer of the Year Award (for humane handling of cattle)
1998 Tony Malmberg, Lander, WY—National Stewardship Award
(National Cattlemen’s Association)
1999 Dan Hanson, Lusk, WY—Wyoming Stock Growers State Environmental Stewardship Award
1999 Hoven Family Farm, Eckville, Alberta, Canada—Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals Farmer of the Year Award
1999 Sid Goodloe, Capitan, NM—New Mexico Watershed Steward of the Year
1999 James Ranch, Durango, CO—Outstanding Wildlife Landowner
of the Year (Colorado Department of Wildlife)
1999 Tony Malmberg, Lander, WY—Outstanding Environmental Achievement
(Environmental Protection Agency Region VIII)
1999 Bill McDonald, Duncan, AZ—MacArthur Genius Award
1999 Mike and Cathy McNeil, Monte Vista, CO—Conservationist of the Year—Ranching
Division (Colorado Association of Conservation Districts)
1999 Dennis Moroney, Prescott, AZ—Wildlife Habitat Steward of the Year
(Arizona Game and Fish Commission)
1999 Dennis & Jean Wobeser, Lloydminster, Alberta, Canada—Emerald Award for Small Business
(Foundation for Environmental Excellence)
2000 Dylan & Charlotte Biggs, Alberta, Canada—Growing Alberta Environmental
Stewardship Award
2001 Dan Hanson, Lusk, Wyoming—Wyoming Stock Growers’ NCBA Region V
Environmental Stewardship Award
2001 Mike & Cathy McNeil, Monte Vista, CO—2001 Steward of the Land (American Farmland Trust)
2001 Mike & Cathy McNeil, Monte Vista, CO—National Wetlands Award in Land Stewardship and
Development (Environmental Law Institute)
vii

Land Restoration:
Addressing Habitat Loss

A New Environmental Intelligence 2
Instead of managing
grass, small grains,
cattle, and wildlife
for their own sake—we
try to manage so they
complement one another.
Wildlife production isn’t a
goal in and of itself. For
us it’s a measure of what’s
happening on the land. In
our goal, we list wildlife
as important to our quality
of life and as essential in
the future landscape
we’ve described.
We’re in the prairie
pothole country of central
North Dakota, about one
pothole for every 13
acres—and we’ve got a lot
of wildlife, but more now
than we used to have.
As the land has improved, wildlife have increased, and so has
livestock production. The pounds of beef we produce per acre has
risen 80 percent since 1982 when our first cross fencing went in, with
the biggest surge occurring after 1986 when I first attended a course
in Holistic Management and started planning the grazing. Prior to that
we were just moving livestock.
We’ve increased our grazing days by about 50 percent too. Where
we used to be out on the range 120 to 150 days, we’re now out there
180 to 210 days. I attribute this directly to the planned grazings—we’ve
stopped overgrazing and overresting plants and so we’re just getting
more production off them and over a longer period of time. Our
upland game birds—ringneck pheasant, Hungarian partridge and
sharp-tailed grouse—have also increased. The grouse have established
two spring dancing grounds. White tailed deer are more abundant
than before too.
I wouldn’t say we “manage” wildlife, but we’re mindful of them.
We do avoid paddocks where pheasants are nesting but haven’t found
this necessary where waterfowl are concerned. One hiss from a
mallard hen usually backs a cow off. The Canada geese follow the
cattle; we usually find them in the paddock most recently vacated by
the cattle grazing the tender regrowth. By managing to improve the
land as a whole, we’ve improved conditions for the wildlife. That’s
probably the main reason we’re seeing the increases.
When we were advised to poison our winter snowberry thickets,
we decided to use “herd effect” instead. We just threw salt blocks into
them and the cattle thinned them out for us. Wild licorice came in
afterwards and both cattle and deer favored the tender shoots,
utilizing them heavily. Twelve years ago we had some dense old mats
of overrested grass that nesting birds avoided because visibility was
so poor. Just when we were trying to decide if we should use “herd
effect” or “stock density” to correct it, we struck a series of low
rainfall years that took care of the problem. (In the last 12 years
we’ve averaged 7.8 inches of precipitation, compared to the 15 to
17 inches we expected).
I keep a daily journal of my observations, and this has enabled me
to see the changes more clearly. I also monitor a few transects and
North Dakota State University
(NDSU) has been monitoring
and documenting a lot of the
changes as well.
My journal entry for July
4, 1990 noted that four inches
of rain had fallen the night
before and that our dugouts
(holes dug along pothole
edges to provide water for
livestock/wildlife) had only
filled about half a meter (1.5
feet). Our neighbors’ dugouts
were overflowing. We had to
haul water that day and the
next and the next. I didn’t
really mind, because I knew that water had soaked in all over instead
of running off into the potholes. (NDSU researchers found that even
our thin upland soils were able to take six times as much water as
neighboring sites).
Eleven days later on July 14, we finally stopped hauling water.
The dugouts had filled from the bottom up!
Gene and his family ranch and farm near Turtle Lake,
North Dakota
Editor’s Note: We talked with Gene in June 200l and learned
that North Dakota State University has done studies on how
well Gene’s land is able to absorb the rainfall he receives.
Neighboring areas average a water infiltration rate of about
.8 inches/hour. With planned grazing, Gene has improved his
land’s water infiltration rate to 6.3 inches/hour. That means
that Gene’s land is 8 times more able to retain and use water
than neighboring properties, which in turn means there is less
erosion, less flooding, and improved wildlife habitat. He has
further increased his grazing season to 220 to 270 days and
continues to see an increase in wildlife as well.
Enhancing Productivity
by Gene Goven
Upland game birds, such as this
Hungarian partridge, have increased
on the Goven ranch since Gene started
planning livestock grazings.
We’re finding it gets
harder and harder to
say we’re managing
any one thing. When
you change one thing,
you seem to change
everything.
RESTONFARMS

3 Holistic Management
During the long and well-publicized “drought” in California, water,
and its scarcity was about all people here talked about. Our
ranch is in the western foothills of the Sacramento Valley.
There are no aquifers to tap—those are in the alluvium of the valleys;
our Coastal Range Mountains have little snow accumulation—so we
have no snowmelt; from April until November, there is next to no rain.
What little you get, drought or no, you get in winter. Water is always
scarce. In a drought, you just hear about it more.
We began practicing Holistic Management two years before the
drought began, but our grasp of the subject was very tentative. Our
goals were limited, our monitoring minimal, and our planning was only
concerned with grazing management. Simultaneously we joined the
California Department of Fish and Game’s Private Lands Wildlife
Management Program (PLM). To participate in the PLM, we were
required to take game census’ and make habitat “improvements.” In return
we enjoyed some carefully supervised relaxation of California’s archaic
game regulations. The PLM is not popular in some sectors of California,
and our annual report is carefully scrutinized, so we also did field
autopsies on the deer harvested.
Crush and Burn No More
Essentially, these three independent events coincided: Holistic
Management, the PLM, and the drought. As the years passed and
our understanding grew, Holistic Management transcended grazing
management to encompass the game program, financial planning, and
drought management, and everything else; yet we were still required
by contract to perform the mechanical habitat “improvements” for the
PLM. Now with eight years of experience some trends are emerging.
The ritual “crush and burn brush” of our PLM program has
produced minimal wildlife response. Rarely do the deer browse the
resprouts, few animals are taken in the treated areas, and very seldom
do we find brush in their rumens.
We have changed our yearly brush management prescription from
“treat X acres of brush,” to “manage holistically to create a variety of
age classes and growth patterns among the brush species, and a
diversity of other plant species in the spaces between the brush plants.”
In the oak grassland portion of the ranch, we have managed for the
improved health of the remnant stands of perennial grasses, valuing
them as an indicator of the higher level community that the landscape
is capable of supporting.
Across California during the drought, deer populations suffered greatly.
A State Fish and Game biologist recently described the northern California
deer as being “in the worst condition I’ve ever seen.” In the early ‘80’s we
had an epidemic which greatly reduced deer numbers. They recovered,
but leveled off far below the known carrying capacity. The deer harvest
in our area was markedly poorer than in adjoining areas.
Increased Wildlife Diversity
During this same period, the census data collected by Fish and Game
biologists for our PLM program show that the deer population on our
ranch has increased 20 percent; fawns per 100 does have increased
tenfold, the average weight is steady and body fat measurements have
increased several millimeters. Admittedly, these are resident deer on
only a 4,000-acre spread; but the contrast to other herds in the state is
quite noticeable. What other changes have occurred? Two mountain
lions have included us in their territories over the last four or five
years. We now have a plethora of coyotes and smaller predators
resident on the ranch. (We’ve never had a depredation problem, and
we never hunt them).
During this same period, feral pigs have become resident in the
neighborhood. “Mortgage lifters”—cheap young range pigs set loose
to fatten on acorns
and other natural
feed until ready to
be marketed—were a
way of life in this
area from the ‘20s to
the ‘50s. Those that
escaped the annual
round-up never
became established;
and we were pig-
free for 20 years. Yet
in the past six years,
the pig population,
which ranges
between our ranch
and the neighbor’s,
has grown to over
80 animals. Where
the progenitors of this population came from is a mystery to me, but
regardless of their origin, they would not have prospered unless
conditions were right for them.
Riparian Recovery
The most dramatic change in the last 10 years has been in our
riparian zone. There’s a three mile intermittent stream that runs
through the ranch. As a boy our neighbor used to fish for trout in it.
When I came to the ranch in 1975, it was dry from July until November.
In its gravelly wastes, I spent many happy hours driving a bulldozer
making levees and streambeds, and every year I got to rebuild them
all over again.
With Holistic Management, planned grazings, education, and a little
thought, our 100-yard-wide gravelly creek beds are becoming riparian
jungles, thickets of cottonwoods, willows, vines, grasses, and all manner
of debris. Our local Fish and Game biologist estimates that no fewer
than two dozen species of vertebrates are utilizing the gravel bed, and
over 160 the riparian jungle. Now the creek flows until September; and
never becomes completely dry. A near term goal is to have trout in it
again; a long term goal is for salmon to spawn in it.
After ten years of attempting to practice Holistic Management,
we’re still only half way toward defining a more permanent holistic
goal. In the very beginning, wildlife had no place in our goal; it was
cattle grazing, and production. When we joined the PLM program (a
production-motivated decision), wildlife became a production goal. As
we refine our holistic goal, wildlife is emerging as largely a quality of
life value more aesthetic than consumptive—and a sensitive index
of the improvement in our landscape.
Frank Dawley and his family ranch near Red Bluff California.
A Change in Values
by Frank Dawley
The deer population on Dawley’s ranch has
increased 20%, fawns per 100 does have
increased ten-fold, and body fat measurements
have increased several millimeters.
USFISH&WILDLIFESERVICE

J.B. “Bunker” Sands was initially attracted to the idea of creating
wetlands on his cattle ranch for one reason—his passion for duck
hunting. When a neighbor suggested he create a feeding pond
on his property to attract more waterfowl, Bunker started looking at
his ranch in a new way. Now 15 years later, his initial interest in
creating wetlands simply for his own recreational purpose has
expanded to a deep appreciation for how wetland development
increases the environmental diversity, overall health and prosperity
of Rosewood Ranch (not to mention what it’s done for Bunker’s
quality of life).
Bunker’s priorities are evident in his slogan for the ranch:
Rosewood Ranch—Wetlands and Brahman Cattle. The ranch covers
20,000 acres in three Texas counties, mostly within an hour’s drive of
Dallas. The wetlands are scattered among those acres with
approximately 50 paddocks covering 10 percent of the land.
Working With Nature
Much of the wetland areas were there
naturally, formed by periodic diversions of the
Trinity River, natural springs, and catchment of
rain runoff. Because the land was marshy or
flooded periodically, previous agricultural
producers had built levees to divert water from
areas to be used for crops. To build such levees
required a fair amount of earth-moving which
meant a lot of capital expense with no
guarantee of a good crop to follow.
Anyone interested in creating wetlands for
the sake of creating wetlands, will probably
find the cost of levee-building prohibitive. But
Bunker, a long-time Center supporter and
Advisory Board member, began looking at how
their construction could simultaneously fulfill
other needs. He realized he could increase the
diversity of his environment and develop new
enterprises without adding additional cost to
current operations.
Bunker started out using the levees
constructed in his father’s day, but over the years
has built new ones whenever it served more
than one purpose. “We need roads for both
cattle and people to get through the property,” says Bunker.
“If I’m going to build a road, I might as well make it a levee.”
Managing the Wetlands
Each wetland paddock is managed as part of a holistic grazing
plan. This entails maintaining a balance between the needs of the
land and the animals. The needs of both are considered before header
gates are opened or closed and animals moved in or out of a paddock
At any given time various wetlands can be empty or hold four feet
of water, though the average tends to be 4 to 8 inches.
“As we release and capture water, we create mudflats, shallow-
water ponds, or dry areas,” says Bunker. “So when we decide what
water goes where, when, or how much, we are then affecting what
plants grow there. That means we are also affecting what animals are
attracted there and the possible uses and complexities for each area.”
With that idea in mind, Bunker continues to be on the lookout
for other possible wetland sites of 100 acres or less. His intention is
to create a complex environment with many “edges” between
habitats.
By creating the infrastructure that allows him to control what
water goes where, Bunker has the opportunity to stack enterprises
because of the different ways in which the land can be used, e.g.,
habitat for migratory birds (recreational opportunities), high-intensity
grazing, or emergency fodder during drought, and crawfish
harvesting (up to 450 pounds a day). “We are always looking at the
different areas and what is happening in them so we can make
decisions about whether or not to open or close a header gate,”
explains Bunker. “For example, we might need to drain one area to
repair a levee that a beaver has damaged or another when the trees
begin to bud. There are a lot of things to consider.”
Developing Wetlands—
Turning a Liability Into Many Assets
by Ann Adams
“Right now there is an ongoing debte as to whether humans can even make
‘functional’ wetlands.”
continued on page 5

Reaping the Harvest
For all his hard work creating and developing the wetlands,
Bunker received the 1996 National Wetlands Award for Land
Stewardship and Development. This award is co-sponsored by
the Environmental Law Institute and the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency.
While these agencies recognize his efforts in land stewardship,
Bunker does not rest on his laurels. “Right now there is an ongoing
debate as to whether humans can even make ‘functional’ wetlands,”
he says. “So I’ve agreed to keep cattle out of certain enclosures so a
couple of outside researchers can see what the effects might be in
not mixing agricultural and wildlife interests.”
The long list of government agencies and private organizations
that Bunker works with makes it apparent that he sees the ranch as
a place that a variety of people can learn from and enjoy. Certainly
Bunker, his family, and the Rosewood workers all feel pride in what
they are helping to create. They have seen the value of the land
increase, along with interest in their work from a variety of sectors.
That interest, coupled with the land’s proximity to Dallas, would
normally be a precursor to subdivision for some ranches. But, as
Bunker notes, “This land is floodplain. No one can build here, so
there is no residential value to the land. And as far as farming goes,
when the land was farmed it only produced a profitable wheat
crop two out of every five years.”
The Value of Recreational Opportunities
Bunker’s vision for the land is to continue to develop habitats
that encourage even more diversity among animal and plant species.
In the past, much of the bottom land
had been hardwood forest
that was clearcut. Bunker would like
to see more trees planted in the
future. And while waterfowl—ranging
from geese to wood storks to roseate
spoonbills—make use of the habitat,
Bunker would like to see even
more species.
Bunker’s primary concern in
the creation of the wetlands has
been the health of the habitat
and wildlife. But because of the
recreational possibilities that now
exist, the land’s value has increased.
Bunker acknowledges as much
when he says, “with this land’s
close proximity to Dallas its
ultimate value will not be
agricultural.” That means that the
decisions he makes today, which
already encourage a profitable
return, could result in even greater
financial returns in the future.
The irony of creating wetlands through the use of levees built
to drain water from that same land is not lost on Bunker. In fact,
he admits that his introduction to Holistic Management was
probably the start of many paradigm shifts that have led to the
changes at Rosewood. It might also have affected his tendency
to go for his video camera instead of his gun when he sees the
waterfowl enjoying the habitat he helped to shape. His enthusiasm
is evident when he says, “It’s great to be in the middle of a
roosting marsh at sunset and capture the sights and sounds of
the multitudes of waterfowl coming in for the evening. That’s
where quality of life comes in.”
By creating the infrastructure that allows him to control what water goes where, Bunker has the
opportunity to stack enterprises because of the different ways in which the land can be used
Developing Wetlands—
continued from page 4

Healthy Rural
Communities:
Creating a Strong Resource Base

hat underlies a successful, holistically managed ranching
operation? How does a family in a high altitude, 6- to 8-inch
(15- to 21-cm) rainfall valley in southern Colorado win national
awards for their progressive management?
If there is one common denominator in these questions, it seems to
be the willingness and ability to change with the times and respond
effectively to the demands of the day while looking into the future.
And that’s how the McNeil family have protected a heritage of 100 plus
years of ranching on the Rock Creek Drainage on the southwestern
slope of the San Luis Valley (SLV) in South Central Colorado.
Waking Up From Tradition
The McNeil family originally moved to Colorado from Virginia
in 1890. Today, the ranch is run by the fourth and fifth generations
of McNeils: Mike, with his wife, Cathy, their 13-year-old daughter, Kelly,
and nephew, Michael, along with two long time employees. They run
800 mother cows on 3,033 acres (1,228 hectares), with approximately
1,200 of those acres irrigated. In the past, they have also run their cattle
on an approximately 30,000-acre (12,146-hectare) summer grazing
permit in the nearby National Forest.
As a young boy, Mike spent summers irrigating hay fields, driving
tractors to harvest 3,000 tons of hay or riding the herd in the high
country range. He spent the cold winters of his youth feeding that
same hay to the herd and, in the tradition of the area, calving in the
deep freeze of January. He also studied agriculture briefly at Colorado
State University until the bottom fell out of the cattle market, and he
returned home.
When Mike’s father, Bill, passed away in 1983, the family had to
deal with the challenges of inter-generational land transfer issues,
especially the looming estate taxes. They were able to take financial
planning steps to protect the family and the ranch, albeit through
some extreme and very expensive measures.
Then, in the drought of 1989, the Forest Service told them they
had to remove half their herd from their grazing allotment. Such
an unexpected situation could well have been disastrous, but some
summer rains saved them at the last minute. This “wake up” call made
them realize that “business as usual” was getting more and more risky,
if not downright untenable.
So Mike and Cathy began to explore other options and new ways
to manage their ranch. Having heard about “HRM” (Holistic Resource
Management) and thinking it was “a way to double their stocking
rate,” they decided to learn more about it. They began to study various
alternative approaches, with their training in Holistic Management
providing a framework for integrating these new ideas and practices
into their operation.
Rather than try to make immediate changes in their livestock
operations, they realized that the real “logjam” at the time was in their
family. So their first “new idea” was to address family issues and begin
to heal some of the schisms that existed. Difficult and challenging as it
was, over time and through honest communication and family meetings,
many old issues were resolved and this led to a more creative and
relaxed environment.
Greater Sustainability
From there, the McNeils began to make gradual changes in the
actual operation of the ranch itself. Over the years, they began to
graze more and more of the hay fields, cycling them in and out of hay
production. They also reduced the amount of hay they cut and returned
to an old-time practice of simply cutting the hay into windrows and
piling it with a dump rake rather than putting up bales. In this way,
they could use portable electric fence to dole the hay out to the cattle.
However, the McNeils plan their grazing to allow sufficient regrowth
so the cattle can go through the pastures and find adequate standing
forage in most seasons.
The McNeils have also changed their calving season to a June/July
calving so that their 800 mother cows can be dry and pregnant
through the cold months and be on fresh green growth and warmer
temperatures during calving, lactating and rebreeding. This change
has also greatly enhanced the McNeils’ quality of life.
Sandhill cranes rising from the waters of the Monte Vista National
Wildlife Refuge. The McNeils have worked with this refuge over the past
five years to help protect the water rights in the area as part of their
conservation efforts.
RiodelaVista
Doing the RiGHT Thing—The McNeil Ranch
by Rio de la Vista
W
As Mike likes to relate, “I used to say that I wished I lived somewhere
where we didn’t have to put up hay all summer and calve in January.
Then I finally realized, I live in that place!”
To further enhance their quality of life, the McNeils have decided to
take “non-use” on their Forest Service grazing permit (which they have
used to summer graze 600 yearlings in the past) and run the entire herd
on their own land. With their many years of experience and very careful
Holistic Management™ grazing planning, they are confident the land can
carry this increased number of animals and sustain the health of the
grasses and biodiversity at the same time.
A Better Quality of Land and Life
All of these management changes have led to very measurable
improvements in the McNeil’s lives and land. From a production
standpoint, their enhanced planning has allowed them to sustainably

increase the carrying capacity of their land by approximately 30 percent—
perhaps even more. The earlier panic of how to feed their livestock is
long gone and their independence from public lands gives them a real
sense of security given the political and social pressures on public lands
grazing in the U.S.
From a financial standpoint, they have stabilized their operation,
kept the entire ranch intact, and remained debt free, (even when Mike’s
mother passed away and they had to deal with a massive inheritance
tax). They have cut their annual operating expenses by about 20 percent
since 1991, operating the same ranch with more cattle for about $60,000
less per year while paying their help the best wages of anyone in the
area. All of their employees continue to receive training in Holistic
Management and other progressive management ideas and are
involved in the financial, grazing and infrastructure planning, and
biological monitoring.
Changes in the Community
While their own land base and operation became more stable,
profitable, and increasingly healthy, the McNeils could not ignore the
forces of change going on around them. They watched the intensifying
second-home growth and development pressures that are resulting in
tremendous loss of agricultural lands and water throughout the state
of Colorado.
The impacts came very close to home as the McNeils realized that
the Rock Creek Drainage was one of very few undeveloped stream
corridors remaining in the entire 8,000-square-mile (3,239- square-hectare)
basin. With upstream neighbors threatening to sell out to developers
for subdivisions, they conceived a project that could include all the
landowners in the drainage in a collective conservation effort through
a combination of donations and sales of development rights. The Rock
Creek Heritage Project has now been underway for three years and is
working to protect approximately 15,000 acres (6,073 hectares) and
associated water rights adjacent to the 14,000-acre (5,668-hectare) Monte
Vista National Wildlife Refuge over the next three to five years.
The startup of this landowner initiative was originally supported by
The Nature Conservancy and the Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO)
Trust Fund through a capacity building grant which funded landowner
education and initial negotiations for donation and purchase of
conservation easements with participating ranchers. Because of the
outstanding opportunity to protect a significant block of agricultural
land and water rights, as well as exceptional wildlife habitat, American
Farmland Trust is now backing the effort through support of a local
project coordinator and direct land protection efforts.
The list of partnering organizations now also include: the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Ducks
Unlimited, the Trust for Public Land, Colorado Wetlands Partnership and
the SLV Wetlands Focus Area Committee, Colorado Division of Wildlife,
the SLV GIS/GPS Authority, Colorado Cattlemens Agricultural Land
Trust, the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust, and many more.
At the same time the Rock Creek Heritage Project was developing, it
became clear to the McNeils and their colleagues that they also needed a
local land trust to work throughout the San Luis Valley for protection of
agricultural land and water. As the founding President of the Rio Grande
Headwaters Land Trust (RiGHT), Cathy McNeil has brought her rigorous
thinking, contagious enthusiasm and the family’s good community
standing as long-term land owners and successful ranchers to the effort.
In partnership with the many national and regional conservation
organizations that are also working to
conserve the tremendous ecological and agricultural resources of the
Valley, RiGHT also offers educational and management help (including
Holistic Management training).
Making A Difference
The McNeils’ work on the land and in their community has not
been ignored. In 1999 they received statewide recognition for the
health of their land
when they were named
“Conservationist of the
Year for Ranching” by the
Colorado Association of
Soil Conservation Districts.
In 2001, the McNeils
also received national
recognition for their
community contributions
and good stewardship
when they were named
American Farmland Trust’s
“2001 Steward of the Land.”
The McNeils were selected
from more than 75 farmers and ranchers from 35 states because of their
efforts “to stop the loss of productive farmland and promote farming
practices that lead to a healthy environment.”
The McNeils were also honored by the Environmental Law Institute
for their contribution to wetlands protection, restoration, and education
and were named winners of the 2001 National Wetlands Award in the
Land Stewardship and Development category.
Such awards demonstrate how many lives the McNeils have touched
as they have actively shared information about their management
practices and sponsored Holistic Management training for other ranchers
and agency employees over many years. In the past year alone, three
classes have been held for Rock Creek landowners, conservation
organization, and government agency personnel and others. These
workshops have included everything from basic Holistic Management
to riparian restoration using cattle as a tool.
The McNeils are doing their best to manage their own land with
innovative and sustainable practices (often against the tide of public
opinion and “tradition”). But just as importantly, they are actively sharing
creative approaches to resolving local and community-wide problems
and creating a viable future for agriculture as they pour their hearts,
minds, time, and money into conservation efforts they support.
By first attending to business at home and within their own
family, the McNeils have created a foundation for contributing to their
community and are helping to restore the land and provide new
management and marketing options for land owners throughout the
San Luis Valley. In doing so they have created opportunities for many
others to participate in agricultural life, conservation, and enjoyment
of the land while creating and protecting habitat for the animal and
plant life that shares it. Undoubtedly their enthusiasm, creativity, and
generosity have touched many people in their community and
beyond and will indeed provide a heritage long beyond their years.
Rio de la Vista is a Holistic Management™ Certified Educator
and Vice-Chair of the Center’s Board of Directors. She is also
American Farmland Trust’s coordinator for the Rock Creek Heritage
Project.
“I used to say that I
wished I lived somewhere
where we didn’t have to
put up hay all summer
and calve in January.
Then I finally realized,
I live in that place!”

Lusk, Wyoming might be off the beaten path for those with a
touch of bi-coastal arrogance, but it’s on the cyberspace
highway thanks to Microsoft’s largesse and marketing
forethought. And who better to play the poster child role for them
in their series of commercials than Dan Henry Hanson, son of Dan
and Donna Hanson.
Dan Henry had been busy researching on the Internet for his
4-H project on dung beetles, so Microsoft thought he was a good
example of how a rural community could benefit from being
hardwired for the future. In the meantime, the Wyoming Stock
Growers were just as impressed by the Hansons’ ability to increase
biodiversity on their ranch. In 1999 they awarded the Hansons their
State Environmental Stewardship Award, and in 2000 they awarded
them the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Region V
Environmental Stewardship Award.
Those awards, as well as Microsoft’s interest in the Hansons’
Generation X, are examples of what happens when people start
managing their lives to achieve what they want instead of clinging
to outworn notions of how life must be.
Healthy Habitats and Economies
Dan Hanson was first introduced to Holistic Management when
he went to a neighbor’s barn in 1991 to hear Allan Savory present a
slideshow. Right then the ideas made sense, and he knew he needed
to learn more. The “Meeting of the Minds” Club (a group of local
ranchers who weren’t afraid of new ideas) got the Soil Conservation
Service involved to help bring more training to Lusk. In the following
years, Holistic Management™ Certified Educators Miles Keogh and
Roland Kroos facilitated a series of workshops.
Dan applied the principles he learned in those workshops to his
ranch. The results were remarkable. The first change was an increase
in his stocking rate. When he began managing holistically, he needed
50 acres per animal. He now only needs 24 acres, thus doubling his
stocking rate over the course of 9 years. As this change occurred there
were other improvements.
Because of his planned grazing he no longer continuously grazed
the riparian areas on his property so more willows and cottonwoods
grew along his streambeds. Likewise, because of the healthier
riparian areas, the increase of grass, and the decrease of bare
ground, his wildlife habitat improved, and he saw more sharptail
grouse, turkeys, and Hungarian partridges. But what he was most
excited about were the dung beetles. While many people are
concerned about the loss of “bigger” animals, Dan knew that the
absence of dung beetles indicated major problems with the mineral
cycle and soil fertility.
As a boy, Dan had seen dung beetles at work rebuilding the soil.
But by the time he was an adult, the dung beetles were gone. In
1993, prompted by his training in Holistic Management, Dan stopped
spraying the cattle for flies and the beetles began to flourish.
Combined with increased
animal impact and planned
grazing, Dan’s practice of
Holistic Management led
to ever-healthier soils, the
foundation of all habitats.
In fact, Dan said he put
500 yearlings in a 20-acre
pasture and within a couple
of hours you couldn’t find
a remaining cowpie because
the dung beetles had buried
them all.
In turn, increased soil
fertility and improved
functioning of all four
ecosystem processes led
to an increase in the
diversity of grass species,
which led to a longer
growing season. With
more species, more
plants are likely to be growing at any one time. In this case, Dan
increased his growing season by two to three weeks. Combined with
his increased stocking rate, Dan saw an increase in profit. He
increased this profit even more when he was able to reduce his
supplemental feed and mineral expenses from $50 per head to $22
because of increased and improved forage.
He was able to reduce more expenses by getting rid of
unnecessary machinery (he’s down from 10 pickups, 9 tractors, and
a couple of semis to 4 pickups, one tractor, and no semis) and
reducing the number of people working for the family. (He had five
Of Microsoft and Dung Beetles
by Ann Adams
School buses and cattle exemplify the Hanson's ranch where the land and livestock offer learning as well as
profit. These buses carry spectators for the 1999 Livestock Stewardship Tour.

hired men but is down to one hired man who helps the family—
Dan, Donna, Dan Henry, 15, and Ben, 10.)
Rewarding Lives
Of course, this increase in production and profit has led to more
rewarding times for the Hanson family. In 1989 they had just bought
more land for the ranch and were wondering how they would pay
for it and make the necessary improvements for the ranch. Dan
admits that if he had continued operating the way
he had been before his training in Holistic
Management, he wouldn’t have been able to
accomplish what he has.
In the late ‘70s they were borrowing money
just to pay the interest on their loans. Dan was
working 12 hours a day just to get basic chores
done. Worse yet, he wasn’t even making minimum
wage. There was no future in the ranch as it just
wasn’t economically viable.
Dan recalls, “I was ranching with my body, not
my mind. I had sorted the cattle by age group and
didn’t have more than 200 in a herd. I spent all
day checking on them or moving pipelines and
checking pumps. Now I’ve put the cattle together
and there are fewer things to focus on. That means
I have more time for family and community work
that I didn’t have before. I can be a better member
of the community because I am a rancher now,
not a mechanic fixing all the machinery we had.
Our family is reaching goals we thought were
unattainable in the 1980s and the kids are more
involved with the ranch.”
Dan can bring that new enjoyment of his work
to those who can learn from his experience. He and his family are
actively involved in 4-H, community politics, and environmental
education. The Hansons are also part of a voluntary water quality
monitoring project established by the Niobrara Conservation District,
and are involved in Agriculture in the Classroom, a program through
the local elementary school that allows children to visit the ranch.
Dan finds particular pleasure in helping children see the big
picture about agriculture. “They come out here thinking that ranchers
are bad people who hurt the land. That’s what they’ve been told. But
we show them another truth. They can see what we’ve done for the
land, how it has regenerated. They see where the cattle have been
and how the plants are healthy. They also see the places we’ve kept
cattle out of for several decades and how there are fewer species, and
those are dying, and the ground is bare.”
Beyond Issues to Resources
In many ways the Hansons’ story is the story of the new
agriculture. Born out of desperation, this movement towards an
agriculture that is responsive to the needs of the land, the
consumer, and the producer must arise for a truly sustainable
agriculture. Dan believes that shift is occurring in small, often
unnoticed ways.
“Take Holistic Management. Back when I first learned about it
everyone thought it was a communist plot and few of us were willing
to try it. But people are shifting. The Savory Center has done more
good than they realized. People are moving cattle more and paying
attention to the plants and soil. They’re looking over the fence and
seeing that what we do makes the grass better. They see that it’s
greener longer and more lush. They know they need to do something
different too, and they’re beginning to experiment.”
“New Zealand is us 30 years from now. Their agriculture used to
be highly subsidized just like American agriculture is now. But the
government couldn’t subsidize them anymore and cut them off
completely. That will happen here too.
“Agriculture must be self-sustaining. We can’t accept money
from the government. As a producer, you’ve got to figure out
how to earn the profit you need. You’ve also got to treat the
soil and grass right. If you don’t, you are just borrowing away
from the future.
“Holistic Management can help people make that shift. They
need to think of the whole and create a goal that addresses that
whole. All of these new management processes and systems are
all just offshoots of Holistic Management, and it is influencing
sustainable agriculture this way. It really is how you look at
something and what you think you can do about it.”
The Hansons were between a rock and a hard place in the late
‘70s. Some people might say it was a sign of the times with farmers
and ranchers going belly up in droves. And some people might say
that the agricultural picture is even worse today, but not for the
Hansons. They looked at what they wanted to accomplish (healthy
land, animals, and finances and rewarding work) and opened their
minds to the possibilities of how to achieve it.
The future is much brighter for Ben Hanson (forefront), son of Dan and Donna Hanson,
now that the Hansons have more leisure time to devote to family and community while
producing a handsome profit from their ranch. Ben is pictured here with spectators for
the 1999 Livestock Stewardship Tour as they gather at the ranch house.

Peter Howarth is one of those guys with an uncanny knack
for getting things done. Not only that, if he decides to take
something on, you can bet he’ll take it on in a big way. He
was one of Sydney’s most successful businessmen and property
developers, but in the mid-’80s decided he wanted to be in the cattle
business. True to form, a few years later he owned the largest herd
of registered Devon cattle in the world, and had established
Australia’s largest pool of purebred
polled Simmentals.
Land and Livestock
Peter and his wife, Judy, farm in one
of southeast Australia’s most idyllic and
picturesque spots. Near the town of
Nundle and just west of the crest of the
Great Dividing Range, they own two
properties totaling 20,000 acres (8,100
ha)—Wombramurra, the home place, and
Wyallia—ranging from 2,300 to 3,300 feet
(700 to 1,000 meters) in elevation. They
also own a 7,000-acre (2,800-hectare)
property on the Liverpool Plain, perhaps
Australia’s most fertile and productive
cropping country, about an hour and a
half’s drive from Nundle. The farms at
Nundle support 3,000 cows, about 700
of which are registered breeding stock.
All weaned calves are shipped to the
Liverpool Plain property to be finished
on grass.
The farm also runs 10,000 Merino
sheep and 4,000 Boer/cashmere-cross goats. In addition to meat and
fiber, the goats provide valuable weed control against the blackberry
and thistle infestations common to the area. The grazing patterns of
all the herds—cattle, sheep, and goats—are carefully planned to
produce a high level of animal impact and a recovery period ranging
from 90 to 120 days, depending on growth rates of the plants. The
ability to plan these relatively long recovery periods and achieve high
stock densities (in country that is traditionally set-stocked, or
continuously grazed, year-round) has resulted in tremendous
improvements to their pasture species composition and plant vigor.
With an evenly spread annual precipitation of 30 to 37 inches (760 to
940 mm) and mild winters, this country heals quickly with well-
planned grazing management.
A Town Called Nundle
The Howarths’ agricultural pursuits are truly impressive, but for
Peter and Judy, the land and the livestock are only part of the story.
Upon being introduced to Holistic Management, they realized their
“whole” extended beyond the farm gate and into their community,
and what they saw wasn’t pretty. The town of Nundle was all but
abandoned, and no young people were staying home. They reasoned
that with a dying or dead community, their operation simply wasn’t
sustainable in the long term. Nundle needed to be rejuvenated, so
the Howarths got to work.
They essentially bought the town, fired up the local shops, the
motel, and the gas station, converted the abandoned bank into a five-
star guest house, started an art gallery, got the schools going, and
employed lots of people in the process.
The locals started to patronize their
hometown again, tourists began to show
up, and many more young people are
deciding to stay. Each business is
now supporting itself, and the Howarths
are selling each business back to the
people who are managing them. The
Nundle/Howarth partnership is truly
an inspiring success story.
In addition to all of the above, this
amazing couple has also built a thriving
backpacker’s lodge right on the farm.
The Howarths’ son manages this
business. Two big busloads of modern-
day adventurers/explorers/thrill-seekers
descend on the lodge every night.
They are welcomed by one of the farm’s
more colorful hired hands—complete
with beat up Akubra hat, rural Aussie
twang, and sharp country wit—informed
that they are visiting a genuine
Australian sheep and cattle station,
and then given a sheep shearing
demonstration. Those who want and need a trim themselves are
then offered a free haircut after the sheep are shorn.
An Earth Sanctuary
And finally, plans are underway to develop an “Earth Sanctuary.”
This will entail fencing off a 6,000-acre (2400-hectare) area of pristine
forest that has never been cleared. It is home to several species of
kangaroo and wallaby, plus dozens of other unusual native marsupials.
Once fenced off, all of the non-native feral cats, rabbits, and foxes will
be removed, giving the natives a chance to thrive. An interpretive
center and an exotic cabin complex will be constructed (designed by
their architect daughter) to cater to visitors, and a full-time biologist
will be employed. Even though the idea is to create a native preserve,
they plan to continue grazing the valley bottoms to keep the grass
healthy and minimize fire danger.
My guess is the sanctuary will be up and running as quickly
and efficiently as the revitalized town of Nundle. Not bad for a
couple who only recently concluded that the key to sustaining
their own operation lay in the health of the community
surrounding them.
Peter Howarth, “If our community died, we could not
sustain our operation.”
Community Building Down Under
by Jim Howell

Truly Sustainable
Agriculture:
Keeping Agricultural Land in Production

In late October, I was traveling with John Ball (an applicant to the
Savory Center’s Certified Educator Training Program) and his son,
Jacob, to the Grasstravaganza Conference in Syracuse, New York.
We had arranged to visit with Jane and Karl North who own and
operate Northland Sheep Dairy in Marathon, New York.
As we turned in the lane to the North’s farm, their two Haflinger
horses greeted us. The mid-afternoon sun illuminating their pale
golden manes and thick velvety coats brought a somewhat magical
quality to their presence. Later, when I commented on how beautiful
the horses were, it became clear that in addition to the synergy the
horses provided between the various
components of the farm, Karl and Jane
decided to acquire these particular Haflingers
because of their pleasing dispositions, quality,
and visual beauty.
Quality and beauty are embodied
throughout Jane and Karl’s farm and lives—
in the grace of a curved stone window arch,
an inviting path into the soft woodland just
beyond their house, the flowers in the
greenhouse, the placement of Karl’s Cuban
drums in the main room, their choice of
livestock, their livestock handling, their
products, and how they market those
products. These are the values of Northland
Sheep Dairy and reflect how Jane and Karl
work with their natural resource base to
farm in a manner that is sustainable and
fulfilling to them.
A Matter of Choice
Karl and Jane began the design and
development of their farm in the 1980s. The
land had been long abandoned and there
were no buildings on the property. They had
recently come from years of “homesteading” in France, where small
dairy farms and weekly local farmers markets are old traditions. Karl
and Jane applied much of what they had lived and learned in France
to the design of their New York farm.
During the development of their farm, Karl read Holistic Resource
Management and found a great deal that deepened his
understanding of the benefit of farm diversity and of building
synergy between the farm components. In 1995, Karl organized the
first course in New York State on Holistic Management because he
wanted to share this holistic way of thinking and looking at the
world with other farmers.
As Karl and Jane developed their farm in 1980, one of their
greatest concerns was energy efficiency and they have achieved this
not only in solar building design but also in the general farmstead
layout.
Over the years they have been able to minimize off-farm inputs
of fuel, fertilizer, feed and machinery. The Haflinger horses have
helped with this goal as they are used to make hay and they are fed
by the land. Most of the machinery Karl has purchased is used, horse-
drawn, and considered obsolete. He offers as an example a hay
rake he purchased for $15 that he has been using now for 15 years.
The horses are also able to maneuver well in two to three feet
(0.8 -1 m) of snow and are flexible in small places for logging
in the woods and working around fields (particularly in a wet season)
where a tractor would be cumbersome and damage the terrain. In the
grazing plan, the horses move in a unit
separate from the Norths’ sheep. Pastures are
grazed by the horses, allowed to recover, then
the sheep are put in. This allows for a break in
the parasite cycle of the sheep and
complementary grazing patterns by the two
species.
The land has also improved through the
application of rock phosphate and composted
manure and bedding. Karl puts the rock
phosphate right into the sheep’s winter
bedding—and spreads that on the previous
year’s hayland. The hayland moves into
pasture rotation and is harvested for hay again
in two years. The pastures (including
hayfields) are limed every year.
The quantity and quality of the forage has
improved greatly since 1980. Because of the
improvement in the forage, the Norths have
been able to focus the sheep’s feed mainly on
grass and decrease the corn input. They are
also selecting sheep that perform better on
grass. Karl and Jane think the most sustainable
way to make milk is from grass and that
sheep are well suited to this sort of dairy
farming. Also, sheep graze and spread their manure evenly.
Other reasons why the Norths chose sheep were because the
milking parlor and other handling machinery are economical and
small. A lactation period of less than six months mirrors the grass
season length in their climate, making seasonal dairying a natural
choice. Likewise, the Norths time lambing for the beginning of grass
in May with the lactation ending in early fall, and the flock finishing
stockpiled pasture by the end of December.
Another emphasis from the outset was to maximize independence
from a wholesale agricultural marketplace they experienced as
generally predatory toward family farmers. They feel they have
achieved this independence as a result of: (1) their choice of sheep
as the dairy animal with the most product diversity potential; (2) on-
farm cheese-making that aims for artisan quality dairy products; and
(3) their involvement in building an attractive local farmers market in
order to sell all their products (dairy, meat, yarn, sheepskins, and apple
cider) direct to consumers in retail form. Karl acknowledges that the
The Quality of Farming: Northland Sheep Dairy
by Mary Child
Karl North
JOHNBALL

sale of cheese, lamb, yarn, and tanned skins from a base flock of only
50 ewes barely provides a livable income, and then only because they
enjoy considerable self-sufficiency in food (vegetables, meat, and
dairy), energy (solar, wood heat, and draft horses), and, of course,
fertilizer. He thinks a younger couple could operate the farm with
100 ewes and bring in a net cash income of close to $20,000 without
a great deal more capital investment.
Expanding the Picture
As the Norths’ understanding of Holistic Management grew, their
awareness sharpened of the wholes they felt they needed to take into
consideration in decision-making on the farm. One example Karl gives
concerning this increased understanding was when he read about
managing sheep and apples together as a way to use the diversity
potential of the farm more efficiently.
He happened to have both (sheep and apples), and he looked at
how he could strengthen the community dynamics of the apple
orchard. When growing and marketing organic apples, one must
consider ways to manage the biological life cycle of organisms that
can damage apples. These organisms frequently winter over in
windfall apples and the apple leaves.
Karl knew that a decision to incorporate the sheep into the
orchard would not only build the overall community dynamics on
their farm, but also address the need to break the biological cycle of
organisms that would negatively impact the overall apple harvest. This
decision passed the cause and effect test, addressed the biological
weak link, and when compared to manual removal of windfall apples,
passed the marginal reaction test.
Karl explains that the sheep become a tool to manage apple pests
by cleaning up the windfall and also changing the habitat at ground
level. The trees are spaced far enough apart so the sheep congregate
under the trees for shade. In this way, there is an immediate increase
in manuring and fertilizing of the tree. In time, the soil in the orchard
supports earthworms that will surface and eat the dropped leaves in
the orchard, which also can harbor organisms detrimental to the
apples. The sheep are in turn provided with shade and fed by the
windfalls and the forage in the orchard.
Jane and Karl say their quality of life is excellent. They are free
of much of the cost/price squeeze and resultant debt that they see
destroying family-scale dairy farming, and they enjoy their diversity
of work: milking, processing, marketing, haying and logging (mostly
with the Haflingers), sheep and horse husbandry, composting and
spreading, sheep dog training, gardening, and building and repairing
simple structures and equipment with simple tools. Their work gives
way to semi-vacation when the grass season ends.
Karl and Jane’s farming practices bespeak a passion for the
work they do and further supports their values, philosophy and
the concern they share for future generations. This concern is
evident in Karl’s comments. “The amoral nature of our chosen
economic system is such that it mainly rewards short-term gain,
and considers only local, immediate costs. It allows us to pass on
the heavy ecological and social costs of our economic behavior
to future generations and other remote peoples. In effect, the
ways we have chosen to maximize our present standard of living
constitute a theft from future generations. Few of us would
deny that we love our children, but the way we live and
farm discredits our best intentions, and amounts to an
intergenerational tyranny.”
Niche Marketing as a Short-Term Solution
While there are organizations and agencies and farms working
towards a truly sustainable agriculture, Karl notes there is also a
great deal of
encouragement for
farms to produce
value-added, direct-
marketed, and
exotic products.
Certainly this niche
exploitation
alternative does
offer a breathing
space because it
shelters farmers
from the predatory
market forces
shaping commodity
farming and
provides time to
test, refine, and
slowly propagate
sustainable practices.
But, it fails to
directly address core
issues of ecological
sustainability.
For that reason, he believes that a focus that primarily develops
products for niche markets will fail because
the focus is on marketing. Once the niches become successful enough,
they are
taken over by corporate culture—swallowed up—as is the case right
now with small producers of organic milk throughout the Northeast.
And where does that leave those producers? To explore another
niche market?
Karl notes that the development of niche markets does not
necessarily include addressing what happens to the soil, the
biodiversity, the water, or ecological issues of sustainability, or
of society and culture. It’s about marketing, not about how the
farming gets done. It’s chiefly concerned about making money
on your product.
But Karl sees Holistic Management as a catalyst that can help
people from the isolated subcultures of research, education, outreach,
marketing, and farming begin to see the bigger picture and move
together toward long-term solutions. If they learn together the
practice of Holistic Management™ decision-making, they can go on
to create permanent networks and organizations whose work moves
us toward sustaining our civilization and farming in a manner that
is rewarding to all.
Karl serves as an advisor, member, and is on the board of
directors for numerous sustainable agriculture groups in the
Northeast.
Jane North making top-quality cheeses that
sell for up to $13/lb.

In January of 1985 our liabilities stood at $758,249. We owed $414,999
on our operating loan and $343,250 on the real estate. Behind those
figures lay a lot of pain in human terms and a resource base that was
deteriorating. How could anyone get so deeply in trouble? It was easy.
Flying High
My husband, Claude, and his first wife had started out in 1968 with an
80- to 90-cow ranch in the Black Hills of South Dakota. During the 1970s,
real estate values appreciated dramatically and interest rates were low.
They bought ranches and refinanced them to buy other ranches. By 1974,
they had a 500-cow ranch and were ready to diversify. The nearby town
of Edgemont was expecting five new businesses and the State Planning
Council predicted that the population would grow from 1500 to 5600 by
1983. Claude and his wife invested $310,000 in the purchase and
development of land for residential lots, built an expensive home in
town and opened a construction business.
They were flying high. According to conventional wisdom, they were
doing all the right things. Real estate values were inflating at 10 percent
per year and they were paying for the land on contract using inflated
dollars to do it. Ah, the power of leveraging!
Then came the ‘80s and some very important lessons about paper
dollars and the power of leveraging. One by one, the five new businesses
coming to Edgemont dropped out. The development property was
suddenly all but worthless. Claude and his wife moved back to the ranch
and within months were involved in a divorce. The settlement added a
loss of $225,000 in liquid assets while Claude retained all the liabilities.
The Depths of Despair
When Claude and I married in 1982, the American “Farm Crisis” had
become very real. Land and livestock values plummeted and interest rates
climbed. The honeymoon was all too soon over when both of us had to
start working around the clock to make ends meet. Exhaustion, financial
pressure and the emotional stress of newly blended families were taking
a harsh toll.
Our circumstances began to force change. By 1985, we had come to
accept that we would in all likelihood lose the ranch. Bankruptcy and
debt write-off were not acceptable alternatives because they clashed with
our values. We began to take steps to pay the debt off, knowing that we
would have to start over—perhaps with nothing, working for someone
else or possibly in an entirely different field. We sold 20 percent of the
deeded land that year, transferring 15% of our Forest Service permit with
it. That action alone meant that we could not continue to operate with
the reduction in carrying capacity.
That year the growing season unfolded with severe drought and an
invasion of grasshoppers, and ended with no grass and no winter feed.
Hay was priced in excess of $100 per ton. Claude decided that it made
more sense to take the cattle to the feed and found a Nebraska farm
family who were looking for livestock to winter on their cornstalks.
They took our cattle—and calved them—for $3.60 per head per month
while many of our neighbors spent $30 per head on feed alone during
that tough winter.
The Long Climb Out
For some time, we had read and heard bits and pieces about a
controversial new “grazing system” associated with the name of Allan
Savory. Claude’s brother attended a Holistic Management course in 1985
and taped the entire session on a small cassette recorder. We became
very familiar with Allan’s accent as we played those tapes over and
over, finding much of the information difficult to understand because
we had no visual aids. Although the key insights were just too logical to
dismiss, we struggled with what we now know to be a paradigm shift.
We zeroed in on the lessons on creativity and innovation and
began to build on some ideas that Claude had been considering for
some time. We had land that was valuable, not so much for agricultural
purposes as for its scenic beauty and recreational possibilities We were
opposed to the trend toward “urbanization” of this kind of property
and felt we could not in clear conscience consider selling it for that
purpose, no matter how profitable that might be. An alternative came
to mind. The Forest Service had identified parcels of public land that
were surrounded by private land and were very difficult for them to
administer. Our property was of interest to the Forest Service because
it was a small private parcel surrounded by public land, and not only
was it scenic, it was prime elk habitat. Claude offered to trade 300 acres
of the private land in exchange for two forest parcels, one located
near existing home development areas and another adjacent to a golf
course. An innovative idea, but we hadn’t allowed for the snail’s
pace of bureaucracy. It would take nearly six years for the trade to
be completed.
Our situation couldn’t wait six years. We had made progress with
our debt, but not enough. Our loan application for 1986 was denied.
Frantic juggling of figures bought us one more year and then, in 1987,
the Production Credit Association called our note. In retrospect, it was
the best thing that could have happened.
We attended our first Holistic Management course that fall. The
desperation of our situation made it easy for us to articulate just what
we wanted in our temporary holistic goal. Based on that our next step
was to take the financial planning course a month later.
Allan Savory was teaching the course and most of the people in
attendance were facing situations in many ways similar to our own.
Those of us who found some comfort in blaming others for our strife
got no support there. Allan was almost brutal; he accepted no excuses.
He rejected our insistent and sincere explanations that the banks, the
weather, the markets, and, in our case, the Forest Service, were to blame
for the circumstances we found ourselves in. He told us in no uncertain
terms that if we persisted in blaming someone or something else for
our problem, neither he nor anyone else could help us. ‘If you want
to know who’s responsible for the situation you’re in,’ he said, ‘take a
good hard look in the mirror.’
He made us angry, but by the time we left, he had also made us
take responsibility. Response-ability. Often, we have no control over
unexpected adversity, but we learned that we do have control over
how we respond to it For the first time, we felt that we did have
alternatives. We left feeling excited and empowered by the possibilities
and alternatives there might be. And we were armed with a new
method of assessing and using those alternatives.
We spent days doing gross profit analyses, trying our hand at using
the Holistic Management™ model, and finally hammered out our first
financial plan. Claude hit the streets, going from bank to bank to see if
Adversity & Creativity
By Annette Smith

he could secure a loan. It didn’t take him long to complete the rounds.
Banks weren’t taking ag loan applications. Period. Finally, we found the
banker who has since been a vital part of our success story. He had
never seen a planning effort like the one we presented, and although
the debt-to-asset ratio wasn’t good, he believed in our plan and in us.
Taking Responsibility
The three things we funded first that year as expenses that would
generate new wealth were: 1) training in grazing planning and biological
monitoring; 2) the services of a Holistic Management consultant to help
us review our whole operation; 3) marriage counseling and team building
skills—we had a lot of fences to mend, beginning at home
When we worked on defining the whole, it was difficult to exclude
the Forest Service land where we had grazing permits. It was an integral
part of our operation. Through the years, our relationship with the Forest
Service had deteriorated to the point that they only communicated with
us by certified letter. Frustrated by rules and regulations that often
seemed senseless to us, the government and its employees had served
as a handy place to vent a lot of hostility.
Now, we realized that a collaborative relationship not only with the
range conservationists who administered our permits but also with other
users of public lands, would be vital to our success. We had to accept
responsibility for our role in the poor relationship and try to rectify that
with an honest effort to rebuild trust. We found people more than willing
to meet us halfway.
Collaboration
The people who make up our team now bring a variety of
perspectives to the table: two Forest Service range conservationists,
a District Ranger, a wildlife biologist with the State Game, Fish and
Parks, a range scientist with South Dakota State University, and an
environmentalist and officer of the Isaac Walton League. This spring
we are adding two more team members—a neighboring rancher and our
new employee. The rest of this story is as much theirs as it is ours.
The grazing planning and biological monitoring has became a team
effort. We’ve come to enjoy the same flexibility on the public land with
regard to the number of animals and the season of their use as we have
on private land—as long as we agree as a team and monitor toward our
holistic goal. Yes, our holistic goal.
It took a while before Claude and I were sure we trusted these folks
enough to share something as fundamentally important in our lives as
our holistic goal. When we included them in redefining it, the values
that emerged in the quality of life part of the goal turned out to be
the same for all of us. We were in agreement on what we needed to
produce—for everyone—to address those values, and we shared a
common vision of the future landscape.
Shifting Paradigms
We made some changes in the operation. We quit running yearlings.
The calf market was beginning to rally. Bred cows were still cheap but
the real hole in the market at that time was butcher cows at bargain
basement prices. Many operators were still culling deep, not preg testing,
and sending more cows to town to cut debt. We started buying them.
The open cows (there weren’t many) went to the Nebraska cornfields,
the bred cows went into our herd. We “borrowed” bulls. Claude’s uncle,
a purebred breeder let us use his yearling bulls that hadn’t sold if we
promised to get them into shape after breeding season.
Although we had 15 paddocks, we had always run five herds,
and badly overgrazed plants every year. We put the cattle, including
yearlings and two-year-old heifers into one herd. As long as energy
conversion remained our weak link, we opted for electric fence as
the way to address it. The resulting 38 paddocks gave us tremendous
flexibility in working toward achieving the landscape described in our
goal and very effectively addressed the weak link. In 1990, we made
the decision to stop putting up hay and put our cropland back to
grass. A paradigm shift in itself! In 1991, the land exchange was finally
completed. We sold the acquired land and paid off the real estate
debt and I quit my full time job in town.
Staying on Track
In the last few years, the weak link has been product conversion
and we’ve addressed that by keeping our heifer calves, replacing
those old cows who served us so well. Since income tax is now a
consideration, and we’ve needed to acquire more cattle, we have used
a tax-free exchange to cull old cows from our herd in exchange for
younger bred cows. We addressed product conversion of our timbered
land by harvesting the timber through a local contractor.
Our debt? As of January 1, 1994, we had a balance on our operating
loan of $1 with 2 cents interest due. We’ve doubled our stocking rate
and still have lots of room to increase productivity when energy
conversion again becomes the weak link.
The adversity we faced during the 80’s was the catalyst for change
we needed. It gave us the courage to shrug off peer pressure and to
overcome our fear of change. We made mistakes, and always will, but
the decision-making process has always enabled us to get back on track
quickly. Whenever we’ve been sidetracked it has been because we fell
back into the deeply ingrained habit of making decisions the old way.
They say when a paradigm shifts, everyone goes back to zero. That
has been the toughest part for us—going back to zero—but it has also
proven to be the most rewarding. We approach every day now with a
sense of excitement and the anticipation of discovery. We also continue
to invest in training every year, and just so we don’t forget who’s
responsible for our circumstances, we always keep a mirror handy.
Claude and Annette Smith now ranch in Newcastle,Wyoming.
Combining five herds into one and planning the grazing, enabled
the Smiths to eliminate overgrazing and to grow grass right up to
the water points.

Ifirst heard about Holistic Management when I was studying at
Marcus Oldham College in 1995. A friend there was talking about
the principles of Holistic Management, and I was attracted to the
logic of the entire process: working with nature instead of fighting
it, reducing production costs to increase profitability, creating a
sustainable future. The more I learned, the more I realized that
Holistic Management is so logical it just had to work.
Trouble in Paradise
In 1997, I took over management of our family farm at
Coombing Park, Carcoar, in the central tablelands of New South
Wales, Australia. The property here was once (in the ‘50s and ‘60s)
one of the best-managed properties in New South Wales. They had
the most modern pasture improvement and super phosphate
programs. They were importing genetics from Scotland for the
cattle stud, and the progeny were sought after from all parts of
Australia. They were sure they had discovered the best system for
managing the farm, so they decided it would be best to not make
any changes.
But when I started farming here after my grandfather had passed
on, the property was completely uneconomical. The asset base had
deteriorated to a point where it was incapable of returning financial
gain. The fences were mostly not stock-proof; the dams were
unserviceable (mostly filled with silt); and the pastures were almost
all annual grasses, so we had a drought every season regardless of
the year. As soon as the growing season had passed, the annuals
dried off and there was basically no more growth except for weeds.
Our expenses climbed as we tried to control them.
The animal performance from the sheep and cattle was
appallingly bad. Because of poor water and grasses that had no
nutritional value, cows were licking holes in erosion banks in an
attempt to satisfy their mineral deficiencies. They also suffered
from worms terribly because they were set-stocked in a 30-inch
(750 mm) rainfall.
Astounding Results
But things began to change when Dick and Judy Richardson
(Dick is a Holistic Management™ Certified Educator) from South
Africa came to visit with a mutual friend. Within a month, we
had mobbed 20 mobs of stock into one and had begun Holistic
Management training as a family. Both my parents, Berkeley and
Penny King, and myself attended this training.
The results we achieved were far greater than we ever could
have imagined. To go from unintentionally destroying our ecology
to deliberately and consciously rebuilding it, has been an amazing
experience. Every year over the past four years the results seem
to double on top of themselves.
I started here running 4,200 breeding merino ewes, 1,200
wethers and approximately 500 breeding cows on 6,000 acres.
We have increased the acreage to 10,000 acres (4,000 hectares)
with the purchase of an adjoining farm and are now running
2,500 breeding cows.
We decided to move to straight cattle from predominantly
sheep for many reasons, mainly economical. Sheep were too
expensive to run in this high rainfall area, along with concerns
about fly prevention, hygiene, shearing, foot paring (trimming),
and low commodity price. With cattle we could control the cost
of production much more effectively. We also wanted to make
Turning Around the Family Farm
by George King
The Kings have created a series of
gates and lanes at Coombing Park that
allow for easy cattle movement with
minimal labor. Responding to a
whistle, the herd of 2,500 cattle will
move through the gate within
half an hour.

sure we did the grazing planning effectively, and this
decision was the easiest way to make the
management simple.
One of the things that Holistic Management
has allowed us to do, while dramatically increasing
our stocking rate, is massively increase our biodiversity.
We have many more birds (both in numbers and
species) than we used to. Trees are regenerating again
and are healthy. We also have thicker pastures.
Holistic Management has also helped us control
our cost of production. I constantly remember
Allan Savory’s quote, “profit is a function of cost of
production—not sale price.” With that in mind, I have
reduced the labor on this farm from five hired men
to just myself, and our cost of production is below
40 cents per kilogram of beef. (Previously the cost
of production was substantially greater than the price
we received.)
We are able to do this because we have no
weed control expenses, no erosion control expense,
and no pasture improvement costs. Because of these
changes we have achieved a 13 percent turn around
in our results over the past four years. (We used to
lose nearly 5 percent of equity each year, but now
we have achieved an 8 percent return on our
asset.)
It is very easy for me to openly say that I do not
think we would still be here today given our starting
point had it not been for Holistic Management or some similar
process. I believe it has given us a second chance to be a part of
an industry that continues to evolve.
I think the future of agriculture lies in being able to consistently
supply the market with a safe product because that is what
consumers want. Holistic Management seems to provide the tools
to meet this need while lowering the cost of production for
the producer. At the same time, we regenerate our farmlands through
We used to lose nearly
5 percent of equity
each year, but now
we have achieved
an 8 percent
return on our asset.
These photos, taken from the same area of Coombing Park, show the highly
ineffective water cycle George faced when he began to manage the property.
An improved water cycle (see photo on page 17) has reduced the frequency
and severity of floods and droughts on Coombing Park.
increased biodiversity and lessen the effects of seasonal variations,
which appear as droughts and floods. Likewise, as we become more
profitable both ecologically and environmentally, we bring stability
to our communities.
I believe that agriculture must be a positive experience for both
the producer and the consumer, only then can we turn around the
family farm and rural economies. When we accomplish that objective
then everyone wins because a society is only as sustainable as its
food source.

hen we started practicing Holistic Management, for many
reasons it was very difficult for us to reach a common holistic
goal. The main inhibitor was the age or generation gap between
my parents and myself. Dad and Mum wanted to be easing up a bit
and having more leisure time, more weekends off, days off, etc. I
wanted to have less weekends away, spend less on consumables,
work longer hours, have less staff and lower costs, increase
productivity, have no holidays, and have more money for
production items and capital improvement, etc.
Because we were in such poor financial
shape and poor ecological state, I saw my way
as the only way to ensure/guarantee that we
could succeed. Personally, I think “compromises”
just end up in a lose-lose situation, so I did not
want to go down that path.
Both my parents could understand the
importance of getting the property back on
track, but at their age they did not want to enter
into another battle so to speak. I, however, was
adamant that we achieve a positive outcome. So I became
responsible for that outcome.
This decision was very important because initially we found that
the decision-making team turned into a “committee” with no one
person responsible or accountable for any part of the operation.
With such committee “mentality,” we lacked the commitment to
complete tasks or complete them with a certain level of quality.
So I took the role of team leader for our farm because I was the
one implementing the changes: designing the paddock plans, moving
the stock, monitoring, etc. However I still rely on both my parents
as part of the decision-making team even though it is very clear that
I am the final decision-maker. Ironically, because of this
arrangement, I feel even more relaxed about keeping my parents
informed about what’s happening and what my thoughts are.
From our experience, I feel it is important to have one person
responsible for an operation. Once you are passionate about
something, so much can be achieved in terms of work, negotiations
with suppliers and principle financiers or demands or requirements
on professionals such as accountants.
Passing the Baton
As I look back on the experience of how our family was able to
make this transition of leadership successfully, I have to credit my
father’s willingness to pass the baton to me. I think many parents
assume that their children aren’t ready for the
responsibility and don’t give them the chance to
try. This lack of trust can seriously undermine
the potential for that family’s business.
Many/most fathers want more than anything for
their sons to be successful, but they have spent
their entire life building a business that has
“become their life.” What do they then do when
they hand their life/business to their son? Such
changes can be hard, especially when there isn’t
a plan in place to address those new challenges.
In our case we decided that Mum & Dad would renovate the
main house for a guest house and a Bed & Breakfast, which will
provide them with financial independence from me, and enable
them to pursue something that really interests them. In the
meantime, I get to face the challenge of pushing the grazing
business until it is self-sustaining.
Because my relationship with my parents is one of total trust,
love, and respect we find that we enjoy what we are doing here
with the business and with our personal lives. Such trust helps us
face the challenges that inevitably arise in a way that makes our
relationship grow stronger and our work more successful. I am very
fortunate that my parents were confident enough within themselves
to see the benefits of Holistic Management and the importance of
not allowing past conditioning and paradigms to stand in the way of
our success and our family’s happiness.
—George King
Every Ship Must Have Its Captain
It is important to
have one person
responsible for
an operation.
W

Answers Not
Agendas:
Beyond Environmental Conflict

by Ann Adams
Talking with Tony and Jerrie Tipton is how I would imagine it
would have been talking to a combination of Judge Roy Bean
and Mahatma Gandhi; they don’t mince words, they feel deeply,
and they live their convictions. It is those traits that have inspired many
people to join them in their sometimes quixotic journey into the
idiosyncracies of land reclamation with its cast of thousands.
The enormous task of trying to eke out a living while running
livestock on the public lands has daunted many a rancher, but the
Tiptons have an even bigger focus than that. While they certainly factor
financial health into their decision-making, the task that seems to have
grabbed their attention is how to revive a flourishing landscape from a
dying desert.
Their road has not been an easy one, but there is no doubt that it
has been a rewarding one as they evolved from everyday permittees to
contracted range reclamation specialists. In that journey they learned
that, either way, they would have to involve many parties with vested
interests, and they preferred to take a title that more clearly stated their
passion and offered more opportunities to do the work they wanted to do.
The Tiptons’ latest project, the Marietta/Teal’s Marsh Project will test
the strength of their management team because the project is of even
greater proportion than their earlier work, which means even more
interest groups will be involved. And that’s exciting news for the Tiptons
who know that as the diversity of the team increases, so do their chances
for success.
A Rough Start
The Tiptons used to have their headquarters in Austin, Nevada, at
the Carter Ranch where they had a U.S. Forest Service (USFS) grazing
allotment for summer use. Their winter country was a 250,000-acre
(101,174 hectare) Bureau of Land Management (BLM) allotment in Mina,
Nevada, where the average rainfall is four to six inches (101-152 mm).
To make the most of each allotment, the Tiptons formed management
teams at both locations, but it wasn’t long before they realized they
needed an umbrella organization that could receive funding directly,
rather than monies funneled through government agencies like the BLM.
Enter “Twenty to One.”
Twenty to One is the non-profit the Tiptons formed with other
ranchers, academics, and environmentalists to make use of opportunities
available in land reclamation. The name came from the group’s
confidence in their ability to successfully reclaim land; they’ll give you
20-to-1 odds that they’ll accomplish what they say they will. Because it
is an umbrella organization, other people interested in land reclamation
projects can use Twenty to One to help them secure funding for
appropriate projects.
And while the Tiptons had taken an important step in helping to
create Twenty to One, they were still learning how to deal with
government agencies in Austin. Despite a strong team, good intent, and
a structure that had the potential to create the results everyone wanted,
the Tiptons ran up against an unmovable force: a less than helpful USFS
Forest Supervisor.
The Tiptons’ Austin team had identified the need for a five-mile fence.
The Forest Supervisor had stalled that project for several years resulting
in a direct loss of $60,000 to the Tiptons
in such items as increased labor and a
willful trespass suit. So where’s the good
news in this story?
When the rest of the team understood
the full ramifications of this supervisor’s
choices, they were the ones to confront
their team member (the supervisor), rather
than the more generic scenario of the
wronged permittees standing alone against the impassive bureaucracy.
As a result of their moral indignation the supervisor requested a
transfer. And, as result of the financial pressure that had accrued, the
Tiptons chose to release themselves from the obligation of the Carter
Ranch and focus their efforts on the land near Mina.
The reason I include that piece of the story is not to incite further
outrage at the injustice of bureaucracies, but to illustrate some
important lessons the Tiptons learned: 1) Get to know the managers
in charge of various resources before you become deeply enmeshed
in a project; 2) If you get an answer you don’t like from one official,
be clear whether it’s the manager or the regulations that are prohibitive
(many times it will be the manager); 3) Create a team that can either
put pressure on the official or engage other officials to create the
success desired; and 4) If the project isn’t working create another
one that will.
While the Tiptons may still have some strong feelings about what
happened at Austin, they know dwelling on the past won’t help them
create the future they want. They also realize that such a situation
could have happened anywhere with any bureaucracy. “I don’t feel
sorry for myself that the land I operate on is public land,” says Jerrie.
“People in Texas might think they don’t have to worry about
bureaucracy the same way people in states like Nevada do since so
much of their land is private. But I don’t believe it. Bureaucracies are
everywhere. You have to face those regulations and bureaucrats at one
point or another.”
Reshuffling the Deck
The Tiptons and their Mina team had already achieved impressive
results in the desert around Mina. In one section of this allotment, they
had a yield of about 50 pounds of perennials per acre when they first
started grazing. Three years later they had increased the yield to 150
pounds. During this time the Tiptons had continued to build their
relationship with the BLM as well as attracting other key players from
other groups and establishing other projects.
In the fall of 1996, Twenty to One and the Mina management team
secured a two-year Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant to
feed cattle on the slopes of catchment areas to see what impact it
would have on the springs below. Humdinger Spring had dried up in
the 1940s and the creek only flowed when there was sufficient snow
melt. After only one treatment of animal impact (herd effect),
Humdinger Spring is now flowing at a rate of 48 gallons per minute
in the wet season and 20 during the dry.
Besides securing money from agencies such as the EPA, the Tiptons
The Tiptons—
Guaranteed Land Reclamation Specialists
Jerrie and Tony Tipton

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