#102, In Practice, July/Aug 2005

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RACTICE P a publication of the savory center

July/August 2005 * Number 102

www.holisticmanagement.org

Making Progress Toward Your Holistic Goal—Creating Policy and

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Strategy at Home

by Dick Richardson

H

aving and using a holistic goal is without doubt the secret to success.

One’s holistic goal and the desire to achieve it are the main sources of motivation and creativity to achieve the life one desires.

Constant reference to the holistic goal sustains that positive influence, and use of the holistic goal in decision-making sorts the day-to-day actions into definitive movement towards your holistic goal. It also limits movement off track.

Although you never achieve your holistic goal as such (as personal growth and development keep it evolving and shifting), you still wish to be continually moving in the direction you have set with your holistic goal.

But as most holistic managers have discovered, sustained shift toward the holistic goal is not as simple as it sounds.

After the Beginning Certified Educators and practitioners have found that often the enthusiasm linked with new knowledge and the motivation behind a new holistic goal lead to swift, positive movement, initially. After some time though, there is a tendency for the new Holistic Management practitioners to slip back into their old ways of doing things. This generally results in reduced shift and movement toward their holistic goal and an inevitable drop in enthusiasm for Holistic Management and their own situation. At this low point, people often search for or create habits and recipes by which to manage their wholes. One finds that planning starts to slip, and it is easy to justify why. They

quietly stop talking about Holistic Management, their holistic goal, testing guidelines and even decisions altogether.

Policies & Strategies The best way to make progress toward your holistic goal and have it link easily to your daily actions is through the development of policies, strategies, and procedures, which work as guidelines to decision making. Policy, strategy, structure, staffing, procedures and actions all flow into one another, and their boundaries are thus indistinct.

Policy is, in fact, an idea or broader ruling set up to avoid or address problems. Policy is broadly the “how” things are done. Strategies, on the other hand, are the priorities or “what” in a given timeframe for making ideas or policies become a reality—getting the right things lined up to be in the right place at the right time.

Procedures, planning, putting into practice, monitoring and controlling are all activities that follow strategy and structure (a subset of policy) in implementation to achieve the original intent or idea. All policies can thus be fleshed out to include strategy and tactics, but not visa versa.

All policies and strategies therefore give guidelines for decision making at the crux of implementation.

In essence, policy and strategy provide guidelines for decision making, thought and planning. These guidelines will help dramatically to cut down indecision and research time in planning. continued on page 2

Monitoring and paying attention to the feedback loop is one of the keys to making progress toward your holistic goal. George Whitten (pictured right of Craig Leggett) found that sometimes life requires a break from your comfort zone to find the solution to problems you face. In his article, “In the Mouth of the Tiger” on page 10, George shares how he learned a lot more about himself and Holistic Management.

FEATURE STORIES Making Progress Toward Your Holistic Goal Dick Richardson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Holistic Management in a Nutshell Aspen Edge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Holistic Decision-Making in a Nutshell Aspen Edge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Tailoring Your Holistic Financial Planning Lee Johnson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

LAND & LIVESTOCK Partnering with Oil Companies Ann Adams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

In the Mouth of the Tiger George Whitten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Pasture Walk Health Wayne Burleson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Pasture Walking For Solutions Wayne Burleson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

NEWS & NETWORK On-Going Learning Kelly Pasztor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Savory Center Grapevine . . . . . . . . . . .16 Savory Center Forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Certified Educators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

Savory

The

Making Progress Toward your Holistic Goal continued from page 1

CENTER

AD DEFINITUM FINEM

THE SAVORY CENTER is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization. The Savory Center works to restore the vitality of communities and the natural resources on which they depend by advancing the practice of Holistic Management and coordinating its development worldwide.

FOUNDERS Allan Savory

* Jody Butterfield STAFF

Shannon Horst, Interim Executive Director Kelly Pasztor, Director of Educational Services; Constance Neely, International Training Programs Director Ann Adams, Managing Editor, IN PRACTICE and Director of Publications and Outreach Maryann West, Executive Assistant Donna Torrez, Administrative Assistant

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Ron Chapman, Chair Terry Word, Vice-Chair Jody Butterfield, Secretary Sue Probart, Treasurer Ben Bartlett Clint Josey Jim Parker Judy Richardson Bruce Ward Jose Ramon Villar

ADVISORY COUNCIL Jim Shelton, Chair, Vinita, OK Robert Anderson, Corrales, NM Michael Bowman,Wray, CO Sam Brown, Austin, TX Lee Dueringer, Scottsdale, AZ Gretel Ehrlich, Gaviota, CA Cynthia & Leo Harris, Albuquerque, NM Clint Josey, Dallas, TX Doug McDaniel, Lostine, OR Guillermo Osuna, Coahuila, Mexico Jim Parker, Montrose, CO York Schueller, El Segundo, CA Africa Centre for Holistic Management Private Bag 5950, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe Tel: (263) (11) 404 979; email: hmatanga@mweb.co.zw Huggins Matanga, Director HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE (ISSN: 1098-8157) is published six times a year by The Savory Center, 1010 Tijeras NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102, 505/842-5252, fax: 505/843-7900; email: savorycenter@holisticmanagement.org.; website: www.holisticmanagement.org Copyright © 2005.

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Having clear cut guidelines to decision-making that you know will lead to soundness and, most importantly, towards your holistic goal will certainly simplify life. Minute by minute choices become obvious and do not need indepth thought. Most importantly, this means less stress from facing millions of niggly little decisions that you would otherwise have to apply your mind to throughout the day all adding up to a feeling of “Am I doing the right thing?”

Inevitable Evolution While policy and strategy create larger decision-making guidelines, like the holistic goal they may well evolve over time. All these aspects of decision-making need to be regularly revisited, appraised, and updated where necessary. From a monitoring perspective there are some questions you could ask to ascertain if a policy or strategy is still valuable.

• Do the procedures/actions/guidelines suggested by this policy or strategy lead toward the intended result or purpose and the holistic goal?

• Is this policy/strategy still necessary? Some policies and strategies have a life span, and when the desired outcome has been achieved, they then become redundant and can be scraped.

• Are there any new ideas, thoughts, or actions that could be brought in to replace any of these guidelines or procedures? Any ideas must be tested toward the holistic goal and must lead to the desired outcome of the specific policy or strategy.

• Are there any ambiguities or gray areas left by this policy or strategy that still make decisionmaking difficult or lead to conflict in decisionmaking teams?

Creating Policy and Strategies After creating a holistic goal, work through the following steps: History: To generate creative tension one needs to have a clear idea of where you are and a clear idea of where you wish to be. The discrepancy between the two should drive you to greater heights. To do this we analyze the past to help format thinking for the future.

Fully assess your current situation and your history or how you got here (why, where, what, when, how and what next).

Do a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and trends) analysis of the current

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situation—including links, supporting opportunities and new opportunities.

Management areas: Look at your current decision-making and management and find areas where decisions are often being made—call them management areas. A few examples in family situations would be time management, purchasing, transportation, entertainment, and investment. In ranching situations labor, livestock breeding, safety, supplementation, feeding, and financial are examples. Each of these management areas requires its own policy and strategy to make the holistic goal become a reality.

Determine the intent of each policy: Gather representatives from parties who’ll be affected by this policy to help generate it. Take each management area, like environment or safety, and create a statement of intent for the policy.

Then look carefully that this “intent” would actually lead to the holistic goal rather than away. Many policies and strategies generated traditionally create conflict due the stated intent not leading to what would be the holistic goal for that particular whole.

A very good example is South Africa’s culture policy, which intends to unify South Africans and create a new culture. However, if a generic holistic goal were set for South Africa, it would have to include, in the forms of production, respect and recognition for different cultures and people. It then becomes painfully obvious that these two, the holistic goal and the stated intent of the policy, are mutually exclusive.

State policy: Now create a broad framework of guidelines and structure for each area of management. Avoid detail at this stage, as it will only bog you down. Go through each statement in the holistic goal (statement of purpose where applicable, quality of life, forms of production, and the future resource base) and generate some broad guidelines that would lead toward that statement if it is applicable to that management area. For example, the forms of production statement, “respect and recognition for different cultures and people,” could lead to the general guideline or policy: “all regulations must support different cultures living harmoniously while all practicing and developing their uniqueness in an atmosphere of respect and recognition.”

Recheck that these rough guidelines in the framework will actually lead to the holistic goal.

Test the broad actions they suggest will achieve the desired intent.

Market the policy: In some situations you may now need to take a look at how to market this policy successfully (ie. share with stakeholders).

In other words you need to ensure that you will get the required buy in or support for the policy.

This may well be a bigger step than you imagine, especially when the policy suggests actions that are contrary to conventional thinking. A critical component here is the social weak link test. Be creative and brainstorm options that circumvent, clear up, or avoid human problems. When you have selected the best ones, test each action suggested here and double check for conflict with the intent. For example, using an advertising campaign that belittles one of the cultures would not support the example used above.

Determine procedures: Before going into this step you’d probably need to take a break and allow time for the rough framework to be circulated and discussed publicly or by those affected in a government or big business situation. In families or small businesses, a break for further thinking is good as well. This period also allows for ideas and thoughts around implementation to come up.

You now need to brainstorm, as a team, finer details, ‘how to’ guidelines, procedures, strategies, and tactics for fleshing out the rough framework you created.

If after testing and brainstorming all the options fail, then go back and brainstorm other options. You may need to research other ideas (using the Holistic Management® model in research orientation mode). Such research is obviously a mammoth task and can take a while.

In many situations it also requires lots of time for circulation, allowing for input from a wider audience. Such research is often not necessary for small business and family scenarios.

Marketing of procedures, actions and activities: Once again marketing needs to be considered either step by step as part of other steps or separately now. You are looking for finer detail in your marketing strategy. Test all actions toward the holistic goal and for leading towards the desired outcome as stated in the intent of the policy.

Monitoring: Each action causes a reaction.

What, where, who, when and how are you going to monitor to pickup early warning change so that you can make adjustments as soon as possible to create the desired outcome and move toward your holistic goal.

Control: The policy now needs clear guidelines

(what next) for the completion of the feedback loop. Control and replanning will be necessary from time to time when monitoring shows change away from plan. When this occurs, clear guidelines need to be laid out with contingency plans so that there will be no delay between early warning monitoring and early action to make adjustments to ensure the holistic goal and desired outcome of the intent are achieved.

Vehicle Policy for Braklaagte Farm For example, if we were to look at a vehicle policy for a farm to provide guidelines for the purchase and management of vehicles, we would want a policy in which vehicles are safe, affordable, require low maintenance and can be also be used for recreation.

PRODUCTIVITY PYRAMID

staff at any time.

Marketing the procedures would involve: including people in the financial situation to generate understanding for cost effectiveness and arranging basic training in maintenance, safety, driving, and licenses.

Early warning monitoring would include: logbooks and service books to be assessed by management monthly; diesel tank to be dipped monthly and usage reconciled by management; and quality checks to be arranged for weekly cleaning and maintenance.

The procedure for the ongoing feedback loop for that policy would include: involving the individual who is responsible in the redevelopment of the plan and activity; revisiting the whole policy every year in September; and integrating the financial aspects of the vehicle policy with the financial planning monitoring.

Set the Course DAILY ACTION LIST

TARGETS {Intermediate) OBJECTIVES (Long Range) STRATEGY POLICY HOLISTIC GOAL (Qualify of Life, Forms of Production, Future Resource Base)

The holistic goal influences policy, which influences strategy, and so on up the productivity pyramid, thus creating the necessary alignment for effective management from the big picture to the day-to-day action list.

Our strategy to achieve this policy would be to select vehicles that are cost-effective—fuel miles/gallons and servicing/miles; role effective and flexible—farming, capacity to carry load, firefighting, personal use for recreation; and safe and in good condition. Maintenance policies would be that all vehicles are serviced every 10,000 miles by an official agent to maintain warranty; oil, water, tires to be checked at each refueling; and vehicles to be cleaned weekly.

Use policy would include: effective time management is required to ensure that use of vehicles is cost effective with high marginal reaction; each driver is responsible for maintenance of his vehicle; only licensed drivers are allowed to use vehicles and for farm business only; no private use of vehicles is allowed by

To make progress toward your holistic goal you need good guidelines for decision making and sound policies. These guidelines are best presented in policies and strategies defining what to do and what not to do, or what our family rules of engagement are or what our patterns of production are in our businesses.

Some of these are written policies and others are the unmentioned written and unwritten, and largely misunderstood, policies or strategies of tradition and pattern.

Whatever the situation, a lot of positives will flow from having guidelines at all levels which are written and clear cut, first of all, but, more importantly, sound. In other words, sound policies and strategies give clear guidelines for decision-making that will be socially positive, while generating financial stability and developing ecological health.

Most importantly, thinking through all the management areas and fleshing out the forms of production will focus your mind and actions on making progress toward your holistic goal. This will generate the creative tension and draw you into thinking, scheming, and acting more effectively. The marginal reaction test and the Holistic Management® Financial Planning process will ensure that the right action will take place at the right time as you move forward. All this is a step in the right direction in terms of leadership and management.

Dick Richardson is a Certified Educator from Vryburg, South Africa. He can be reached at: judyrich@cybertrade.co.za or 27-53-927-4367.

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Holistic Management in a Nutshell

by Aspen Edge

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t was during my own Certified Educator training that I came to realize the Holistic Management® decision-making framework was universally applicable, infinitely adaptable, and very simple. However, when I was first faced with the textbook, Holistic Management, I was quite frankly overwhelmed and spent a good part of my two years of study determining what aspects were the principles, what elements were the framework, and what features were the practices. I also wanted to address the comments I sometimes heard about what was, or was not, Holistic Management.

I regard the principles and the framework as the unchangeable components of Holistic Management, but the practices, I believe, evolve to suit the context within which it is being practiced. It seemed important to me that any introduction to Holistic Management should leave out all practices (as they changed), any overt statement of the principles (as they were

potentially contentious), and concentrate on what I perceived to be the framework, which did not change regardless of the context in which it was used.

Simplify, Simplify Although I live in a rural area of Spain, my current market is among individuals and families living in English-speaking urban environments.

As Holistic Management was conceived and developed within natural resource management, the details in The Savory Center’s materials are weighted in that area. Some of that detail (I would say practices) are not relevant to an urban dweller, such as grazing planning.

I also felt the introduction to Holistic Management printed in a special edition of IN PRACTICE contained too much detail for a first time enquirer from an urban background. I wanted to produce a simple introduction that would be accessible to the average man or

woman in the street, to use words with which they were largely familiar, and to get them thinking across the social, economic and environmental board. Although the safeguarding of our environment is essential to our survival as a species, I also wanted to give weight to social and economic processes, which are so inextricably bound up with our use of natural resources.

I realized that when we are familiar with a body of knowledge that it is very easy to descend into detail too soon. During the process of developing holistic decision-making in a nutshell I had to keep clearly in the forefront of my mind the simplest representation of the framework. I had to ask myself what was essential, and what was not, in an introduction to the subject. I wanted people’s response to be “that looks easy!” or “that’s common sense!” I decided to opt for a three-part presentation of the holistic decision-making process:

Holistic Decision-Making in a Nutshell

by Aspen Edge Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from holistic decision-making in a nutshell.

To download the complete text in color go to The Savory Center’s website at www.holisticmanagement.org/nutshell.pdf.

Introduction

Holistic decision making involves the use of a simple framework which enables us to:

the discovery of a final solution. We generally do not include the broader vision that we have for our life, based on our personal values. We often do not consider the wider social, economic and environmental considerations on which our actions will impact. We rarely check to see whether our daily decisions are really contributing to the quality of life for which we would wish. We mostly deal with the symptoms rather than the causes of our life’s concerns.

We are generally driven by our likes and dislikes. We are resistent to change and rarely monitor the impact of our decisions.

However ....

holistic decisions encourage us to be aware of our actions and their impact on the whole of life holistic decisions ensure that we take responsibility and accept accountability for the decisions we make holistic decisions empower us to be part of the ongoing process of change

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whole this represents the interaction of all aspects of life in any identifiable unit or community of relationships ... the smallest being a subatomic particle and the largest being all of life as we know it whole under management this term is used to describe those who will be involved in making the decisions and the area that the decision makers will be managing. It includes a definition of all the social, economic and physical resources that the decision makers can use in managing their whole under management. A whole could be an individual or family home, an office, a department in an organisation, a whole organisation itself, even a government.

Our decisions tend to be focused on the achievement of a single aim and

holistic decisions enable us to create the quality of life to which we aspire whilst ensuring social, economic and environmental sustainability

Before we move into a more detailed description of the holistic decision making framework, below are some of the terms that will be used, together with a brief explanation. decision makers these are all those people involved in making holistic decisions in the area in which they exert influence

Behind every action we take, there is a decision. These decisions affect every aspect of life, often far from the site of the decision, for example, certain aerosol products used in the home contribute to ozone destruction. Every minute of our human history is made up of decisions and actions taken by individuals through to governments. It is these decisions that have brought us to where we stand today ... economic unpredictability, social instability and environmental degradation. We need to challenge the way in which we make decisions.

Glossary

t t t t

create definition to our life through determining direction and who and what will be involved ensure we have taken social, economic and environmental factors into consideration determine what action is to be taken create practices to manage our life and feed our experiences back into the fine tuning of our way forward

testing questions a collection of challenging questions that test whether we have thoroughly considered the social, economic and environmental implications of our decision, and that the proposed action will lead us towards the quality of life outlined in the mutually-agreed holistic direction

• what we needed to produce to create definition to our lives • what aspects needed to be considered to ensure sustainability • what management practices needed to be developed in order to keep us on track I wanted to present this in a visual way as well and so devised the dynamic arrow which also inferred a constant process through definition, considerations and management. I included simple paragraphs highlighting the way in which we usually make decisions, how holistic decision-making was essential and different, and what decision-makers might hope to gain from using the process. I also added new thinking in terms of the testing questions in that I believe that the crucial aspect is that we include social, economic and environmental considerations in our decision-making process, but that the current questions can be expanded to reflect further insights gained. I have given the Nutshell to friends, family and colleagues and have had an overall favorable response.

They have found it easy to read and thought provoking.

Throughout the development of the Nutshell, I referred to the original textbook to ensure that

Aspen Edge with husband, David, and son, Samuel.

I had left nothing of the essence of Holistic Management out of my simplified rendition. I sent the Nutshell, together with my developmental thinking, to Allan Savory to

ensure that I had not corrupted the essentials.

His response was favorable as well, noting one point of concern: “The assets ... are not nearly as important as you might decide, as people often do, to sell or dispose of some as soon as decisions are made holistically. I mention this because I have observed people spending way too much time (and thus losing focus on the essential) trying to list all assets.”

Allan also went on to comment on my desire to differentiate between the principles, the framework and the practices, adding “I really like what you are doing—trying to come up with the essential skeletal structure that is not mutable as you put it—trying to leave out in the first instance those aspects of detail that detract from people first grasping the profound simplicity of the decision-making framework. Your struggle with this is coinciding with my own.”

The Nutshell is now undergoing “trials in the field” to see if it is indeed living up to my expectations of it!

Aspen Edge is a Certified Educator in Granada, Spain. She can be reached at: (0034)958-347-053 or holisticdecisions@hotmail.com.

The Holistic Decision Making Framework in detail Create Definition ensure those who are involved in managing these resources are involved in the decision making process If we are to have a real commitment to any decision, we need to feel that we are an equal partner in the decision making process ... that our concerns will be respected and taken into account, that we will be involved in the final outcome, that we will have responsibility and accountability for the final decision and that we are supported in this process by being part of a team.

define what area and what resources the decision makers will be managing

Considerations to be Taken into Account ensure that we have included social, economic and environmental considerations in our decisions As we are linking our own values with the social, economic and environmental health of the whole of which we are a part, we also need to consider the impact of our potential decisions on those aspects of life.

Before we can set about making decisions and taking action, we need to decide what our whole under management is (an individual or a family) and what social, economic and environmental resources the decision makers can draw on. All the decision makers are involved.

Social considerations would include geographical location, national history, culture, personal history, personal style, relationships, listening, responding, understanding, trust, co-operation and resolution. We need to ask ourselves whether the action we intend taking is going to enhance the health of the social elements of the whole we are managing.

When the decision makers are clear what it is they are managing, then they identify what social resources (people, skills, knowledge, advice, schools, libraries) economic resources (money in the bank, loans, overdrafts) and physical resources (clean air, water, garden, land) they can draw on to manage the whole.

Economic considerations would be the political climate, economic policies, income, expenses, profit, assets, savings, liabilities, resource conversion, product conversion and marketing. We need to ask ourselves whether the action we intend taking is going to enhance the health of the economic elements of the whole we are managing.

create a mutually-agreed holistic direction that reflects all the decision makers values Once we have determined who is to be involved in making the decisions, what whole we are managing and what resources we can use to manage that whole, we need to determine in what direction we need to be moving. If we do not determine where we are going, how will we work out how to get there or whether the actions we take are leading us in the right direction?

This involves the creation of a statement of the value-led quality of life to which the decision makers aspire, what needs to be done to create that quality of life and what the future needs to look like to sustain that quality of life. The holistic statement of direction includes social, economic and environmental values and represents a mutually-agreed focus for our personal lives.

Environmental considerations would concern the likely impact of our decisions upon the healthy functioning of our planet’s key natural processes as determined through the soil’s ability to cycle water and nutrients, sustain diversity of species and generate plant life to cover bare ground. We need to ask ourselves whether the action we intend taking is going to enhance the health of the environmental elements of the whole we are managing.

conduct a final testing process to ensure we have left nothing out of our considerations In order to ensure that these considerations have been taken into account and that any intended action reflects the values outlined in our holistic direction, we run our decisions through a final process using the following testing questions which ensure that we are:

t t t t t t t t t

addressing the root cause of any problem rather than a symptom focusing our attention on the area which is slowing progress towards our holistic direction considering all the possible options available to us making the decision that is going to provide the best overall return of all the options available obtaining resources from sound sources using those resources in sound ways acting at the best possible time ensuring that any action taken will be sustainable satisfied that the action we propose taking also sits well with our feeling or intuition about the matter

These questions are always applied within a social, economic and environmental context. As you develop your own experience you may want to add other testing questions of your own.

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Tailoring Your Holistic Financial Planning

by Lee Johnson

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hate tracking receipts, balancing columns, etc. The structures that I had come up with to support my holistic financial planning contained far too much of these activities for it to be workable for me. So I went back to a few of the basic principles for holistic financial planning and also looked at my quality of life statements in my holistic goal. In my quality of life statement I wrote: I am financially independent, and I experience freedom and power in the arena of money.

Well I can’t say that I am financially independent yet, but I can say that I am experiencing much greater freedom and power in the arena of money. Tracking receipts, etc. was not working or leading to that quality of life.

Money Management I guess I let go of “doing it right” and asked myself “Is this empowering me and leading toward my holistic goal?” And I looked for the principles in holistic financial planning that I wanted to incorporate into my money management system. I love the principle of not letting your expenses rise to meet your income, as well as the planning your profit and taking that out first, but I needed a money management system that would work for me.

The other thing that made a big difference for me was experimenting with various structures to find what works for this quirky personality of mine. So here’s a glimpse of what the system looks like at present. I have gone to a cash system. I get my check from work and go to the bank. I deposit money into my savings accounts—I now have four that support the various arenas of my life for which I am saving. I have a loan payment savings account, one for a vacation, etc.

(I was a little embarrassed to open up so many accounts—but I got past that and put the bank to work for me. Just like in their commercials!)

Then I put money in my checking account to cover my automatic withdrawals for certain bills, plus a little extra. (I planned all this out in advance using the basic format of holistic

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financial planning.) I then get an exact amount in cash. (I have it all broken down into how many $50s I need and how many $20s.) I then take that home and put it into separate pouches that are part of my Daytimer/Palm Pilot set up—it’s like a wallet in my Daytimer if you will.

I have a pouch for groceries. I put $50 a week in there for that. I don’t keep receipts and when the money is gone, I eat what I have until I get paid again. Sometimes at the end of a month I have money left. Sometimes I run out and hope to get invited to dinner somewhere, and sometimes it’s just right. But the thing I like about this is that I don’t have to track anything!! (I also know how much I have to spend on groceries at Lee Johnson played with any point in the principles of holistic time). Believe financial planning to create it or not, for a financial practice that me, it’s less works for him. stressful to run out of food or cut it close at the end of the month than it is to try and keep track of receipts, balance columns, and try to figure out how much money I have left in the third week of the month for groceries.

I have a pouch for education and one for play. I like that one! I used to feel guilty for going to a movie or buying a book when I still had some debt. I had to justify it to myself.

Now, if I have money for education and want a book, I enjoy buying it and reading it. And, I don’t keep track of the receipt. I have a pouch for dining out. I have a pouch I keep in a safe place at home that I call my “contingency” pouch. I put $200 a month in there (that’s what I can afford after I pay down my debt.). This money I save for emergencies, like car trouble and unexpected breakdowns. Now

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this pouch is a little like a savings account/emergency funding.

I like this pouch because of the way it is structured/labeled. I don’t feel bad about using it for emergencies and such. If I had that money in a “savings” and had to use it, then that would “feel” different taking it out and using it. It is like a savings account in that I am saving it and have specific uses for it. When it reaches a certain level—beyond what I think I need for emergencies—then I’ll stop putting money into this pouch and begin putting that money into debt reduction.

What Works for You The main point I want to communicate is that I think it’s great to experiment with the principles of holistic financial planning and different support or money management structures if what you are currently doing isn’t working for you. The best system in the world— if you don’t use it—or it doesn’t work for you for some reason—is possibly not the best system in the world—for you.

I sooooo enjoy my system now. I feel much more freedom and power in relation to my money—and I’m paying down debt—and saving for other arenas of my holistic goal. When I was trying to keep track of how much money I had spent, and I got to the grocery store and couldn’t figure out what I had left to spend and then had to keep the receipt and track that, I failed miserably in that approach. That system may have worked really well for someone else.

It just demanded something of me that I was unwilling to provide.

I expect my system may evolve some more over time, but for now I am feeling empowered by it. I can’t encourage enough the experimentation and continued efforts to find/develop/tailor your financial management to fit you and your holistic goal and your quirks.

Lee Johnson is currently a trainee in The Savory Center’s Certified Educator Training Program and lives in Lenox, Massachusetts. He can be reached at: 413/298-3069 or leebone007@yahoo.com.

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Devil’s Spring Ranch—Partnering with Oil Companies

by Ann Adams

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n 1998 Don and Jane Schreiber were preparing for retirement (Don from insurance and Jane from teaching) in Farmington, New Mexico where they built their retirement home complete with horse corrals, fishing pond, and airstrip. They planned to become more involved in politics, travel, and volunteer work.

But one fateful day in late fall, Don went out with an insurance customer to his new ranch, The Devil’s Spring Ranch, and found out the man needed someone to manage the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) grazing lease.

Don agreed to take it on before even checking with Jane, or really even thinking about the decision since he had never ranched before. Upon hearing of Don’s decision, Jane was willing to cooperate, knowing that horses would be part of the deal. Thus began the Schreibers’ odyssey into ranching.

Schreibers worked with BLM Range Conservationist Ray Sanchez to negotiate a Special Use Permit so they could graze 23 AUM for four months.

While some people might say, “What’s the point of all that work for so few animals,” the Schreibers were gripped with a passion to improve the land under their care, especially after seeing the possibilities of reclamation in studying their Holistic Management materials. In fact, after writing their holistic goal in April and working on the land into the summer, they were so excited about ranching that they bought Devil’s Spring Ranch in August 1999 when the owner decided to sell.

Decay & Degradation

Part of the Schreibers’ enthusiasm for their work came from their holistic goal and recognizing how their ranching was meeting their desire to be involved in social programs that helped others, work that allowed them to be part of a solution. The Schreibers’ ranch is in the 4.6 million-acre (1.8 million-ha) San Juan Basin, located in the Four Corners region of Emergency Research the U.S., one of the richest deposits of natural The BLM lease was set to begin in gas in the country. Currently there are 19,000 Don Schreiber had quite a schooling in learning how to April 1999. The Schreibers knew they had wells in the New Mexico part of the San Juan run cattle in canyon country when he took over a to do a lot of learning quickly to prepare Basin. In 2003, the BLM analyzed the impact of Bureau of Land Management allotment lease. Holistic for that event. So in the winter of 1999 10,000 additional wells over the next 20 years, Management helped him make the transistion. they set out for a local stock show and and 700 wells were approved in 2004. Each ran into Certified Educator Cindy Dvergsten. She told them about Holistic well sits on an approximately 3-acre (1.2-ha) site, and about 20,000 miles Management, and they began their home course study as soon as they (32,000 km) of roads and pipelines connect those wells. returned home and ordered all The Savory Center’s educational materials In the 1940s, when El Paso Natural Gas first started developing the San

by Federal Express.

Juan Basin, they created community camps throughout the fields. These The Schreibers didn’t stop there. They next called Certified Educator Jim “towns,” with permanent housing, trees, streets, and fenced yards supported Howell to get some help with their grazing plan. Through a series of emails, 30-50 families and provided an interface with the existing ranching and rural Jim gave them some pointers on how to determine stocking rate and recovery communities. As El Paso sold their interest to other companies, these camps periods. Their allotment was less than 3,000 acres (1,200 ha), and the ranch were abandoned and people had to relocate to cities like Farmington and itself was 465 acres (186 ha) with an average of 10-inch (250-mm) rainfall. commute to their work for these oil companies. Ranching had already been However, more of the land was vertical than an approximation of horizontal reduced as a source of employment as land degradation worsened with with many canyons and mesas. The allotment allowed for 7 animal unit continuous grazing practices. Likewise, the well pads and roads were an months (AUM). Realizing that they needed to increase the stock density, the continued on page 8

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Devil’s Spring Ranch

continued from page 7

ongoing source of erosion since 99 percent of the roads were below grade and effectively developed into arroyos that increased the volume and speed of water leaving the land.

The Weed Lady The Schreibers began to see a way of improving the land and the ability to make a living from it as their new vocation. The first volunteer to help them in their efforts was knapweed. Some pads were covered with it, and the oil company’s (Burlington Resources) approach was to blade the site and spray herbicides.

This approach wasn’t working, and since Devil’s Spring was downhill from most of the knapweed locations, they stood a good chance of getting more seed head and lots of erosion. So Jane took on Burlington Resources insisting that they needed to improve their response to the weed problem they were exacerbating from their actions. Jane became known to the workers sent out to respond to the complaints as “the noxious weed lady.”

She wasn’t sure if noxious referred to the weeds or to her.

Burlington Resources’ response to Jane’s persistent efforts to hold Burlington accountable was to hire her to monitor the knapweed and get her licensed so she could spot spray it. The Schreibers knew this was an interim step that would help reduce the erosion because with this solution only the knapweed was being killed instead of a whole site being leveled with more erosion to follow. This opportunity to work with Burlington also gave them more potential for engaging with Burlington for a positive relationship.

A Common Language The chance of that new relationship came in 2002. Don came to The Savory Center to visit with Executive Director Shannon Horst and Project Manager Craig Leggett to see about the possibility of applying with The Savory Center for an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Water Quality grant that would focus on using livestock as a means for rehabilitating the well locations. The emphasis of this grant was that while federal reclamation policy requires that certain reclamation activities be undertaken by oil and gas producers, it does not require that a reclaimed state be achieved.

The Schreibers’ project was to actually achieve a reclaimed state and reduce sediment in the Encierro Canyon drainage that fed into the San Juan River. The project was ambitious, yet BLM and Burlington Resources put their name to the project. When the EPA didn’t fund the proposal, Don approached Steve Henke, Manager of the Farmington District BLM, about helping the Schreibers team up with Burlington Resources and the BLM and finding resources to fund a pilot project of a similar nature. Through that funding, Burlington would be relieved of their regular reclamation work for those well locations.

At first Burlington wasn’t too excited because the reclamation work would cost significantly more from their typical scrape and spray treatment that cost them only $150 per location. But John Zent, General Manager, Compliance, for Burlington, who had been involved in the EPA proposal, was willing to listen when Henke called, and Zent got the go ahead for Burlington’s participation in the pilot project.

The common language among all parties was that the work on these well locations must be a holistic rehabilitation utilizing a Holistic Management approach with holistic planned grazing. In the fall of 2003,

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Burlington agreed to fund the reclamation of six new wells and six old wells. Burlington would pay for fencing, time, and materials, and the BLM would supervise the process to insure that the impact of the stocking rate, type of feed, fencing, duration and timing of grazing would be confined to the specified well locations.

The idea was to fence the two-acre (.8-ha) area around the one-acre (.4-ha) location Jane Schreiber (aka The Noxious where the well actually was.

Weed Lady) has worked extensively The fencing would be done in with Burlington Resources to reduce such a manner that workers the erosion caused from oil roads. easily had access to the well.

The Schreibers would fence the exclosure with woven wire and then fence the enclosure with barbed wire.

They would then run 30 head of cattle for two weeks on the enclosure, feeding them a ton of feed hay a day. The Schreibers also could delegate to Burlington the clean up of the pads which were often littered with broken concrete pads, spools of wire, abandoned equipment, and unlined pits. Lastly, Burlington would improve the roads by building them up above grade to make the site accessible for feed and water trucks and to reduce erosion.

In the process of negotiating this project, the Schreibers also approached the pipeline company, Williams Field Service, to see how they could mitigate the effect of pipeline laying and maintenance. Again, with BLM help, they convinced Williams to reduce pipeline disturbance from the 40 feet (12 meters) they are allowed, to the 12 feet (3.6 meters) that was really needed. They reduced the negative impact on the land by operating their machinery from the road bed rather than on the pipeline easement, and they placed slash in arroyos to reduce erosion rather than chipping it and spreading it on the ground. In return, the Schreibers took on the reclamation liability for the next five years and will use their livestock for reclamation work along the pipeline easements as well.

While the BLM has not completed the first round of monitoring , the Schreibers have already noticed improvement in the well locations they have worked including a reduction of rank vegetation, a dramatic increase in litter, an increase in new grass seedlings and four-wing saltbush, and a rounding of steep drop offs on the pad. Likewise, the project has given them opportunity to collaborate with their neighbor, Joe Sanchez. With his extensive knowledge of ranching and willingness to help, Mr. Sanchez has become an invaluable member of the team and a friend.

In Don and Jane’s holistic goal, the Schreibers write: We want “to be engaged in environmentally redeeming actions… to know that we are indeed making the world a better place for all children… to daily aspire to the Navajo state of ‘horzo’—‘… a blend of being in harmony with the environment, at peace with one’s circumstances, content with the day, free from anxieties.” As Don and Jane use their human creativity to collaborate with the BLM and Burlington Resources to create the results they can all feel proud of, they must surely feel like they are moving toward the quality of life they desire.

Don and Jane Schreiber can be reached at: 505/320-0032 or dons@gobrainstorm.net.

In the Mouth of the Tiger—

Practicing Holistic Management on the Edge

by George Whitten Editor’s Note: The following article explains how George Whitten became involved in collaborating with The Savory Center on a revegetation contract for the New Mexico State Land Office, using animal impact as the key revegetation tool, on an area of state land that had been heavily disturbed as a proving ground by the military. The Savory Center is extremely appreciative of all George’s work and his enthusiasm and passion to learn.

guts and in my blood. That is why coming to La Semilla was the perfect thing for me to do, even though I didn’t know it at the time.

The spring of 2003 I knew it was time to replan, and so I went to the only place I felt might help us move toward our holistic goal: The Savory Center. This is where I feel most grounded. I hoped that perhaps I could further educate myself and develop opportunities that would enable me to continue working on the land. And as it turned out, I could take my cows to school with me—quite the field trip. his article is about our journey from the San Luis Valley of My initial visit was to explore the options for training, but my interest Colorado to La Semilla, New Mexico and back, and back again. was really piqued when Shannon Horst mentioned she had just leased It’s about paying attention and patience 12,000 acres (4,800 ha) of land right next to Albuquerque and did I know It’s a journey through collaboration, anyone who had some cows? “Uh, heartache, and joy, of new discovery and let’s see…” re-discovery. It’s about practicing Holistic La Semilla (The Seed) and Mesa Management in the mouth of the tiger and Del Sol (Island in the Sun) are learning what can happen when people separated only by ownership. They plan to do something and monitor their are situated just south of progress, control their actions accordingly, Albuquerque, New Mexico, east of and replan.

Kirtland Air Force Base, and north From the collaborations that evolved of the Isleta Pueblo. It is piece of during this journey have come the kind of ground that has attracted dreamers friendships that last a lifetime, connections for many hundreds of years, not with people and organizations that will so much by its beauty, but by its take us all farther than we ever dreamed location. It is middle ground, land Using hay to create high stock density and herd effect, George we might go. For me, it is the between mountains and river. The Whitten was able to kick start some biological activity on the manifestation of a string of dreams kind of place you wind up when revegetation site. In Transect #2, soil cover was increased by beginning almost as far back as I can you are on the way somewhere almost 400 percent in a two-year period. remember. and never quite make it. It is composed of sand and clay, sage and grass, gentle slope and dry playa (lake Desperation to Opportunity beds), with water a scarce commodity. It is the sort of place that on first Imagine picking up your entire cattle herd and taking it to a place inspection people tend to forget as they pass. It also will seep into your where you’re dependent on a government agency, a large developer, and a bones if you stay a little while. busy non-profit. Position yourself next to an international airport, an active Of Bombs and Turtles military proving ground, and an Indian reservation. Oh, and by the way, don’t forget—on the other side of the fence are approximately 500,000 On my first trip across the flat land and down to the revegetation site I people. Add the worst drought in several hundred years, the lowest cattle have to tell you I had some doubts. Like home, it had not rained or snowed prices in a long time, and you’ve got the makings for a good ole’ time. on this piece of land in years. Craig Leggett, who was project manager with When you add two negatives you get a positive, and sometimes when The Savory Center, took me down, and we chatted as we drove along the you add lots of negatives you really get a big positive. That is how I would two-track road. It leads, like an arrow, to the old windmill that is the describe this journey. headstone of the McCormick Ranch, the historic site of earlier dreamers The drought of 2000-2001 was devastating for us. We had managed to who were here from the early 1900s through the 1940s. We stopped and get by on the strength of our land for the dry years prior to that time, but looked at the plants, some of which I didn’t know, and discussed the when we went from less than five inches (125 mm) of precipitation for the drought. year, to half that, the handwriting was on the wall; something drastic Craig then took me down to the revegetation site, where the cattle were needed to be done. I look back on that time as the point when things to be fed. It was a piece of land that Kirtland Air Force Base had used for started to get better. testing through the 1960s and 1970s. As a dust devil danced through bomb I am a rancher, a man of the land, a sheep camp kid. That is all I really craters and down roads to nowhere, I noticed an odd formation of fourknow how to do. I can busy myself with peripheral things like accounting wing saltbush, lined up like soldiers, stretching off into the distance. This and computer literacy, but in my core it comes back to the land. It’s in my pattern was the result of the mechanical revegetation done some years

T

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We arrived in June with about 120 cow/calf pairs and started to graze back. Four-wing was the only thing that established on these heavily near the corral where water was reliable. Craig and Lee Johnson, an intern disturbed soils at that time. with the Center, had done an enormous amount of work on the corrals and The pounding rotors of military helicopters, practicing for desert missions water tanks, so we had a chance to make it work without too much risk. in Iraq, made conversation impossible as heat waves rose from bare capped They had also purchased a used water truck that could soil. The shock of hold 2,000 gallons (7,600 liters) for a backup water supply. the first explosion We spent the next week running 1.25-inch (31.25 mm) came as a surprise black plastic pipe for two and a half miles (4 km) to the to me, but Craig, revegetation site, hooking up a tank we moved to the site, now used to such and building an electric fence around the whole thing to activity, just control the cattle once they got there. Everything was chuckled and said “Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about the bomb testing they do every day.”

Things looked better back home.

There wasn’t much to work with on the revegetation We hopped site monitored in Transect #2, although it had been back into Craig’s “revegetated” once conventionally years ago. Baseline truck and headed monitoring began in September 2003 (top left), and west off of the La subsequent monitoring and photo point in April 2004 Semilla land on to (right), and March 2005 (far right) demonstrated the adjoining land increased land productivity and health. called Mesa del Sol. As the land rose gently toward the ridge that breaks down to the river, I began to get more interested. In a short time we broke out onto a sea of gamma and galleta and sandropseed that had not seen a cow in several years. The Isleta reservation lands, just across the fence to the south, were denuded of grass, and the sage was grazed down to about six inches (150 mm) high. On the Mesa del Sol side, the plants had two years of old growth; and while they were sparse, they looked good to me. They certainly needed grazing to remove some of the old material.

Craig suddenly stopped and jumped out and walked to the front of the truck. I got out to look, and there in the track was a box turtle walking at its own pace toward the west. I looked at its tracks and followed them back to the wheel of the truck. Good thing Craig was paying more attention than I was. He carefully picked the little fellow up and placed him to the side.

“By the way, we are responsible for the wildlife out here too,” he said. I was getting hooked by now.

We drove for several more miles and came to an old set of corrals. “This is where the well is, and we might use these as a temporary facility,” he said. The last people here were not stewards in any way. There was not one fence that was up. Years of broken ropes, whips and bad tempers had taken their toll. It was pretty bleak, but something about that turtle and those grass plants had begun to seep into my soul. This place, like us, needed a chance. I said, ok, we should sit down and talk.

Water Challenges The job, as it turned out, was fairly simple: Get the land ready for rain.

We would use the cattle to break up the capped soil as we fed them, create litter, fence behind them in such a way as to allow the land to recover, and hope for rain. We did transects on three sites inside the revegetation area and one outside in the “untreated” land. Land Renewal Inc., a subsidiary of The Savory Center, contracted with the New Mexico State Land Office, who funded the project, and we began.

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ready; we had covered every detail. We’d thought of everything. Easy as pie.

We moved the cattle onto the site.

When I stuck my hand into the water tank, I almost scalded it. The cattle couldn’t drink this water—it came down the black plastic line in 107 degree F (42 C) temperature. During the trek, the water heated up to 145 F (63 C) and came into the tank at that temperature. Time to replan. I started thinking about my meadow back home again.

Then we realized we had a possible solution—the water truck was painted white. We put the water line into the truck and attached a float to it. We then attached another water line from the water truck to the tank.

By next morning we had 2000 gallons of cool water that came into the truck overnight and by midday the cattle were happily drinking. They just needed to learn to take tea in the afternoon as Allan Savory said.

Do No Harm The feeding process was fairly simple. Lee, Craig, my wife, Julie, and I fed approximately 28 lbs (12.5 kg) per head of a mix of 75 percent oat hay and 25 percent alfalfa per day on the bare capped soil. This created a stock density of around 245 animals per acre (98/ha) for two to three hours. Each day we moved the portable fence toward the water tank, fencing off the recently treated ground. This worked well with a minimal amount of extra labor, and achieved our goal of breaking the capping and adding biomass (i.e. hay, dung, urine and heavy litter). It also prevented excessive trampling, which causes compaction.

We once again hoped we had everything figured out. There were, however, two forces at work here, which we hadn’t considered at the outset—one was biological; the other was logistical. First, the herd was growing in mass as the calves were gaining weight every day. Secondly, the “untreated” area in which the herd could roam was shrinking. This caused a buildup of manure that they could not leave behind, as they normally would do. We were, in essence, creating a feedlot. We began to notice quite

a few horn flies on the cattle. One morning when we arrived to feed, they were so thick on the truck that I had to turn on the windshield wipers to see where we were going! Time to replan.

As the owner of the cattle, I just wanted to kill the flies (even though I knew better), and Craig and I sat down and began to research options. We contacted the etymology lab in Durango, Colorado to see about a biological control for the fly larvae. They had the answer in an imported wasp that would attack the larvae and in a few days the problem would be solved.

The only problem was the wasp also killed many dung beetle larvae.

The next option was to abandon the feeding process and move the cattle out to open range where they could outwalk the fly larvae before they

contact and not transfer into the dung beetle and other insect populations, and we decided to give it a try. We placed six panels around the water tank with two three-foot (one-meter) openings so the cattle would have to brush under the bags both going in and coming out of the water tank. The dust controlled the flies in several days, and we were back on track.

We finished this first phase of the revegetation project in October 2003.

We shipped the steers to the sale from the site, and they weighed a little over 500 lbs (225 kg)—just about right for these cattle. We preg checked in November and came up with a 97 percent conception rate.

The second phase of the project was a repeat of the first phase, running this time in the winter months for six weeks from the beginning of February through March 2004. Lee Johnson handled this part of the project quite ably with humor and hard work, assisted by Shannon Horst and Kelly Pasztor. The cattle came back home to Colorado April 1, 2004 to calve and spend the summer on the range in the mountains.

The Journey Continues

hatched. That meant abandoning the project until winter. We thought we should further research chemicals before we abandoned the entire project.

Finally, we found a chemical dust bag product that would kill the flies on

We did transects in June of 2004 after about one and one half inches (37.5 mm) of rain, and the results were very encouraging as you can see from the accompanying tables selected from our monitoring data. The site was rested through the growing season, and the cattle returned to Mesa Del Sol in December of 2004. We redid the transects in March of 2005. In conferring with Shaun Knox, the biologist with the State Land Office, we decided to retreat the area in early March due to the possibility of disturbing ground nesting birds later in the season.

We began retreating the site by feeding 3 lb (1.35 kg) of alfalfa per head per day on the recent capping and using the forage on site as the major continued on page 12

Selected Monitoring Data for La Semilla Transects

T

he following tables offer some insight into the land’s response to the revegatation treatment at La Semilla. Transects #1 and #2 were previously heavily disturbed sites on which the cattle were fed in the proportions mentioned in the article. Transect #3 was a previously undisturbed site, but in which George laid down no feed and the plants were subjected to continuous grazing and heavy impact. Transect #4 was the control area on which there was very light grazing.

The 2005 monitoring was done earlier in the year than the other monitoring because a report was due to the New Mexico State Land Office. For that reason, some of the results may have been skewed due to plants and bugs still in dormancy.

Likewise, in Transect #3 the perennial plant spacing grew because prior to the treatment most of the perennials (black gamma) were dead and dying. After the treatment, they became litter so more ground was covered with litter but the living perennials were all that remained making the perennial spacing further apart. The plant transition in the monitoring showed the transition from a higher percentage decadent and dying to more normal age ratio.

Overall, George found the land’s response amazing as he watched the evolution. Of particular interest to him was noting that all dung had been incorporated in the soil by insects and microbes, evidence that the mineral cycle was functioning more effectively.

Transect

Bare Ground % 2003 2004 2005

Transect

Signs of Insect 2003 2004 2005

Transect #1

75

73

40

Transect #1

27

88

8

Transect #2

87

76

48

Transect #2

0

33

0

Transect #3

61

75

64

Transect #3

13

37

0

52

Transect #4 control

5

NA

10

Transect #4 control

63

NA

Transect Transect

Distance to nearest perennial (in)

Covered Soil Percentage 2005 2004 2003

2003

2004

2005

Transect #1

18

20

20

Transect #1

17.56

Transect #2

11

23

40

Transect #2

79

Transect #3

24

23

64

Transect #3

2.7

4

5.1

Transect #4 control

34

NA

42

Transect #4 control

2.4

NA

3.2

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7.6 56

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In the Mouth of the Tiger

continued from page 11

feed source. This treatment only lasted 12 days, and the cattle were moved on to Mesa Del Sol where they will calve and go back to Colorado in June. I examined the site again in mid April 2005 and determined that due to wet soil conditions during the last treatment, we had a thick cap and had actually hardened some of the soils in the process.

We have learned that when it is wet it is better to feed on the land that has not been severely disturbed. Areas where substrata clays have been incorporated are prone to this heavy capping if trampled in wet condition.

From similar work with my land in Colorado over a period of years, I am also learning that adding litter and biomass to the soil makes a muchimproved habitat for seedlings and insects. But this isn’t all there is to it.

Heavy clay soils have a high potential for severe recapping which results in insufficient biological activity to facilitate rapid decomposition of the biomass within three years. We intend to learn more about this phenomenon and how to deal with it in the next phase of our journey. I would like to try some compost teas or something along that line.

The Savory Center and Shannon Horst have been our mentors and support throughout the project. We all learned a lot about Holistic Management and ourselves along the way.

The data that we gathered over the last three years will be our guide into the future. It tells us many things about our past management and what to do next. The process is ongoing, and the land will not heal long term with a one shot approach. The New Mexico State Land Office has shown a great deal of support through their cooperation, commitment, and dedicated staff: Dana Vacker Strang, Environmental Specialist Field Operations; David Eck,

Pasture Walk Health

by Wayne Burleson Editor’s Note: Certified Educator Wayne Burleson is known for his “pasture walking” workshops. He has graciously agreed to share the educational materials he has used to help people see the results of management practices and to explore possible causes of what they see on the ground. Wayne makes monitoring quick and easy so more people will monitor their management results.

Pasture Walk Health Guide Instructions: 1) Walk areas. 2) Determine which phases are occurring; mark problem & healthy areas, and determine causes. 3) Fine-tune or change management. Optional: Dig or cut plants to help make comparisons of phases. Establish re-locateable close-up photos of plants & soil and distant photo points. Complete Pasture Walking for Solutions questions.

Wayne Burleson lives in Absarokee, Montana and can be reached at: 406/328-6808 or www.PastureManagement.com

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State Archeologist; and Shaun Knox, Biologist. They are even working with us to help us obtain organic certification for the area.

We’ve also begun involving the local community in this most recent phase of the project, working with local volunteers, Charlie Jacobi, Robert Kaiser, and Jerry Ragel, on site. Likewise we have involved our interns in this project including Nathaniel Holmes, our graduate student intern from the Audubon Expedition Institute at Lesley University’s Masters in Science in Environmental Education program, for which Julie teaches, and Jason Schmidt, an intern with the Mennonite Volunteer Service. Phil Kiep, an intern from Yale University will be joining us this summer, and we have a waiting list of interns from a number of different colleges. We’d love to take on more of these folks, but currently are limited in our ability to house them either in New Mexico or Colorado.

Sometimes it seems futile to try and save a few box turtles or give some grass seedlings a chance when there are bombs going off and helicopters practicing for war above us, or the sound of the interstate highway screaming with traffic and knowing bulldozers are waiting to develop some of this land, but that is what practicing in the mouth of the tiger is about.

The tiger’s mouth is hardship, challenge, and the fact that things aren’t perfect. Practicing means staying true to your values; it is applying yourself with good will, insight, humor and a willingness to be wrong and to learn.

Practicing in the tiger’s mouth is contemplation and action, reflection and response. It is a journey; it is collaboration; it is about succession. We are committed to those things and this forgotten piece of land.

George Whitten ranches in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado when he’s not cavorting with his cattle outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico. He and his wife, Julie, can be reached at: 719/655-2003 or moovcows@amigo.net.

PHASE I = Stressed

PHASE II = Healthy

PHASE III = Idle

Plant Appearance Very short flattened-out look Yellow or light green leaves Narrow shorter leaves Thin shorter stems

Plant Appearance Very tall lush looking Dark green leaves Healthy wide thick leaves Vertical leaf growth

Plant Appearance Shorter, stemmy, old looking Light green and gray leaves Narrow and/or wide leaves Standard or thin stems

Litter: No standing litter Very little amounts of litter on the soil surface

Litter: High amount of litter left Litter cycling into the soils High organic matter in soils

Litter: Old gray-colored litter standing or matted Litter oxidizing into the air

Soil appearance: Soils low in organic matter Poor mineral cycle

Soil appearance: Soils high in organic matter Very good mineral cycle

Plant Production: Short, weak and dying plants Low production Low quantity of forage High quality of forage

Plant Production: Healthy plants High production High quantity of forage High quality of forage

Soil appearance: Soils low/high organic matter Soils capped Poor mineral cycle

Causes: Too many disturbances (selective & repetitive) Overgrazing of plants Lacks adequate rest periods Destructive grazing

Causes: Regenerative disturbances healthy grazing managment Adequate full rest/recovery Regenerative grazing

Results: Losing resources Lowering profits

July / August 2005

Results: Regenerating resources Higher profits

Plant Production: Old aged and dying plants High & low production High quantity of forage Low quality of forage Causes: No disturbances occurring No grazing occurring Too much rest Lacks grazing Results: Losing or wasting resources No profits

Pasture Walking for Solutions

by Wayne Burleson 2nd. Write out what you want this land to look like long-range.

1st. Determine the most important purpose of the land you are about to walk.

NAME the MAIN PURPOSE and LIST OTHERS

3rd. Where are the individual plants and soils you are looking at on the Slippery Slope.

Phase I, II or III or combination of phases

STATE the FUTURE LANDSCAPE DESCRIPTION

4th. A. Name any problems or concerns found.

Place an arrow on the Slippery Slope and state the location of this condition.

THE PROBLEMS or CONCERNS

THE CURRENT PLANT & LAND HEALTH CONDITIONS

4th. B. Become a detective and search for the real cause(s) of any found problems.

CAUSE(S)

5th. Brainstorm and list some good solutions that address the cause(s) of the problems.

1.

2.

3.

4.

Think both short- and long-term LIST several GOOD IDEAS

6th. Test the best solution for the “WHOLE” SITUATION using the testing guidelines. (Use other people to help you)

NAME THE BEST SOLUTION 7th. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? Name the person that is going to make the needed changes and monitor the effects of this change.

WHO (name) __________________________ WHAT __________________________

By WHEN ______________________(date) Report back to WHOM __________________________

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On-Going Learning— Producing Health & Well-Being The following is an excerpt from a speech Kelly Pasztor, The Savory Center’s Director of Educational Services, delivered at the Australian Conference at Armidale, New South Wales in April 2005.

I

was educated and trained as a teacher so the process of learning is near and dear to me.

But, I must tell you that it wasn’t through university that I found out what I now know about learning, and it wasn’t in a classroom that I discovered learning’s connection to my overall well-being. It has been through my personal practice of Holistic Management, a framework for decision making, that I have learned to value change, what it contributes to the learning process, and to see the often complex and un-seeable connections between people, land, and money.

It is through my developing an understanding of this framework that I am becoming ever better at seeing the connections between the decisions I make, the land I live on, and the money available to manage the two.

And it is in my day to day sharing of this decision-making framework with others that my understanding and practice continue to grow, and I live a more and more meaningful life.

The Process of Learning Martina Horner, President of Radcliffe College, noted, “What is important is to keep learning, to enjoy challenge, and to tolerate ambiguity. In the end, there are no certain answers.” This quote speaks to me of what I have experienced in my work as an educator, my life as a farmer, and the interesting environment in which we chose to raise our three children where they resided on 10 acres along with their grandparents, several aunts and uncles, and numerous cousins in a community we call El Nido.

I know I am not the first to have this realization, but one of my most exciting discoveries is that it’s really all about process and not destination. Life itself is a process as we never actually “arrive.” And the process of change and the process of learning are what make the process of living worthwhile and meaningful.

Do you remember learning to walk? Do you remember how many times you fell during the

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process of learning to balance, put one foot in front of the other? None of us remembers what this learning experience was like, but most of us have had the pleasure of watching a toddler go through it. There is spontaneity to the effort. The open learning environment here provides that each potential step is laden with curiosity, just enough fear to make it exciting, and, more often,

having someone talk at us and tell us what we need to learn and why it was important, although the relevancy to our own life always seemed to be missing somehow. The learning environment became “closed.”

I was most fortunate in that much of my Masters program was centered on creating open learning environments for students, and I had truly taken this task to heart. When I began teaching, I was determined not to create a closed learning environment. For many years I put incredible thought, energy and my own money into my role as a public school teacher. I did everything I could to change the environment my students were in, in an effort to allow for a positive learning experience.

I sponge painted the walls, I made creative bulletin boards, and I pasted posters and clever sayings on the ceiling and walls and more. I spent hours developing activities that I hoped would get them excited about Shakespeare, the parts of speech, the history of their nation, and writing term papers. But to no avail. They still were not entirely engaged in the actual process of learning. For the most part it was a lot of information with little or no understanding of why that information should be meaningful to them. And in truth, none of it was ever moving them toward creating the life they wanted to live. There was, sadly, no feeling of ownership, and everything was still dictated or contrived.

The Power of Paradigms

Kelly Pasztor sharing her experiences with ongoing learning. with laughter and a feeling of accomplishment.

And think about the support and encouragement the toddler receives from those outside his effort. This support is often critical to accepting change and moving forward with new learning. This type of experience is what is meant by an “open learning environment.”

When I first went into teaching, this was the experience I wanted to provide for my students, the joy and awe of discovery, a curiosity about everything, and fearless spontaneity. I was determined to provide each child with one open learning experience after another. But this was not what I was able to create, and I found it hard to figure out what was missing.

The majority of us went from being that tiny tot learning to walk with heaps of praise and encouragement, to sitting on our bum and

July / August 2005

The problem was my paradigms were dictating the how, what, where, when and why of my teaching. No one can learn for someone else. It is personal. It is powerful, and I believe more than anything else, it is essential to living a full life. It was my former beliefs about learning and education that were preventing me from truly providing my students with something that would change their lives.

It’s important to note, these paradigms about teaching and education were also keeping my personal progress as a teacher at a standstill.

With my very best of intentions, my excellent conventional training and education, and extremely strong human will, I was determined to move a failing educational system forward instead of figuring out what was missing for me.

Putting It Together As my family and I began to use holistic decision-making in our day to day decisions, I began to realize the infinite possibilities available to me. And it wasn’t much more than 18 months

following this realization that a work opportunity presented itself to me. The new position would allow me to use far more of my skills and abilities and educational knowledge than working for the school district.

On the home front, things were becoming considerably different. We were learning to take decisions in a different way than we had been before. Everything we were doing was toward a defined outcome. As a family, we had described what we wanted our lives both individually and collectively to be, and we were getting more and more clear about what we would need to do or put in place to live such a life.

We were also becoming more keenly aware of what the land and community around us would have to look like if we were going to live the life we wanted for any length of time. We made decisions such as finding an alternative public school program for our children that allowed for both time in a classroom setting with other kids of all ages, but also included home schooling and time with parents, grandparents, and other adult mentors.

Each of our decisions, such as getting involved in an extra-curricular activity, was evaluated toward the life we’d described, and whether doing that activity was going to move that person, and anyone else involved, toward or away from living life the way it should be.

I realized that closed learning was no longer something we were experiencing at El Nido, and I began to experiment with ways to bring this new way of taking decisions into the lives of my students.

More and more, as I worked to integrate an understanding of this decision-making framework into a humanities curriculum for my students, I began to realize the infinite possibilities available to me. When the new work opportunity arose, I realized I now had the means for evaluating its potential, and whether or not it was right for me.

For example, leaving my position would mean loss of tenure with the school district. I could no longer contribute to the established retirement fund and would have to eventually move this money. And all the benefits of life and health insurance would no longer exist. If all I looked at was the financial ramifications of this decision, I would never have put in my resignation.

What I was able to see through the new way of making decisions I was learning was that the new position would allow me to use far more of my skills and abilities and educational knowledge than working for the school district.

And our family’s new way of managing money and looking at our financial decisions allowed us to reorganize my income and contribution to investments so that it far exceeded what was in place before. At the same time we were able to increase my husband’s benefits to include me.

There is perhaps nothing more difficult for human beings than change. We would more often prefer to be miserable than put forth the energy to figure out what and/or how to do something differently. Most likely this is because we’re afraid; but I so much enjoy the profound truth to one definition of insanity: someone continuing to do something the same old way while expecting different results.

The process of change and the process of learning are what make the process of living worthwhile and meaningful.

At El Nido we were discovering that change is vital to creating the life we want to live both from an individual and a collective perspective.

And we found that holistic decision-making gave us the necessary lens from which to view all the information about all the possibilities available to us. It provided a means for altering our beliefs and making us more open minded and aware of what was possible. It allowed for everyone to fully engage in the actual practice of holistic decision-making as it relates to the running of a family and a farm. The kids felt more autonomy and independence and made wiser decisions as they were less self-centered and more creative.

On the whole, we all became more thoughtful and felt more knowledgeable as we went about our daily activities. What was exciting was seeing the evidence as we paid off everything but our home mortgage, produced enough food for ourselves so our grocery budget for five was a mere $125 a month, and took a family vacation without creating any debt.

The Process of Learning What I was discovering was that learning is a four-way process. This process includes “information” as only the starting point. What is necessary for information to have meaning is “understanding,” and specifically to understand how that information relates to you and your life, directly or indirectly. But understanding

doesn’t just happen. What we need to add to the process of learning is “practice.” Practice is the action part of the learning process, and it’s important to realize that more often learning doesn’t happen unless action is taken. That action can be as simple as taking information and connecting it to a past experience, but it’s active all the same.

And finally, as the old saying goes, “If you want to know something well, teach it.” I have found that I cannot adequately teach something I have not practiced enough to understand well.

And so what we’re talking about here is a process. And a process isn’t linear. We may begin at anywhere within the process—information or teaching, practice or understanding. As I practice something, I become better at teaching. As I teach something, I find information missing and need to go searching. As I see new information, I can’t incorporate it and don’t know what to do with it until it becomes relevant, and I understand it through my practice.

What was perhaps most exciting about our practice of holistic decision-making was the way in which it incorporated the people we were most concerned about, our financial situation, and the land we were managing. And it was obvious that whether we were living off the land or not, land and the environment had to be considered when we were making decisions for the long haul and future members of our little farm community.

For me the learning process I was finally fully engaged in, and helping others to practice, moved us each toward social well-being. It also incorporated financial well-being. And for the first time, there was a means for looking at environmental well-being when someone took decisions.

I am learning more and more each day how my health and well-being is directly tied to my on-going learning. My practice of holistic decision-making provides for my continued learning. The complexity of social and biological spheres along with the challenges of determining what wealth is and what is enough wealth will continue. But, this framework I am learning to use provides that I make ever better decisions regarding how I want my life to be.

And very importantly, it is in sharing and teaching others about this that I engage in and maintain the overall learning process. My practice of holistic decision-making allows me to become ever happier and healthier with each day and each decision. I no longer am surviving, but am truly focused on thriving.

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T he

GRAPEVINE n ews f ro m t h e s a vo r y c e n t e r * p e o p l e , p ro g ra m s & p ro j e c t s

Australian Conference A Success

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his April in Australia the Holistic Management support group, the Grass Growers Tea Party (GGTP), joined forces with Southern New England Landcare (SNEL) to host the People in the Landscape—Produce it, Protect it, Profit Conference held in Armidale, New South Wales. Over 300 people from across Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the USA gathered to hear a diverse range of outstanding presentations from local and international speakers.

Judi Earl, one of the conference coordinators, noted a number of key factors contributing to the success of the event, including the collaborative approach to inviting speakers who represented a range of groups from diverse backgrounds with common messages. The active involvement of the

Allan Savory delivering keynote speech at People in the Landscape Conference.

graduates, instructors, and mentors of The Savory Center’s Certified Educator Training Program (CETP) added another dimension to the event.

Proceedings opened with an address by former Young Australian of the Year, Arron Wood, who spoke of the need for us all to create a sense of place and the importance of involving children in environmental management decisions. Savory Center Director of Educational Services, Kelly Pasztor, built on that theme by focusing attention on the importance of ongoing learning for collective wellbeing.

Kàren Forge and Sonia Williams from SNEL highlighted the outstanding achievements of local

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Landcare groups working together to achieve common goals. The session was completed by Savory Center International Training Programs Director, Constance Neely, who emphasized the importance of creating linkages and working in cooperative partnerships, and, as an example, provided a review of the complementarities between Holistic Management and Landcare.

The second day theme was empowering people to create the future they want. Morning sessions focused on the importance of environmental education at all levels including what can be learned from Aboriginal practices to effective education processes at universities and at school. The “grand finale” was the keynote address by Allan Savory.

The final activity of the event was the field day held at Tim and Karen Wright’s property “Lana.” This event was a great opportunity to see the impact of Holistic Management® Planned Grazing on the condition of the land and the livestock. Certified Educator Dick Richardson from South Africa informed and entertained the crowd with an animated display of pasture monitoring methods and spent some time explaining the finer points of reading animal dung and learning what your stock is telling you about the land.

Other presentations on the day were from project managers for Integrated Parasite Management in Sheep and Land,Water & Wool, Northern Tablelands. Tim and Karen are active participants in both projects, and the presentations each highlighted the importance of collaborative on-farm research in generating valuable and meaningful results for all involved and the wider community.

Transcripts and PowerPoint presentations from “People in the Landscape” may be viewed on the web at: www.grassgrowers.org

Southern Africa Holistic Management Conference

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or the first time, the Southern Africa annual conference took place in Namibia on April 26-28.

July / August 2005

This conference was organized by Community Dynamics, the Southern Africa Certified Educator Association. Speakers from Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia addressed topics related to the theme of “Creating a Sustainable Future on the Land in Africa.” The roughly 100 participants represented a lively mix of commercial and communal farmers, NGOs (non-governmental organizations), and government officials from Namibia, as well as some more urban-based newcomers and influential media.

A pre- and a post-conference tour, as well as a field day during the conference to three long-time, holistically-managed farms, gave opportunities for exchanging practical management ideas. Most conference participants remarked on the encouraging fellowship among likeminded and curious people, reaching beyond traditional ethnic, class, and gender boundaries, and presentations included dealing with violence and race relations, the mounting problems of urbanization and poverty, and the challenges of communal land-ownership.

Great inspiration came from a presentation by Certified Educator trainee Colin Nott on the use of the Holistic Management® framework in communal conservancies in Namibia.

One of the messages that permeated most talks was the need for people to make themselves visible and participate in all kinds of public forum if they want to build a sense of community and live a fulfilling life in the constantly changing economies and socio-political dynamics of Southern Africa. For many, this work means leaving their comfort zone, but the contributions and exchanges at the conference revealed that such engagement also provides ample opportunities to find one’s “cherished zone,” as described by many in their particular holistic goals.

A compilation of the conference presentations can be obtained from communitydynamics@cybertrade.co.za or from Wiebke Volkmann at wiebke@mweb.com.na.

Participants at the Southern African Holistic Management conference had an opportunity to learn from a variety of international speakers.

From left to right: Wiebke Volkmann (Namibia), Willie Auret (South Africa), Dick Richardson (South Africa), Reimer von Hase (Namibia), Fanie Kruger (Kenya).

The

Reader’s

What a relief to have a “mother” to look after everything, and we hereby bestow the great honor of “Mother Hen” to Judi Earl. Judi took care of the traveling Americans before and during graduation seminar week and then organized the Australian Gathering for over 300 people. Judi was always there to keep the big things organized or to take care of anyone’s needs, large or small. Thanks ‘Jude’ and to all who helped to make it happen!

Here’s trying to squeeze two weeks of hospitality into three paragraphs: the cocktails and fantastic view from the balcony over Sidney Harbor, handmade cookies with a story to greet us at Yaraandoo, the willingness to answer all the questions (some were pretty dumb) about the history, fauna, and flora of the countryside, and the fact that all the meals were served with class and the special feeling of taking time to share a meal and conversation with good friends.

Have you ever sat around and said, “Let’s invite over 50 people to our house for supper” and then decided to make it really special by cooking supper over an open fire, bush tucker style? Our Australian hosts are not only gracious, but they are also fearless! And to top off a great meal, we had poetry readings done with passion and talent and then a ballad recited by the fireside. That evening will be remembered by everyone for many years to come.

There were lots of friends and friends of friends who hosted members of our group during the conference. They allowed us to stop by before, during and after the conference and generously made their time, their homes, and their agricultural operations available to us. These personal visits really made the opportunity to visit Australia a special learning experience. Seeing the country through a bus window is good, but nothing equals walking on the land and talking to the men and women who make their living from that land.

Thank you, Australia. We learned a lot about how to respond to the challenges facing farmers and stockman on both sides of the world. We sure hope to have the opportunity to share our hospitality and —Class of 2002 expand on this great experience.

who are listening to the countless studies and organizations touting the merits of pasture-raised food. A book like The Grassfed Gourmet is all they need to get them in gear with their grills and crockpots and help them be the grassfed advocates they want to be.

The reason The Grassfed Gourmet is an effective educational tool is because it is a great cookbook. It provides a variety of recipes divided by types of meat or product (beef, lamb and goat, pork, poultry, and dairy and desserts) and gives the kind of detail needed for a grassfed gourmet neophyte to be successful.

For example, it explains the various cuts of meat and also the difference between the USDA recommended internal temperature for “safely” prepared food and those recommended by grassfed meat connoisseurs.

I own several meat cookbooks, and I found Hayes’ cookbook one of the best because it had a good mix of more intricate recipes and simple, easy ones for families that don’t have a lot of time for food preparation or a lot of ingredients on hand. It also offered suggestions for replacement cuts or types of meat so that more of the recipes were “accessible” to the reader.

As a “regenerative agriculture advocate,” I also appreciated the stories and research Hayes included in her cookbook to educate the consumer. These additions are skillfully

interwoven to catch the readers’ eyes as they move from one recipe to the next, thus encouraging them to learn more about the resource they are using through this cookbook.

All the information is offered in an engaging, easy-to-digest manner so readers can absorb the information and move on to the recipes to put into action their new knowledge.

My favorite section is “Rubs & Resources.”

As Hayes mentions in the beginning of her cookbook, the idea is to use seasonings to enhance the grassfed flavor, not to compete with it. In this section, there are several rubs and marinades to experiment with separate from those that are offered within specific recipes.

Shannon Hayes has a PhD from Cornell University in sustainable agriculture and community development. She and her family operate Sap Bush Hollow Farm, a pasture-based farm in New York State. Her essays and articles on food, agriculture, and rural living have appeared in Adirondack Life and Yankee Magazine and on Northeast Public Radio. With The Grassfed Gourmet, Hayes has produced a product grassfed producers can use as a key component for their marketing campaign. This is a resource you will refer to over and over.

—Ann Adams For information on purchasing The Grassfed Gourmet, turn to page 21.

Forum

Ideas, Suggestions, Comments & Corrections

Class of 2002 Goes Down Under

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he Savory Center’s 2002 Holistic Management® Certified Educator class did most of our training in Wisconsin but decided to do our graduation week training in Australia. In addition to seeing new country, three members of our class were from Australia, and we wanted to share the travel burden. The graduation experience and the trip turned out to be a most memorable and fantastic learning experience.

Given that background, what did the Class of 2002 learn during our trip to Australia? Obviously, the open spaces, the gum trees, and, of course, the kangaroos were noted, but it was the “random acts of kindness and hospitality” that made the biggest impression. Our Australian hosts in particular, and Australians in general, raised the art of being a gracious host to a whole new level.

Book Review The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook: Healthy Cooking and Good Living with Pasture-Raised Foods

By Shannon Hayes Eating Fresh Publications; www.eatingfresh.com pp 288; ISBN: 0-9673670-2-6; $22.95

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f you are looking for the perfect book to educate your customers or friends about the benefits of pasture-raised animals and what to do with those products, look no further.

Shannon Hayes’ The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook: Healthy Cooking and Good Living with Pasture-Raised Foods is a great book to get people comfortable and familiar with cooking and eating a variety of meats. With her background in sustainable agriculture and her experience on the family farm, Hayes is perfectly situated to create a text that addresses the need of the pasture-raised food consumer.

One comment I have heard from numerous agricultural producers is that they know how to raise grassfed beef, but the public doesn’t know what to do with it. Even those consumers who are eager to be part of the solution by purchasing from farmers’ markets are hesitant to take on the “challenges” of meat, particularly cuts with which they aren’t familiar.

The good news is there are many consumers

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Certified

Educators

To our knowledge, Certified Educators are the best qualified individuals to help others learn to practice Holistic Management and to provide them with technical assistance when necessary. On a yearly basis, Certified Educators renew their agreement to be affiliated with the Center. This agreement requires their commitment to practice Holistic Management in their own lives, to seek out opportunities for staying current with the latest developments in Holistic Management and to maintain a high standard of ethical conduct in their work.

For more information about or application forms for the U.S., Africa, or International Certified Educator Training Programs, contact Kelly Pasztor at the Savory Center or visit our website at www.holisticmanagement.org/wwo_certed.cfm?

* These educators provide Holistic Management instruction on behalf of the institutions they represent.

UNITED STATES ARIZONA Tim Morrison 230 1st Ave N, Phoenix, AZ 85003 602/280-8803 • tim.morrison@nacdnet.net CALIFORNIA Monte Bell 325 Meadowood Dr., Orland, CA 95963 530/865-3246 • mbell95963@yahoo.com Julie Bohannon 652 Milo Terrace, Los Angeles, CA 90042 323/257-1915 • JoeBoCom@pacbell.net Bill Burrows 12250 Colyear Springs Rd., Red Bluff, CA 96080 530/529-1535 • sunflowercrmp@msn.com Richard King 1675 Adobe Rd., Petaluma, CA 94954 707/769-1490 • 707/794-8692 (w) richard.king@ca.usda.gov Tim McGaffic 13592 Bora Bora Way #327 Marina Del Rey, CA 90292 310/741-0167 • tim@timmcgaffic.com Kelly Mulville 225 Portola State Park, Lahonda, CA 94020 650/704-5157 (c) 650/917-6120 (w) jackofallterrains@hotmail.com Christopher Peck P.O. Box 2286, Sebastopol, CA 95472 707/758-0171 • ctopherp@holistic-solutions.net * Rob Rutherford CA Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 805/756-1475 • rrutherf@calpoly.edu Tom Walther 5550 Griffin St., Oakland, CA 94605 510/530-6410 • 510/482-1846 • tagjag@aol.com COLORADO Joel Benson P.O. Box 4924, Buena Vista, CO 81211 719/395-6119 • joel@joelnlaurie.com

Byron Shelton 33900 Surrey Lane, Buena Vista, CO 81211 719/395-8157 • landmark@my.amigo.net GEORGIA Constance Neely 1160 Twelve Oaks Circle Watkinsville, GA 30677 • 706/310-0678 cneely@holisticmanagement.org IOWA Bill Casey 1800 Grand Ave., Keokuk, IA 52632-2944 319/524-5098 • wpccasey@interl.net LOUISIANA Tina Pilione P.O. 923, Eunice, LA 70535 phone: 337/580-0068 • tinamp@charter.net MAINE Vivianne Holmes 239 E. Buckfield Rd., Buckfield, ME 04220-4209 207/336-2484 • vholmes@umext.maine.edu MASSACHUSETTS * Christine Jost Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine 200 Westboro Rd., North Grafton, MA 01536 508/887-4763 • christine.jost@tufts.edu MICHIGAN Ben Bartlett N 4632 ET Rd., Traunik, MI 49891 906/439-5210 (h) 906/439-5880 (w) bartle18@msu.edu MINNESOTA Terri Goodfellow-Heyer 4660 Cottonwood Lane North, Plymouth, MN 55442 763/559-0099 • tgheyer@comcast.net MISSISSIPPI Preston Sullivan 610 Ed Sullivan Lane, NE, Meadville, MS 39653 601/384-5310 • prestons@nwaisp.com

Cindy Dvergsten 17702 County Rd. 23, Dolores, CO 81323 970/882-4222 • info@wholenewconcepts.com

MONTANA Elizabeth Bird 3009 Langohr Ave., Bozeman, MT 59715 406/586-8799 • ebird@montana.edu

Rio de la Vista P.O. Box 777, Monte Vista, CO 81144 719/850-2255 • riovista@rmi.net

Wayne Burleson RT 1, Box 2780, Absarokee, MT 59001 406/328-6808 • rutbuster@montana.net

Daniela and Jim Howell P.O. Box 67, Cimarron, CO 81220-0067 970/249-0353 • howelljd@montrose.net

Roland Kroos 4926 Itana Circle, Bozeman, MT 59715 406/522-3862 • KROOSING@msn.com

Craig Leggett 2078 County Rd. 234, Durango, CO 81301 970/259-8998 • crleggett@sisna.com

* Cliff Montagne Montana State University Department of Land Resources & Environmental Science Bozeman, MT 59717 406/994-5079 • montagne@montana.edu

Chadwick McKellar 16775 Southwood Dr., Colorado Springs, CO 80908 719/495-4641 • cmckellar@juno.com

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July / August 2005

NEBRASKA Terry Gompert P.O. Box 45, Center, NE 68724-0045 402/288-5612 (w) • tgompert1@unl.edu NEW HAMPSHIRE Seth Wilner 104 Cornish Turnpike, Newport, NH 03773 603/863-4497 (w) 603/863-9200 (h) seth.wilner@unh.edu NEW MEXICO * Ann Adams The Savory Center 1010 Tijeras NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102 505/842-5252 • anna@holisticmanagement.org Amy Driggs 1131 Los Tomases NW Albuquerque, NM 87102 505/242-2787 • adriggs@orbusinternational.com Mark Duran 58 Arroyo Salado #B, Santa Fe, NM 87508 505/422-2280 • markjodu@aol.com Kirk Gadzia P.O. Box 1100, Bernalillo, NM 87004 505/867-4685 • fax: 505/867-0262 kgadzia@earthlink.net Ken Jacobson 12101 Menaul Blvd. NE, Ste A Albuquerque, NM 87112; 505/293-7570 kbjacobson@orbusinternational.com * Kelly Pasztor The Savory Center 1010 Tijeras NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102 505/842-5252 • kellyp@holisticmanagement.org Sue Probart P.O. Box 81827, Albuquerque, NM 87198 505/265-4554 • tnm@treenm.com David Trew 369 Montezuma Ave. #243, Santa Fe, NM 87501 505/751-0471 • trewearth@aol.com Vicki Turpen 03 El Nido Amado SW Albuquerque, NM 87121 505/873-0473 • kaytelnido@aol.com NEW YORK Erica Frenay 112 W. Marshall St., Ithaca, NY 14850 607/279-7978 • erica_frenay@hotmail.com Phil Metzger 99 N. Broad St., Norwich, NY 13815 607/334-3231 x4 (w); 607/334-2407 (h) phil.metzger@ny.usda.gov Karl North 3501 Hoxie Gorge Rd., Marathon, NY 13803 607/849-3328 • northsheep@juno.com John Thurgood 44 West St. Ste 1, Walton, NY 13856 607/832-4617 • 607/865-7090 • jmt20@cornell.edu NORTH CAROLINA Sam Bingham 394 Vanderbilt Rd., Asheville, NC 28803 828/274-1309 • sbingham@igc.org NORTH DAKOTA * Wayne Berry University of North Dakota—Williston P.O. Box 1326, Williston, ND 58802 701/774-4269 or 701/774-4200 wayne.berry@wsc.nodak.edu OKLAHOMA Kim Barker RT 2, Box 67, Waynoka, OK 73860 580/824-9011 • barker_k@hotmail.com

PENNSYLVANIA Jim Weaver 428 Copp Hollow Rd. Wellsboro, PA 16901-8976 570/724-7788 • jaweaver@epix.net TEXAS Christina Allday-Bondy 2703 Grennock Dr., Austin, TX 78745 512/441-2019 • tododia@sbcglobal.net Guy Glosson 6717 Hwy 380, Snyder, TX 79549 806/237-2554 • glosson@caprock-spur.com Jennifer Hamre 602 W. St. Johns Ave., Austin, TX 78752 512/374-0104; yosefahanah@yahoo.com Peggy Maddox P.O. Box 694, Ozona, TX 76943-0694 325/392-2292 • westgift@earthlink.net * R.H. (Dick) Richardson University of Texas at Austin Department of Integrative Biology Austin, TX 78712 512/471-4128 • d.richardson@mail.utexas.edu Peggy Sechrist 25 Thunderbird Rd. Fredericksburg, TX 78624 830/990-2529 • sechrist@ ktc.com Liz Williams 4106 Avenue B Austin, TX 78751-4220 512/323-2858 • eliz@grandecom.net WASHINGTON Craig Madsen P.O. Box 107, Edwall, WA 99008 509/236-2451 madsen2fir@centurytel.net Sandra Matheson 228 E. Smith Rd. Bellingham, WA 98226 360/398-7866 • smm1@ gte.net * Don Nelson Washington State University P.O. Box 646310, Pullman, WA 99164 509/335-2922 • nelsond@ wsu.edu Maurice Robinette S. 16102 Wolfe Rd., Cheney, WA 99004 509/299-4942 • mlr@icehouse.net Doug Warnock 151 Cedar Cove Rd., Ellensburg, WA 98926 509/925-9127 • warnockd@ elltel.net WEST VIRGINIA Fred Hayes P.O. Box 241, Elkview, WV 25071 304/548-7117 • sustainableresources@hotmail.com Steve Ritz HC 63, Box 2240, Romney, WV 26757 304/822-5818; 304/822-3020 steve.ritz@wv.usda.gov WISCONSIN Heather Flashinski 1633 Valmont Ave., Eau Claire, WI 54701-4448 715/552-7861 • heather.flashinski@rcdnet.net Andy Hager W. 3597 Pine Ave., Stetsonville, WI 54480-9559 715/748-3327 • duckdog1@tds.net Larry Johnson W886 State Road 92, Brooklyn, WI 53521 608/455-1685 • lpjohn@rconnect.com Laura Paine P.O. Box 567, Portage, WI 53901-0567 608/742-9682 (h) 920/623-4407 (w) laura.paine@ces.uwex.edu

INTERNATIONAL AUSTRALIA Helen Carrell P.O. Box 1263 Warwick, QLD 4370 61-7-46617393 • 61-7-46670835 helen@insideoutmgt.com Steve Hailstone 5 Lampert Rd., Crafers, SA 5152 61-4-1882-2212 hailstone@internode.on.net Graeme Hand “Inverary” Caroona Lane, Branxholme, VIC 3302 61-3-5578-6272 • 61-4-1853-2130 gshand@hotkey.net.au Mark Gardner P.O. Box 1395, Dubbo, NSW 2830 61-2-6882-0605 mark.g@ozemail.com.au

NAMIBIA Gero Diekmann P.O. Box 363, Okahandja 9000 264-62-518091 nam00132@mweb.com.na Colin Nott P.O. Box 11977, Windhoek 264-61-228506 canott@iafrica.com.na Wiebke Volkmann P.O. Box 182, Otavi 264-67-234-557 or 264-81-127-0081 wiebke@mweb.com.na NEW ZEALAND John King P.O. Box 3440, Richmond, Nelson 64-3-338-5506 succession@clear.net.nz SOUTH AFRICA

Brian Marshall P.O. Box 300, Guyra NSW 2365 61-2-6779-1927 • fax: 61-2-6779-1947 bkmrshl@northnet.com.au

Sheldon Barnes P.O. Box 300, Kimberly 8300 barnesfarm@mweb.co.za

Bruce Ward P.O. Box 103, Milsons Pt., NSW 1565 61-2-9929-5568 • fax: 61-2-9929-5569 blward@holisticresults. com. au

Johan Blom P.O. Box 568, Graaf-Reinet 6280 27-49-891-0163 johanblom@cybertrade.co.za

Brian Wehlburg c/o “Sunnyholt”, Injue, QLD 4454 61-7-4626-7187 ijapo2000@yahoo.com

Ian Mitchell-Innes P.O. Box 52, Elandslaagte 2900 27-36-421-1747 blanerne@mweb.co.za

CANADA Don and Randee Halladay

Norman Neave P.O. Box 69, Mtubatuba 3935 27-084-2452/62 norberyl@telkomsa.net

Box 2, Site 2, RR 1 Rocky Mountain House, AB, T0M 1T0 403/729-2472 donran@telusplanet. net Noel McNaughton 5704-144 St., Edmondton, AB, T6H 4H4s 780/432-5492 noel@mcnaughton.ca Len Pigott Box 222, Dysart, SK, SOH 1HO 306/432-4583 • JLPigott@sasktel.net Kelly Sidoryk Box 374, Lloydminster, AB, S9V 0Y4 403/875-4418 hi-gain@telusplanet.net MEXICO Ivan Aguirre La Inmaculada Apdo. Postal 304 Hermosillo, Sonora 83000 tel/fax: 52-637-377-8929 rancho_inmaculada@yahoo.com Elco Blanco-Madrid Cristobal de Olid #307 Chihuahua Chih., 31240 52-614-415-3497 • fax: 52-614-415-3175 elco_blanco@hotmail.com Manuel Casas-Perez Calle Amarguva No. 61 Lomas Herradura Huixquilucan, Mexico City CP 52785 52-55-5291-3934 (w) 52-55-54020090 (c) Jose Ramon “Moncho” Villar Av. Las Americas #1178 Fracc. Cumbres, Saltillo, Coahuila 25270 52-844-415-1542 • fmholistico@att.net.mx

Dick Richardson P.O. Box 1806, Vryburg 8600 tel/fax: 27-53-927-4367 judyrich@cybertrade.co.za Colleen Todd P.O. Box 21, Hoedspruit 1380 27-82-335-3901 (cell) colleen_todd@yahoo.com SPAIN Aspen Edge Apartado de Correos 19, 18420 Lanjaron Granada (0034)-958-347-053 holisticdecisions@hotmail.com ZAMBIA Mutizwa Mukute PELUM Zambia Office P.O. Box 36524, Lusaka 260-1-261119/261124/261118/263514 pelum@kepa.org.zm ZIMBABWE Liberty Mabhena Spring Cabinet P.O. Box 853, Harare 263-4-210021/2 • 263-4-210577/8 fax: 263-4-210273 Huggins Matanga Private Bag 5950, Victoria Falls 263-11-404-979 hmatanga@mweb.co.zw Elias Ncube P. Bag 5950, Victoria Falls 263-3-454519 rogpachm@africaonline.co.zw

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