HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT
IN PRACTICE
Providing the link between a healthy environment and a sound economy JANUARY / FEBRUARY 200 3 NUMBER 87
Learning From Water
in this Issue
by Ann Adams
F
or those of us involved directly in the “natural resource biz,” whether as producers, educators, or activists, it’s sometimes hard to imagine that people don’t think about what’s happening to such an essential natural resource as water. But the truth is, we are faced with a rather daunting environmental illiteracy, especially as more and more people are removed from their connection to the land. The other day I was conversing with a friend. She is very knowledgeable about many political issues, is an activist, and is part of the back to the land movement. However, when she questioned me about my purchase of some locally grown apples, it was evident that she had never thought of the importance of buying locally grown food. She thought it was a neat idea, and went on to tell a colleague, who also had never heard of that concept before and also was excited to hear about it. If my friend had not asked me what kind of apples I had purchased, we wouldn’t have had that conversation, because I assumed she was aware of the importance of buying local, sustainably-produced food. Likewise, she wouldn’t have mentioned that fact to her colleague. Will they both run out and buy locally produced food? I don’t know. But they at least now know that their choice not to buy such food is a choice, a decision that affects their community’s natural resource base. These are the teachable moments, the moments where we can learn more about what is important to each of us and about nature and our influence on it. Food and water are key points in this vital conversation because everyone needs them to survive. Yet, because these commodities are delivered either to our faucets or the supermarket, usually with little direct effort on the consumer’s part, it’s easy to assume health and abundance.
A Source of Creativity Environmental illiteracy is one piece of the puzzle. The overwhelming dysfunction of
many of our governmental and social systems is another. Thus, any effort to address a “problem,” like water distribution, from a more holistic view, such as a watershed or water catchment level, can seem quixotic. As Jim Weaver points out in his article, “Watersheds—Connecting the Whole,” water catchment management extends across municipal, political, and county boundaries. It requires people to step out of their safely defined parameters of what is being managed, by whom, and how. Such redefining can be challenging for all of us, and it requires huge amounts of human creativity. And while our human creativity has enhanced our technological ability to hold back huge quantities of water, suck even larger quantities out of underground aquifers, and pipe even more water over vast distances, it has not helped us effectively manage the local landscape and its water cycle. It’s time for human creativity to enhance our ability to inspire others to participate in water catchment management, to create effective structures for participation and management, to motivate others to learn more about their water catchment, and to manage our homes and land to improve the water cycle and thus all the ecosystem processes. Holistic Management offers a starting point for this exploration. Ultimately our ability to improve our landscapes rests on each person’s creative use of management tools, their resource base, and this decision-making process as they adapt it to the unique needs of each water catchment and the communities that depend upon the natural resources of that area. Like water, we must learn to be fluid in our response, adapting to each whole. We must take the stance that drought, erosion, flooding, water pollution, or the myriad other symptoms of ecosystem processes gone awry, are an opportunity to learn more about our land, our community, our management, and our response to Nature. In that way, we will be far more effective in addressing the root causes of these “problems.”
Water, the source of life and much conflicting opinions and emotions, is a much talked about topic wherever you go. Holistic managers are finding that it takes commitment and creativity to learn how to manage this resource effectively. In the process, they often learn something about themselves and their community. Read more about this theme beginning on page 2.
Creative Decision-Making Ann Hodgens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
When the Thistle Wilts Cindy Dvergsten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Watersheds—Connecting the Whole Jim Weaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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LAND & LIVESTOCK— A special section of IN PRACTICE Completing the Feedback Loop Allan Savory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 For Cool Season Grasses—Springtime Begins in the Fall Jim Howell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
Savory Center Bulletin Board Marketplace
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The Allan Savory Center for Holistic Management Ad definitum finem
The ALLAN SAVORY CENTER FOR HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization. The 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. BOARD OF DIRECTORS Rio de la Vista, Chair Leslie Christian, Secretary Gary Rodgers, Treasurer Manuel Casas Allan Savory
ADVISORY BOARD Robert Anderson, Chair, Corrales, NM Sam Brown, Austin, TX Leslie Christian, Portland, OR Gretel Ehrlich, Gaviota, CA Cynthia & Leo Harris, Albuquerque, NM Clint Josey, Dallas, TX Doug McDaniel, Lostine, OR Guillermo Osuna, Coahuila, Mexico Bunker Sands, Dallas, TX York Schueller, El Segundo, CA Jim Shelton, Vinita, OK Richard Smith, Houston, TX
FOUNDERS Allan Savory Jody Butterfield
STAFF Shannon Horst, Executive Director; Kate Bradshaw, Associate Director; Kelly Pasztor, Director of Educational Services; Lee Dueringer, Director of Development; Ann Adams, Managing Editor, IN PRACTICE and Membership and Educator Support Coordinator , Craig Leggett, Special Projects Manager; Mary Child, Regional Program Development Coordinator; Constance Neely, Director of International Training Programs Development; Ann Reeves, Bookkeeper. Africa Centre for Holistic Management Private Bag 5950, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe tel: (263) (11) 213529; email: rogpachm@africaonline.co.zw Huggins Matanga, Director; Roger Parry, Manager, Regional Training Centre; Elias Ncube, Hwange Project Manager/Training Coordinator
HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE (ISSN: 1098-8157) is published six times a year by The Allan Savory Center for Holistic Management, 1010 Tijeras NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102, 505/842-5252, fax: 505/843-7900; email: savorycenter@holisticmanagement.org.; website: www.holisticmanagement.org Copyright © 2003. 2 HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE #87
Creative Decision-Making by Ann Hodgens
R
ecently Robert, Therese and Bill Archinal of Mt. George, New South Wales (Australia), found a creative solution for a problem they were facing. Their “problem” was how to utilize their land across the river more effectively. They planned to use a portable trough and electric fencing and began to look for an alternative way to transport the required gear to avoid the use of a truck and a 62 kilometer (37 mile) round trip by road. They found a simple solution. Robert made sure the bung (plug) on the portable trough was in place, loaded all the fencing gear and himself into the trough, along with a paddle, then launched into the river. After a few spins on the spot, Robert soon mastered the trick of steering a “round boat” reaching the other side without incident. (He now knows why boats have the pointy-bit up the front!) He then dragged the gear up the riverbank and very soon all was in place. A job well done! How did Robert get home again? Simple. His brother Bill picked him up in the canoe.
Benefits
to effectively graze a 200-acre paddock, which rises over 350 meters (1050 feet) in elevation, thus giving a month’s extra recovery time Robert Archinal found that prior to you can mix business with winter. This pleasure when you make proved decisions toward your invaluable in holistic goal. assisting coolseason grasses to establish on the irrigated land, and helped to get through a tough winter with a fairly high stocking rate. They used minimal irrigation, and had no hand feeding, no plowing, no spraying or burning, whilst producing fairly healthy pastures with excellent ground cover, and without breaking the bank balance. Benefits to the land so far have been fewer lantana seedlings and the freshening up of the overrested perennial bunch grasses. Horses provided the transport for all fence and cattle moves, which was also a big bonus for quality of life, as well as ensuring further fuel savings. The cattle are driven across the river with horses when the river is low and can be swum back if necessary, provided the river height is monitored carefully. It’s nice to see that such simple decisions can have such simultaneous, beneficial impacts on land, finances and people’s lives. These decisions took the Archinal family very little time to make, used their resources creatively and effectively, and certainly made their work far more enjoyable.
Apart from saving money by not using fossil fuel, and saving approximately 90 minutes in time needed for the round trip by truck, the decisions provided the family with improved quality of life and a great fun factor, especially rowing past the platypus in the river! The portable trough and electric fence, along with existing water, allowed them
The Archinal Family live in New South Wales, Australia. Ann Hodgens is the editor of Impact, the quarterly newsletter of the Holistic Decision Making Association (HMDA) of Australia and New Zealand. This article first appeared in the October 2002 issue of Impact. The HMDA can be reached at their website: www.hdma-anz.com.
Testing the decisions The Archinals tested these decisions toward their holistic goal and found they passed easily. The perennial bunch grasses in the paddock over the river had been overgrazed in some areas and overrested in others, creating woody weed invasion (lantana) and low-producing runner grass species (carpet grass). Under conventional decision-making large amounts of herbicide and fire would have been used to maintain reasonable production. So, their decision to use one large mob (herd), portable electric fencing and the portable trough, although not an immediate fix-all, did address the root cause of the problem without overburdening themselves with extra work.
When the Thistle Wilts by Cindy Dvergsten
I
n mid-August I gazed down the Mancos Mountains, a bright blue sky, green hayfields particulars as we go.” River thinking to myself “Gosh it must and the promise of plentiful water. Their aim Years of neglect had taken a toll on the have been a really wet year in 1776.” This was to bring the farm back to life, and old barns, home, and pasture. Restoration was the year Spanish explorers Dominguez through the process, enhance their lives. So, and renovation became the buzzwords of and Escalante traveled through Southwestern they established Fat Sheep Farm. the day, and they quickly learned that the Colorado in search of a trail from Santa Fe, simple life they had dreamed of required a What To Do With A Farm New Mexico to Monterey, California. Their whole lot of work. Through the process of journals speak of drownings and injuries defining their whole under management, With a smile, Lisha recounts the feelings during river crossings, and hence came the women realized they were operating of elation mixed with confusion as they names like Mancos, meaning one hand with limited resources. While many would exclaimed to themselves one day: “Now that crippled, and Dolores, the river of sorrows. have charged ahead and simply torn down we have the farm, what do we do with it?” As I stared at the trickle of water picking the ramshackle barns and sheds, they chose Their inquiry led them to the 1998 Sheep Is its way haphazardly through cobbles, to be conservative. “We decided not I tried in vain to visualize how this to tear anything down until we were river could pose danger to even the sure we could not use it or restore most tender-footed of travelers. Yes, it,” Kathe emphasized, as she pointed my thoughts continued, this will be to the barns they have stabilized. one of those years that future old Resting in the shade of one of the timers refer to by casually noting refurbished sheds are two horses, a “Yep, but it hasn’t ever been as dry dozen Churro sheep and a guard as it was back in ‘02, when even the llama named Lucky. The Navajothistle wilted.” Churro descended from the Churra, The Mancos Valley that which were given to the Navajo Dominguez and Escalante crossed Indians by the Spanish in the late is said to have been covered with a 1500s. Suited to the dry rugged “sea of bluestem.” Years later, the lure climate of the Navajo homelands, of ample water and forage drew the Churro became the mainstay of American homesteaders to the valley. the Navajo. Cattle and sheep ranching flourished Due to U.S. Army and Bureau Kathe Byrne (left) and Lisha Owen have come back to the as producers worked to supply a local of Indian Affair policies in the 1800s land during a challenging time. This year's drought in market created by the booming and 1900s, this breed was almost Colorado prompted them to look at their previous decisionmining and logging industries of exterminated until they could be making to better address their need for water. the late 1800s. found only in isolated villages and After a hundred years of remote canyons of the Navajo overgrazing and partial rest, sagebrush Nation. Kathe and Lisha bought their began to dominate the Mancos Valley. stock from the Navajo-Churro Sheep Project Life: A Celebration of Navajo Herding and Needing more winter feed for cow-calf because they wanted to help bring this Weaving Culture event in Farmington, operations, the community built Jackson endangered animal back to the land. New Mexico where they discovered both Gulch Dam to store water from the Mancos Holistic Management and Navajo-Churro Early Warning Monitoring River to provide season-long irrigation. Sheep. A holistic approach made sense to Today, for many reasons, ranching is them, as did the preservation of rare and No one could have imagined the kind declining in the Mancos Valley. The valuable endangered farm animals. of drought we are facing this year in irrigated land is being subdivided into small Kathe and Lisha took training in Holistic Southwestern Colorado. The drought is the pieces that are being bought up by folks Management from me in 1999 and worst the Mancos Valley has seen in the who dream about going back to the land participated in a refresher workshop this 107 years that records have been kept. As of and the simple life. past spring. “Holistic Management helped late August, most of the area had received Kathe Byrne and Lisha Owen were two us see the big picture of where we were only one tenth of the year’s “average” such dreamers when they purchased ten going and gave us guidelines for figuring precipitation. acres and the homestead of an old ranch. out what needed to happen and when,” says Drastic changes in the ecosystem are Coming from the Arizona desert, they were Lisha. “We put the concepts into use right attracted by the snow-capped La Plata away and are learning more about the continued on page 4
HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE • JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2003 3
When the Thistle Wilts
continued from page 3
occurring. Birds are dying off, and we’ve lost 50 to 90 percent of the Pinon pines. Archeologists at the Anasazi Heritage Center speculate that this drought may be similar in severity to the drought of 1296 AD, recorded in tree rings, which is believed to have forced 30,000 or more Anasazi Indians to leave the area. Drought is the kind of disaster that affects all facets of a community. Tourism is down in the town due to massive fires in nearby Durango and the Mesa Verde National Park. This is putting a big dent in the cash flow for many businesses including Kathe’s main street antique store. If things do not improve she will close the store rather than go back into debt to keep it open. The concept of monitoring for early warning signs is one of the gems Kathe and Lisha have found useful from their Holistic Management training. For example, when Lisha noticed that water levels were dropping in their well this spring, when they should have been rising, she knew they were in trouble. The well is fed both by snow melt and deep seepage of irrigation water. Rather than wait to see what would happen, they decided to take immediate action. They reduced water consumption to the minimum and began taking laundry to nearby Cortez, which has a more plentiful water supply. Faced with the possibility of no household water, they first reviewed past decision-making. At the time of purchasing the farm, they chose not to buy a rural water tap because it did not address their weak link at the time. There are no new rural taps available in the Mancos Valley due to lack of capacity for water treatment and delivery. So the only taps available are held privately and sell for about $10,000. This option did not pass the Energy/Money Source & Use testing guideline for them as it would have led to more debt. Even though an old cistern was buried beside the house, they had never investigated using it since they had always had enough water. “To tell the truth, we really were afraid to look in there for fear of what we might find,” says Kathe. So they researched the expense of installing an above-ground
4 HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE #87
cistern and having water delivered. There were logistical problems and recurring costs that made this option also fail the Holistic Management testing. Finally they returned to the possibility of repairing the old cistern. They bought a 16-foot ladder at a garage sale and found a person who understood cisterns to help them. Much to their relief they found only a few salamanders, some water and muck at the bottom. With a few minor repairs and some new piping they were ready for water to be delivered. The cistern is large enough to take a whole truckload of water, which is cheaper and more energy efficient. Now, with the turn of single valve, they can easily switch from well to cistern as needed.
In a year when they received only 18 percent of their irrigation water, she was able to get 30 percent of last year's first cutting.
Less Water Brings Higher Yield During the Holistic Management refresher session this spring, I demonstrated to Lisha how to monitor for irrigation effectiveness. Using a soil probe to check for depth of irrigation, she realized that she was achieving a very uneven 2- to 12-inches depth of wetness. Looking back at her decisionmaking, Lisha realized that she had been spacing her side roll sprinkler sets the way she saw her neighbor do his irrigation. Lisha improved the effectiveness of irrigation by overlapping her sprinkler sets to get a more even depth of watering on their hayfields. In a year when they received only 18 percent of their irrigation water, she was able to get 30 percent of last year’s first cutting. “I cannot tell you what an eye opener this has been for us,” Lisha says. Since they only had water for one cutting, and since their custom-hayer graciously did not
take any hay for himself, this surprise increase in yield will help them to keep all of their stock.
Building a Sense of Belonging A greater sense of community is another benefit the women say they are realizing. “We have learned to ask for help and to work together with others,” says Kathe. “Water use is very complicated in the Valley. With the subdivision of land, an old earthen ditch that feeds a pressurized pipe, and combined irrigation rights for nine families to manage, we had to put our heads together to figure out how to make a little water work for everyone.” “Still, this drought is real depressing,” says Lisha. “The barn swallows let their babies die because of a lack of insects to feed them. But at least we are not alone with this sense of desperation.” The women had just returned from a Colorado Branch for Holistic Management tour where they found consolation as they heard other more experienced holistic managers express similar feelings at the 3R Ranch owned by Reeves & Betsy Brown. They heard about how people like the Browns, who have worked years to become debt free and profitable, are planning at best to minimize their losses. “We chose to take a cut in income, rather than sell the herd off,” said Reeves Brown, who split his herd by shipping mother cows to Oklahoma and holding heifers back. “At least we will have the genetics in place and reasonably healthy land when this is all done.” Kathe and Lisha returned from the tour knowing that as depressing as times are, at least the losses can be cut, and that practicing holistic decision-making will help them make it through to more forgiving times. In the meantime, learning to farm and becoming involved in the larger picture of a whole landscape, community and region has deeply enhanced their lives. Cindy Dvergsten is a Holistic Management ® Certified Educator in Dolores, Colorado. She provides training and consultation to individuals and groups interested in becoming good stewards of their land, businesses, and communities. You can contact her at cdvergst@fone.net or call 970/882-4222.
Watersheds—
Connecting the Whole by Jim Weaver
I
n the last several decades a number of regulations have sought to address the degradation of aquatic systems. But even with all this regulation, we find the water has still not been restored to its past quality or quantity. Luckily, those involved in watershed work are recognizing that the degradation of water quality and quantity is a landscape problem, a watershed or catchment issue in which everyone has a responsibility. This shift of focus to non-point-source pollution, or pollution from landscape runoff, reveals a long list of sources: crop fields, feedlots, lawns, roads and parking lots, etc. Of the three main degraders of water, two of them are chemical and the other is our largest export, topsoil. Thus, an ineffective water cycle is forced to be the highway for nutrient imbalance through eroding topsoil. This critical issue can be addressed through local watershed initiatives, which also can be the key to opening a local dialogue about community, to fostering the return of local decision-making to local groups, and to focusing on local place-based initiatives to restore community vitality. They also provide the empowerment of citizen decision-making as the centerpiece of environmental protection and sustainability. Best of all, they are an opportunity to introduce the Holistic Management ® Model to others.
The Teachable Moment I have found that the first step in empowering local decision makers is to help them understand the interconnectedness of human decisions and their environment. From that point, they are better able to understand their responsibility for what happens in their watershed and what questions they can begin to ask to move them in the direction they want to go. Without this understanding we can expect only continued degradation in water quality and quantity. However, a watershed focus (focusing on the watershed as a whole) creates a teachable moment for all of us in the natural resource business. Whether you are a farmer or rancher, an agency technician or educator, or just some dude drivin’ down the road who suddenly
realizes that a local stream looks different than when you were a kid, you can use your concern about your watershed to not only address watershed issues, but also those other community/quality of life issues that arise within your watershed.
Jim Weaver beside the Cummings Stormwater Event Sampler he invented. The sampler is named after a hardware store clerk who suggested the use of a ping pong ball as part of the valv e .
The decision-making framework in Holistic Management provides a focus for how this might be done by identifying the people, resource base, and money in your community and then helping you and your community develop a holistic goal. With this framework, people can sort the details, ask the right questions, and make decisions that take the community toward a mutually agreed on quality of life, and at the same time incorporate the need for profit and a sustainable enriching natural resource base.
Watershed Defines Community A watershed is defined as an area of land draining to a common outlet; it also divides how people think and what they do. Both of these definitions are important when we are managing holistically and defining and refining the wholes within wholes we operate in.
I live in a mountainous region of Tioga County, Pennsylvania. Ancient plate tectonics and glaciers shaped this landscape. The communities are divided by geology, i.e., watersheds, and were established along river corridors. The goods and services, not to mention information, still flow along these ancient pathways. No amount of technology will change this basic demarcation of community. Geology, history, and infrastructure (roads and railways) intertwine to affect these pathways. We still travel and work on the land with a transportation system that is divided by natural features and geology. So with watershed boundaries affecting how a community relates to its sense of place, it follows that watersheds should act as the natural boundary for the community. The other most outstanding reason for using watersheds as a focal point is that they often cut across the political boundaries that prevent communication and consensus. How many times have you attempted to bring people together and found the county or state boundary an impediment to communication and participation? With watershed boundaries, the straight lines of political boundaries melt away or at least become fuzzy. At the same time, the community boundaries become more coherent and solid. I’ve also discovered that it puts a comfortable delineation on the concept of the natural resource base in any goal setting process one might attempt with a watershed group. So where do you start with a watershed, natural resource-based project? As with Holistic Management, I start with the decision-makers. Here in Pennsylvania an initiative often starts with an issue in the watershed or several members that decide to do something. In turn, these initiatives may be supported by the local conservation district or the Department of Environmental Protection in startup funding for meetings, newsletters, and goals and objectives facilitation. It’s critical that you find who the movers and shakers are and what their particular focus is on the watershed if you want to increase your chances of success. For example, I worked with the Crooked Creek Coalition, which had formed to address flooding in their community. While their starting point was the flooding, I took the opportunity to ask some larger questions about the watershed to help them see the bigger picture. At their last meeting, as we questioned and continued on page 6
HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE • JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2003 5
Watersheds—
Connecting the Whole continued from page 5 explored their assumptions, one of the township supervisors noted, “We formed the coalition to get some money to control the flooding here in the township. Now after the field trip last week and today’s presentation, I’m not so sure if this was right. We need more information and a clearer picture of what’s wrong with the stream.” While you can argue that the problem might not be in the stream channel but further up in the catchment, it’s obvious that an attitude and perspective has changed. Bingo, a teachable moment! These projects are where you can really make a difference in helping people get on the right track to improve their communities.
Getting People on Board Gathering a strong grassroots presence behind an initiative is probably the most challenging piece of the watershed-based participation puzzle. With the blurring of political boundaries we need to be inclusive in the process, but not everyone is able to see the importance of stepping outside their piece of turf. This problem is exacerbated with more people feeling disconnected from the land and landscape, not really understanding natural processes and holism, and/or feeling they don’t have a voice in the process. It can be extremely challenging to convince a busy businessperson or elected official to support these efforts. But, if you can help them see how these watershed initiatives affect their clients or constituents, then they will begin to see why their participation is important. Fortunately, the generation that started and grew up with the contemporary ecology/environmental movement is now the generation with the decision-making capacity in many communities. These stakeholders are open to exploring the benefits of watershedbased public participation. In our state, it also helps that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has come to realize that non-point source pollution will not be reduced by regulation. They recognize that we need public education, advocacy, and action to bring about the next phase of environmental restoration. If we couple these social changes with a funding mechanism that empowers local place-based initiatives, we will make tremendous progress
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toward effective and sustainable watershed management! Luckily, our governor and the legislature, with some very progressive thinking, created a program called Growing Greener. This program has put $50 million into local communities for environmental projects in Pennsylvania. While throwing money at a problem is not the solution, we now have a funding source that will help us begin the process of changing how we look at and address watershed issues. It can also help us develop the infrastructure to educate holistic decision makers so they can continue to effect change in their watersheds! So those of you here in the East looking for a place to “make a difference,” talk to your local watershed association, or talk one into existence!
a stepping stone for moving forward. The watershed-based participation concept is not new, but the way we approach it can be! In the past we’d come together to change a management practice, improve a waterway, or put a band-aid on the problem. Now we are asking some very important questions about the future of our communities, the sustainability of our management, and the dynamic unintended consequences of our actions. People are questioning many assumptions, not just at the watershed level but everywhere. When we can ask the right questions, we focus on what we want, instead of fixing a problem. Moreover, the Holistic Management ® Model can be very powerful in getting people to see what action would move them in the right direction, and the monitoring and feedback loop is the perfect tool for designing accountability into our strategic planning process at the local level. From the onset, Holistic Management allows us to reframe the questions (“Is it a watershed or a catchment?”), rebuild the connections (“What ecosystem process or processes are involved here?”), and revive the energy and creativity of the community through a nonJim teaching in the Stream School, a program his judgmental and inclusive process. Conservation District runs for teachers. The group is What a blast! It’s so rewarding when looking for macroinvertebrates (the good bugs), and the groups I’ve worked with have learning more about healthy watersheds so they can started to look beyond what they pass on this information to their students. thought were the problems in their watersheds and are asking questions like, “Does this mean we’ll have to look Accepting the Challenge outside the stream channel?” I’m not saying it’s easy. There are plenty of It can be challenging to work with challenges, but we’re beginning to see some everyone on a watershed coalition because of successes in getting watershed associations all the history and differing perspectives and moving and doing some out-of-the-box agendas. The key to success is encouraging and thinking. The good news is that Holistic using that diversity to a positive end rather Management offers a common sense approach than just putting up with it. That’s the only that people understand intuitively. Whether or way to insure ownership and participation. not they know that what you and they are I’ve had some success with using Bob using is Holistic Management is irrelevant. We Chadwick’s consensus building process to focus all individualize our introduction to suit the on goals and what’s important in the group. situation and the players. The key is to get This is fun to use with young people and helps involved and help others realize they can them realize that not only are the issues they make a difference. see important, but they are on a level playing field with the “a’dolts” in the group. Our Jim Weaver, from Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, Conservation District and the Tioga County is a participant in the 2001 Holistic Countryside Council, has used this process in Management Certified Educator Training meetings and within the organization to help Program and can be reached at 570/724-7788 us uncover the friction and factions of old or jaweaver@epix.net. political baggage and neutralize it so it becomes
LAND&LIVESTOCK A Special Section of
IN PRACTICE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2003
#87
Completing the Feedback Loop
Animal impact is the only tool that can ef fectively counteract partial rest. On the left of the barely visible two-wire fence, animal impact (herd effect) was used to offset the partial rest. The resulting darkercolored soil is more porous to air and water and new plants can more easily establish. On the right, the partially-rested lighter-colored ground remains capped and impenetrable to air and water.
by Allan Savory
I
n my travels of late I’ve heard a complaint that’s too frequent to ignore. A number of ranchers in low-rainfall brittle environments have found their land to be stagnating. After about three to four years of continuous improvement, their monitoring shows that ground cover, in particular, has stopped increasing. The bare soil between the plants stays at the same percentage year after year. In Holistic Management we don’t monitor to see what happens, but to make happen what we want to happen. I’m finding, however, that all too often we forget how essential this is. The ranchers I visited said they hadn’t taken action to overcome the stagnation mainly because they didn’t know what to do. In some cases they hadn’t taken time to adequately interpret their monitoring results, which would have given them some clues, or had misinterpreted what they had observed. In most cases they had simply ignored the results and carried on, hoping things would improve “once they got some decent rain.” When I’ve been faced with the dilemma of not knowing what to do, I’ve always gone back to the basics. And because this problem is too important and too common in low rainfall brittle environments to dismiss, that’s what I want to do in this article.
What Tools Have You Applied? If your monitoring shows that you’re not moving in the direction you planned, it’s important that you look at what you are doing and in particular how you are applying the various “tools” you have to influence water cycle, mineral cycle, community dynamics and energy flow. As far as we know, there are only two things in a low rainfall brittle environment that result in a high percentage of bare soil between plants over vast areas of land—too few animals wandering around and/or fire. Too few animals wandering around leads to both overgrazing of plants and a high level of partial rest. To translate this into tools: Grazing is being applied as overgrazing; Animal Impact applied too little and too long; and Rest applied as partial rest over a prolonged period. In the case of the ranchers I visited, very few plants were
overgrazed due to their adequate or excellent grazing planning. None had used fire. Thus, the persistence of bare ground could only be due to rest. And since they did have animals on the land, we had to look at the level of partial rest they were applying. In each paddock they were alternating their use of the tools: while animals were in the paddock they were using grazing with partial rest; while animals were out of the paddock they were using total rest (during the planned recovery period for the plants). The next time the animals were in the paddock, grazing and partial rest were applied, then total rest, and so on, year after year. Some people initially grapple to understand these different applications of grazing (which can be applied as grazing or overgrazing—of plants , not land), rest (applied as partial or total rest) and animal impact (applied as stock density and/or herd effect). All these terms are clearly laid out in Holistic Management (1999). The most confusing of them all is partial rest , and that is why it took so many years to identify and understand it. It is essentially the result of the bulk of the soil surface and plants not being adequately disturbed by large herbivores that dung, urinate and trample and in the process promote biological decay, increased plant volume (bulk), biodiversity and soil cover. The adverse effects of partial rest on grasslands in very brittle environments cannot be offset by any known technology, and fire (to deal with the symptoms of partial rest, such as herbaceous and woody plant invasion) only aggravates the problem. There is no way to offset partial rest other than by applying animal impact (by domestic or wild animals) at a high enough level. Animal impact is generally achieved through a combination of increased stock density (diminishing paddock size or strip grazing within paddocks), increasing animal numbers, amalgamating herds, or amalgamating ranches in collaboration with neighbors, and/or herd effect. Herd effect is the very high animal impact achieved on land at any given time by continued on page 8
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Completing the Feedback Loop continued from page 7
monitoring feedback loop) these ranchers had not detected, or been advised by those monitoring for them, that a lack of adequate animal impact was resulting in stagnation.
Plan, Monitor, Control, Replan We plan the grazing so that we get the animals to the right place at the right time and for the right reasons. One of those reasons has to do with where and when you need to maximize animal impact so you can move toward the landscape described in your holistic goal. No matter what you plan, you have to assume you are wrong and determine what to monitor for the earliest warnings of change. In With What Result? brittle environments, one of the earliest warnings is a change in plant spacing, which precedes an increase or decrease in bare ground. No Stopping or minimizing the overgrazing of plants can explain the change in plant spacing (or litter) is just as important a warning initial three-to-four-years of improvement on the ranches I visited, but when you are expecting to see a decrease in bare ground. And this clearly the tool of rest (partial rest followed by total rest) was the is perhaps the biggest dominant influence. As factor overlooked (or most of our readers know, misinterpreted) by those rest, either partial or total, is ranchers I’ve visited. If probably the most powerful rest is responsible for the tool known to us for stagnation, then increased promoting biological decay animal impact is the obvious and enhancing biodiversity remedy. The only other in non-brittle environments, “tools” available for but it has the opposite effect managing ecosystem at the other end of the processes—technology, fire, brittleness scale and small organisms and rest— especially so in low rainfall cannot do it. areas . Environments high Remember that by on the brittleness scale, but far the greater portion with high rainfall, tend to of soil cover in brittle move onto woodland with environments is derived sufficient canopy and leaf from litter rather than the fall to provide soil cover. basal area of perennial grass On each of the ranches plants. When planning your I visited, I asked if there The effects of partial and total rest in brittle environments are similar. Here, the grazing, you need to be was any place on the ranch land on the left had been rested (total rest) for nearly 60 years; on the right constantly aware of the where things had not livestock have continued to graze at a very low stock density (partial rest) o ver need to give grazed plants stagnated. Some initially said the same period. sufficient recovery periods no; others immediately said to allow them to not only yes. In fact, when we went re-establish their roots, but also to grow sufficient material above out and looked, they all had pockets of improvement somewhere ground to both feed the animals and provide litter. on the land and in each case these areas were located either in the However, litter can only be kept in place against the forces of smallest paddock on the ranch, or where livestock had been wind and water by sufficiently close plant spacing (spacing gets closer periodically crowded. In each case the land had continued to with animal impact and gets wider with rest). When there is a high improve where animal impact was repeatedly highest. percentage of bare soil combined with very poor plant spacing, most One of the ranchers had several “exclosures” (totally rested plots) litter is lost. For this reason it is more important to get more plants scattered on his ranch and when these consistently looked the same of any form growing (with animal impact) than to try to accumulate as the surrounding land he broke up his large herd and went back to litter (by increasing rest beyond the time a plant needs to fully four herds, as there seemed to be no point in keeping all the animals recover). This is especially so where the range has been reduced together. What he had missed was the evidence that despite lumping to mainly rest-tolerant grasses—such as the grammas, aristida and his cattle into one herd, the paddocks were so large and the herd so tobosa that dominates so many western-U.S. rangelands. small that partial rest remained the dominant influence. The effects of partial and total rest in brittle environments are very similar, as Ways to Increase Animal Impact you can see in the photo on this page, and as I discuss at length in Holistic Management . I’m the first to acknowledge that all ranchers face difficulties in What concerned me most on the ranches I visited, was that for achieving adequate animal impact to overcome the adverse effects of whatever reason (I believe it was allied to a failure to complete the partial rest in brittle environments, particularly so where productivity, large herds. Even ultra-high stock density with small herds does not achieve the same level of animal impact that very large herds do even at low stock density. Large herds tend to push animals into dense brush, up steep slopes, etc., which small herds, no matter what the density, don’t do.
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Animals concentrated on this piece of ground (left) during a rainstorm, thus offsetting the partial rest. Several months later (right) many ne plants had established.
and thus stocking rate, is low. Many ranches are too small to support herds of adequate size while achieving the desired graze/trample-torecovery ratios. If yours is one of them, you might seriously consider amalgamating your ranch with your neighbors’ to form one management unit, as ranchers have long done in Africa to manage shared herds of wildlife, finding it greatly to their advantage. Some ranchers are limited by the lack of adequate water for large herds and must use their creativity to develop low-cost delivery systems. Techniques to achieve sufficient animal impact frequently enough are still under development, but the creativity in this area is impressive. If you are committed to achieving your holistic goal, nothing can stop you from overcoming these obstacles, as people everywhere are demonstrating. I have some thoughts on this and will return to them, but first I’d like to give some words of encouragement to those of you who aren’t monitoring at all.
Simplify Your Monitoring No monitoring technique yet devised is scientifically valid in the strictest sense. The greatest value of monitoring is that it gets you on your hands and knees once a year looking at those sample areas of land in great detail so you can determine what actions to take to produce the results you want. Many people avoid this valuable exercise because they believe it entails far more time than they can give. But in fact, many ranchers are doing way more monitoring than is required to get the information they need for management. In the Savory Center’s Guide to Holistic Management® Biological Monitoring for rangelands we list a number of indicators to monitor. But once you’ve covered the basics, we suggest that you only continue with the rest of the detail if you are keen to have a better record. In brittle environments, the minimum indicators are the measurements of soil surface condition (nature of the soil, capping, and litter) and plant spacing (distance to nearest perennial grass, usually), and for the record it has proven useful to have those fixed point photos so that people don’t doubt you when you tell them what it used to be like! You can measure 50 or 100 points, depending on uniformity of
w
the land, your time, and inclination. This information is all you generally need to be able to see if the tools applied are leading to the desired improvement in water cycle, mineral cycle, community dynamics, and energy flow. After that you can go on recording more if you choose to do so for interest and for the sake of a record. If even this amount of monitoring is too much trouble, then simply take good detailed straight-down photos of several one-squaremeter/yard plots that you can return to without fail each year. While this does not tell you much about the degree of soil capping or the maturity of the litter, you can interpret a great deal from such photos. Having noted any change, or lack of change, in the soil surface conditions, litter and plant spacing, you then need to interpret what you see and take action—the control of the monitoring feedback loop. And if things are really going astray you would need to replan, i.e., change the tools you are using. If you are in a brittle environment and bare ground is persisting, fire has not been used, grazing planning is good and you are not overgrazing many plants, then you are left with one tool that could produce bare soil—rest. And if you have animals on the land, that means partial rest. To overcome it, you will have to increase animal impact (decrease partial rest), no matter what the obstacles might be.
Moving Toward Your Holistic Goal When you monitor to make happen what you want to happen, you have to have a reference point, and that reference point is your holistic goal. In it you should have described how you want water and mineral cycles, community dynamics, and energy flow to function on your ranch. But that description builds on what you have said you want to achieve in terms of quality of life and what you must produce to achieve it. Thus, when you describe the land in terms of those four processes, you are describing how those processes have to function in order to sustain what you must produce to create the quality of life you want. That is what drives your commitment to succeed. That is what inspires your creativity to overcome any obstacles you face, and that is what will enable you to come full circle and complete the feedback loop. Good luck with it. And keep us posted on your progress.
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For Cool Season Grasses—
Springtime Begins in the Fall by Jim Howell
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don’t like to assume I’m wrong, and I like it even worse when I realize that I actually am wrong. Holistic Management doctrine insists that when attempting to manage the complexities of the ecosystem, that we consciously set ourselves up to stumble and blunder, monitor for the earliest warning that we are indeed erring from our desired path, and then adjust management to get back on course—and then go on assuming we’re still wrong. That takes a level of humility most of us sorely lack. We all want to be right, I’m realizing, including myself. When things don’t go as planned, human nature seems to resort to ego-defending, long-winded excuses and heroic attempts to “pass the buck.” Every once in a while, after exhausting all potentially rational explanations, we have no choice but to break down and admit, “I screwed up and I don’t know what happened.’’ I’ve been struggling with just such a predicament for a while now. The year of 1999 brought average precipitation to our part of western Colorado. We grew quite a bit of grass in our brittle, cold steppe, 14-inch (350-mm) rainfall environment, especially relative to the past three dry years. But we had a logistical problem at shipping time that November, and the Highway Pasture, where our shipping corrals are located, got hammered. We had cattle in there about twice as long as planned because of an inability to arrange for sufficient cattle trucks to transport them. Every grass plant in the Highway Pasture (all native, cool-season perennial grasses) was nubbed off down to ground level. The Highway pasture had received just a single late season grazing the previous two years as well, only not nearly as severe. I “knew’’ that a late grazing would be beneficial to our grass plant community. The plants had had all season to grow, build carbohydrate reserves in their root systems, and make lots of new seed. Now, in late fall, all the accumulated material from the growing season would be removed and returned as dung, urine, and litter, and the mature seeds would be tromped into the ground. I couldn’t imagine a more perfect combination for creating a vibrant, biodiverse landscape. But the following springs didn’t result in the sort of growth explosion I had predicted. On the contrary, the Highway Pasture actually looked a little stunted compared to most of the rest of the ranch. Something about that late fall grazing wasn’t working, but I assumed I had done all the right things, so I didn’t know why. So when we unintentionally grazed that pasture down to the nub that fall of 1999, I started to worry, and was concerned all winter. The next spring turned out to be dry, windy, and cold, and once again, the Highway Pasture looked awfully tough compared to the rest of the place. In the fall of 2000 and 2001, we still grazed during that fall period just prior to shipping, but made sure we left quite a bit of residual grass cover. The following springs resulted in a little better spring vigor, but it wasn’t significant. I finally had to admit that what I assumed to be the best treatment for healing our cold steppe environment—a single, high density, late season grazing—was wrong.
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A productive grassy draw in the Highway Pasture showing its severely grazed condition in the fall of 1999. This single but severe late season grazing resulted in significantly reduced vigor the following spring.
Fall Growth is Critical The good thing about knowing you are definitely wrong is that it energizes a search for answers instead of excuses, and over the past year, some potential solutions have luckily crossed my path. Our local county extension and public lands range folks put on a range management school every winter, and last January I finally took the time to go see what I could learn. I picked up a little morsel of knowledge that filled a huge gap in my understanding of how a cool season grass plant grows. It turns out that cool season grasses prepare for spring green-up during the previous fall. Assuming sufficient soil moisture, many plants will develop what grassland ecologists call a “fall lead tiller.’’ This tiller starts to grow toward the end of the current year’s growing season. They are small and inconspicuous, especially if the fall turns out relatively dry, and don’t really jump out and make themselves noticed, especially if you’re not looking for them. These little guys then overwinter and regreen the following spring, when they immediately take off once soil temperatures rise to 40-42 degrees F (4 C). Because most places where cool-season perennial grasses dominate are in cold climates, precipitation received through the previous fall and winter tends to build as stored soil moisture due to low evaporation rates. By spring, the soil is usually saturated, and soil temperature limits growth, not moisture stress. Anyway, it turns out that those fall lead tillers provide the bulk of the following spring’s forage production. This spring production is dependent on both the carbohydrate reserves remaining in the roots, and the carbohydrates remaining in the above-ground leaf material
that grew the previous fall. If they are grazed in the fall, both of these energy sources are significantly less by the following spring than if the plants are allowed to go into winter without having been grazed. The more severe the fall grazing, the more negative the effect on these above- and below-ground stored carbohydrates, and the lesser the vigor the following spring. So here I was assuming that cool season plants in October and November were done with all their active growth and could only benefit from grazing. I’d always noticed a little green in those plants in the fall, but I just figured it was a little leftover photosynthesis carrying on from the summer. Little did I know that those tiny green tillers represented our production for the following year. Now I could see why that very severe fall grazing in 1999 resulted in such poor spring vigor in 2000, and why our pattern of repeated fall grazing was sending the Highway Pasture in the wrong direction. We had been damaging those fall lead tillers, and the plants were gradually becoming weaker and weaker.
The Search for Answers Continues Another fortunate coincidence taught me a bunch of other new facts about the physiology of cool-season grasses. Last August I met Don Youngbauer, a dentist/rancher in Forsythe, Montana, who talked of his mentor, Dr. Llewellyn Manske, a rangeland ecologist from North Dakota State University,. Dr. Manske has spent the better part of 30 years studying the details of native plant growth in the northern Great Plains. On top of that, he has expanded beyond academic curiosity and asked how these details can be manipulated in the real ranching world to yield positive ecological and economic results. Manske’s work immediately confirmed what I’d learned the previous winter about fall lead tillers, so I knew I was on the right track there. His work also sheds a great deal of light on how grass plants respond to grazing at different stages of the growing season. Not only that, but he’s also investigated biological and chemical changes at the soil level under different grazing treatments. For those of you lying in the temperate latitudes with predominantly cool-season grasses, all of the following will apply to your situations. The details will surely differ depending on how far north or south of North Dakota you happen to be, how much your precipitation differs, etc., but the basic principles will hold. With most of North America, Europe, and Asia lying at such latitudes (in addition to numerous lower latitude but high altitude mountain ranges), the implications of Manske’s findings are huge.
Early Spring Caution Let’s start in the spring—mid-May in North Dakota—and continue through the year from there. Manske has found that grazing that occurs prior to the development of a grass tiller’s third leaf (see diagram on page 12) in the spring has serious negative consequences for the entire upcoming growing season. Until the third leaf stage is reached, the grass plant is living on stored carbohydrates in both above and below ground tissues. If the plant is grazed prior to the development of the third leaf, it deprives the plant of photosynthetic material and increases the drain upon already low levels of stored carbohydrates (they’re low due to the long period of winter respiration). Grazing of those early emerging leaves can result in a 40 percent reduction in total annual biomass production relative to plants that
are given a few more weeks to get started and reach the third leaf stage. I realize that probably doesn’t sound all that earth-shattering to many of you. Those of us involved with Holistic Management have known that principle for a long time, but maybe not that specifically, and we’ve probably never quantified the consequences. What if we wait until at least the third leaf stage (early June in North Dakota) to graze? The responses are hugely dependent on the amount of material removed. Light grazing (at least 60 percent of leaf material remaining) has no impact on carbohydrate reserves. Enough leaf material is left to continue photosynthesizing all the food the plant needs to carry on growing. In fact, those carbohydrates are preferentially allocated to areas of active leaf growth, and this replacement of leaf tissue from currently produced carbs has a much lower total cost to the plant than growth from stored carbs. The result is a faster growth rate and overall increased forage production.
Secondary Tillers Another positive outcome results from light defoliation after the third leaf stage and before the flowering stage. If the plant is not grazed and allowed to flower, hormonal changes in the plant send most carbohydrate production into seed formation and away from leaf growth and tiller development. If that lead tiller is partially defoliated, however, there is a different hormonal effect, and secondary tillers that would have otherwise lied dormant now become the recipients of newly produced carbohydrates. When a grass plant is not grazed in the spring and the lead tiller continues to develop, typically only one secondary tiller develops. But when that lead tiller is partially defoliated, up to five to eight new secondary tillers can develop. The greater the carbohydrate reserves at the time of defoliation, the more secondary tillers that tend to develop.
Below the Surface Early light grazing also has ramifications beyond the grass plant itself. It turns out that all sorts of positive things happen under the soil surface in the rhizosphere. The rhizosphere is the narrow band of soil surrounding living roots of grass plants. The roots constantly exude various organic compounds into the soil—sugars, amino acids, glycosides, etc. These compounds have a huge impact on soil microbial activity. At the lowest level of the soil food web, bacterial activity and growth is stimulated by the presence of these compounds in the rhizosphere. Increased numbers of bacteria stimulate the activity of protozoa and nematodes, or tiny worms. When all of these soil microbes in the soil food web are highly active, overall nutrient cycling is accelerated, making more nitrogen available for plant growth. Now, here’s what happens in the rhizosphere when a plant undergoes an early season light defoliation, after the third leaf stage. At that time in the plant’s growth cycle, a higher percentage of the total nitrogen of the plant is in the above-ground parts, and a higher percentage of the total carbon is in the below-ground parts. When the plant is defoliated, the carbon:nitrogen ratio is upset, with carbon now being in excess of nitrogen. To compensate, the carbon-rich roots of the plants exude carbon into the rhizosphere, which is exactly what the soil microbes need to bump up their growth rates. This increased activity then carries on within the soil food web, resulting in more continued on page 12
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Springtime Begins in the Fall continued from page 11
of carbon from the plant roots into the rhizosphere, stimulating soil microbial activity, increased plant available nitrogen, and increased plant growth rates.
Practical Implications plant-available nitrogen and increased growth rates of plants. Later in the growing season, carbon and nitrogen tend to be more evenly distributed throughout the plant, and defoliation at that time does not remove a disproportionate amount of nitrogen. The effect on rhizosphere microbial activity and nutrient cycling is minimal because very little or no carbon is released from the plant roots.
Now, how do we manage our animals to gain the maximum benefit from the adaptive tolerance mechanisms grassland plants have developed over the millennia? Manske has performed a long-term trial comparing various grazing management treatments. One treatment attempted to defoliate plants at opportune times throughout the growing season to maximize all of the benefits described above. Manske called it the “twice over rotation” treatment. Three others were all season-long grazing treatments, 3rd Leaf Stage primarily differing in terms of how far into the spring/summer growing season they were grazed. A final 2nd Leaf Stage treatment was the long-term, nongrazed treatment. This area 3 hadn’t been grazed, mowed, or burned in over 30 years. In the rotation treatment, each of three pastures were grazed 1st Leaf Stage once for 15 days over the initial 45 days of the growing 2 2 season (June 1 to July 16). They were then grazed for a second 30-day grazing period between July 16 and October 1 1 20. This resulted in recovery periods ranging from 30 to 1 60 days between the first and second grazing periods. The earliest grazed pasture had the 30-day recovery, and 1 the last pasture grazed (ending July 16) had close to a 60-day recovery. The initial grazing was planned to coincide as well as possible with the growth stage between third leaf emergence and lead stem elongation (or flowering), hopefully yielding all of the positive benefits of this timely defoliation. The second grazing was planned to occur after the stimulated secondary tillers from the first grazing had reached the third leaf stage as well. This was important because secondary tillers growing in the middle of the growing season suffer the same carbohydrate drain as Most grass plants are comprised of several to many tillers growing from the same spring lead tillers if defoliated before the third leaf stage. If plant base. When these tillers have reached the third leaf stage in spring, they are managed for adequate leaf area and carbohydrate storage, ready to graze. Leaf #1 is the oldest, #3 is the youngest. these secondary tillers can also overwinter and become lead tillers the following spring. After compiling and interpreting all the data, the rotation Next, we’ll move on to the practicalities of achieving all these treatment came out the winner in all respects. In terms of livestock positive impacts on the land, but first a summary of what we think production, the rotation treatment allowed for as high as a 96 percent we know so far: increase in stocking rate over the other treatments. On an individual • Cool-season perennial grasses are vulnerable to grazing in the fall, animal performance basis, calf average daily gains were 6-23 percent especially severe grazing, because they are actively producing fall greater on the rotation treatment relative to the others, and cow gains lead tillers that serve as the primary productive tillers the following were 82 to 94 percent greater. spring. When combining the stocking rate and individual performance • When spring arrives, those tillers and their subsequent production data to give overall production per acre, the rotation treatment yielded will be severely compromised if they are grazed prior to reaching a 40 percent greater return than the other treatments. From the plant the third leaf stage. and soil surface point of view, Manske measured standing plant • If light grazing occurs after the third leaf stage is reached, secondary biomass throughout and at the end of the grazing season. Overall, tillers emerge, adding significantly to plant biomass. If no grazing an average of 15 percent more plant material was present on the occurs, the lead tiller continues developing, potentially flowering rotation treatment after each grazing period than on the long term and producing seed, but preventing the growth of higher quality, nongrazed treatment, and the season-long grazing treatments averaged vegetative secondary tillers. 29 percent less standing forage than the rotation treatment. All of these • Light grazing after the third leaf stage also stimulates a release results on the ground, done with real cows in a real-life management
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situation, indicate that cool-season grass plants really do respond to defoliation the way Manske and other range ecologists established through earlier, more controlled research trials.
Planned Grazing and the Bigger Picture
Emerging Seedhead
Point of Defoliation
Those of us tackling these issues have known for a long time that the results Manske achieved in his trials were possible. However, I think we have been fairly ignorant about the specific mechanisms that made the results possible. In other words, I think Manske’s work sheds a lot of light on Secondary whygrasslands (especially those in cool and Tillers cold climates) respond to carefully timed Dormant Buds grazing. The more we understand the details of plant response to different intensities and timing of defoliation, the more effective we’ll be at managing the variables of timing, frequency, and intensity of grazing in our grazing planning. When a vegetative tiller begins to elongate and form a seedhead, grazing of the emerging The fact that a fairly early-season light seedhead causes hormonal changes within the plant that trigger the growth of secondary tillers grazing has all those benefits to the soil from dormant buds. community was news to me, as was the breakthrough that fall-initiated tillers survive the winter and produce the bulk of growth the following spring. I’ve grazed many pastures fairly heavily (as and I’m sure some years they can’t. opposed to lightly) early in the season, and definitely didn’t get the Over the past three drought years on our ranch, grass plants results Manske describes in his trials. Before becoming aware of grazed in June and July exhibited almost no regrowth. Secondary Manske’s work, I had already decided that we needed to graze lighter tillers didn’t even develop, let alone reach the third leaf stage. most years, and only graze heavily after an overburden of ranker Finally, this past September, we had some drought-busting rain, material had developed that needed removing. and those fall lead tillers that I now know to look for shot out of Light grazing always results in some plants escaping defoliation, the ground absolutely everywhere. The range greened up so nice and those plants (especially upright growing bunch grasses), due to a that it almost looked like springtime. It was tempting to go back higher quantity of lower quality material within the plant, are likely for a second grazing, but with my new knowledge of how a cool to be the plants that escape grazing during the next grazing period as season grass plant prepares for next spring, I knew we’d be a lot well. Moderate to heavy uniform grazing at high density will result in better off letting those new green tillers lay in carbohydrate most plants being grazed, but at the expense of accumulating that reserves, especially considering the drought stress they’d been older material to serve as a source of litter (a major concern in low under for so long. Now we can’t wait for spring to get here and production environments). see what happens. I reasoned, and am observing, that a compromise—light grazing I’ll also bet that Manske’s “twice over rotation” will fail if it most years to build up above-ground organic matter, followed by adheres, year after year, to a strict and unbending schedule. Allan periodic heavy grazing to remove and add this material to the litter Savory constantly warns that any grazing system is doomed to fail, bank—would be the best combination in low production brittle especially in unpredictable rangeland communities in brittle environments. I still think that is true, but now realize that a light environments, but that doesn’t mean grazing system research is grazing, especially if it occurs before flowering occurs, can have lots useless. I think the important lesson here is that we need to of other positive benefits as well. I also can now reason out the constantly be open-minded to bits and pieces of research that can ecological dynamics that led to the depressed performance in our make our grazing planning more effective and successful. Highway Pasture. I’m not going to duplicate Manske’s rotation, but I will glean the Can a low-production, brittle environment handle a second insights he developed and apply them to our own situation and grazing in the same growing season, as Manske did in his trials? circumstances. Our grazing plans will be much more sophisticated That’s where planned grazing, monitoring, and close observational because of these new insights, but will change every year as we skills have to take over. I’m sure some cold, dry environments in monitor, adjust, and develop ever better plans. some years definitely can handle two grazings in the same season, The learning definitely continues.
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Savory Center Bulletin Board Savory Center Wins State Land Bid
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n the fall of 2002 the Savory Center won a 75-year lease from the New Mexico State Land Office (SLO) for 1,667 acres of the La Semilla Nature Center at the edge of Albuquerque. The Savory Center will develop a Cooperative Field Station for agricultural education, research and hands-on experience in range rehabilitation, ranching, dry land farming, native tree cultivation, native grasses and other vegetation cultivation, wildlife habitat enhancement and wildlife rehabilitation. Upon securing additional funding, we will build a variety of facilities for workshops, animal handling and agricultural operations and for the Savory Center’s international headquarters. The facilities will be designed to maximize learning about living and working in a sustainable way, including water harvesting, renewable energy, and a variety of “sustainable” building materials. These facilities will include constructed and natural classroom/workshop areas and housing for administration of the diverse and numerous programs at this site. Executive Director, Shannon Horst led the project planning team, which included a host of architects, planners, environmental educators, and community activists. In developing the site, The Savory Center will focus on: working with the landscape, enhancing natural habitats, contours, and vegetation while minimizing water use and petroleum-based inputs/development or disturbance. We are already collaborating with many of the scientific and environmental groups in Albuquerque and New Mexico to enhance, expand, and support existing educational efforts in Albuquerque and New Mexico without duplicating the fine efforts that are already in place through other organizations and agencies. Moreover, The Savory Center will use every phase of design and planning, implementation/development, management and monitoring for learning and hands-on demonstration, especially maximizing the opportunities for children, young adults and multi-generational learning about holistic decision-making. For more information about this project, please contact Shannon Horst at 505/842-5252 or shannonh@holisticmanagement.org.
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La Semilla Cooperative Field Station SAVORY CENTER HEADQUARTERS
RESEARCH CONTROL SITE OBSERVATION BLINDS/ OUTDOOR CLASSROOMS
RESEARCH ARBORETUM: 235 ACRES, MORE OR LESS
POTENTIAL WILDLIFE CONCENTRATIONS
OBSERVATION BLINDS/ OUTDOOR CLASSROOMS
PRIVATE INHOLDING TRAIL LOOPS
DRY LAND CROP RESEARCH: 15 ACRES CORRAL; INTERNAL COMBUSTION TERMINUS
EXPERIMENTAL ORCHARDS: 52 ACRES
OBSERVATION BLINDS/ OUTDOOR CLASSROOMS RANGELAND THROUGHOUT ELECTRIC TRACTOR/ATVS LIVESTOCK THOROUGHFARE
POTENTIAL WILDLIFE CONCENTRATIONS OBSERVATION BLINDS/ OUTDOOR CLASSROOMS
LARGER WILDLIFE REHAB
RESEARCH CONTROL SITE
1 MILE
West Ranch Field Day Late last September The Savory Center and shared the West Ranch holistic goal with the HRM of Texas co-sponsored a fun- and group. Allan Savory spoke about the learning-filled biological monitoring field day importance of monitoring, and of the need to on the West Ranch near Ozona, Texas. The take action when monitoring shows you are ranch was bequeathed to the Center in 2001 going off track. Texas A&M’s Allan McGinty by former Center member David West, who followed up with a presentation on setting up stipulated in his will that the ranch be used for Holistic Management education, training and research. The 70 participants brought an enormous amount of knowledge and skill to the day, making for a rich learning experience. They included folks from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, Texas A&M University, the University of Texas/Austin, local range conservationists and ranchers, a newspaper editor, HRM of Texas members and Savory Center staff. West Executive Director Shannon Horst and Allan Savory (center) discussing their observations with participants Ranch managers Joe and Peggy at the West Ranch field day . Maddox welcomed the guests and
fixed-point monitoring photos. The crowd then disbursed into smaller groups and spread out over the ranch to pre-selected data-gathering points and recorded their observations. When everyone reassembled in the afternoon to discuss what they’d observed, most agreed that they’d rarely looked at the land in such detail and that what they’d learned was invaluable. Our thanks to HRM of Texas, to Joe and Peggy Maddox, and to all of the participants for making this field day so memorable.
Africa Centre Update
D
espite the political and economic turmoil in Zimbabwe, our staff at the Africa Centre for Holistic Management continues to make progress in implementing a variety of programs. Apart from the hunger in the surrounding villages, where people are surviving on one very small meal a day, the situation in our area is calm and the people remain as good-natured as ever. All our visitors and students continue to be treated with the utmost friendliness and kindness. Those who visited last September were even treated to a play, about a family attempting to practice Holistic Management, enacted by children from the villages who have formed their own drama troupe.
The Africa Centre's Board of Trustees. Standing: Lot Ndlovu, Councillor Ndubiwa, Elias Ncube, Ignatius Ncube, Allan Savory; Seated: Chiefs Mvutu, Shana, Nelukoba, Nekatambe and Wange; On the ground: Mary Ncube, Emeldah Nkomo.
The Africa Centre’s Board of Trustees has expanded to include three chiefs from the surrounding villages—which means every village in the sprawling communal lands (population 80,000) of our region is now represented on the Board. Our village banks now number 21 and
involve close to 600 women who are using the Colorado Branch Meeting profits from their micro-enterprises to feed The Colorado Branch of the Center for their families. However, we are experiencing a Holistic Management will be holding their challenge in trying to minimize the losses they annual meeting on February 1, 2003 in Salida, incur during the 16-week periods that their Colorado. Speakers for “Beyond Drought: money is held in the commercial bank. Managing for a Whole, Health Watershed” Although the bank manager has waived all include: Byron Shelton, Daniela Howell, Doug handling fees for the women, the 1% they earn Wiley, Tony Malmberg, Normand Bircher, on their savings accounts nowhere near and Justice Gregory J. Hobbs, Jr. from the matches 140% inflation. If any of you have Colorado Supreme Court who is an expert experience in hyper-inflationary economies on water law. For more information about where money needs to be held for four-month the meeting, contact Cindy Dvergsten at periods but remain liquid, please let us know. 970/882-4222 or cdvergst@fone.net (see flyer We have finally launched our first major insert as wel l ). project in the villages in large-scale land Ranch & Rangeland Program restoration. It has taken us several years of Graduates preparation—building trust, in which our banks played a major role, training and The Savory Center’s 2001 Ranch and discussion—and now we are on our way. In Rangeland Manager Training Program return for us putting in the capital to develop participants completed their training at John watering facilities for large herds, especially and Charlotte Hackley’s Richards Ranch in reservoirs, the people had to commit to doing Jacksboro, Texas during the last week in all they could for themselves. Two groups of October 2002. After spending two days villages have met all the requirements: 1) learning low-stress livestock handling with Ensure that every family pays a monthly Bud Williams and another two days with amount into a fund that they maintain to Certified Educator Tim McGaffic learning cover pumping costs, breakdowns and repairs; niche marketing beef cattle, this class 2) agree to transport all local building participated in a walkabout with Allan materials; 3) build their own lion-proof kraals Savory on the Richards Ranch. (corrals). We were surprised to learn that by the time all of their animals are gathered into one herd, one of the village groups will have close to 10,000 animals (cattle, goats and donkeys). The other group will have a more modest 2,000 animals. We’re Graduates and staff of the 2001 Ranch and Rangeland Manager excited to be Training Program. engaged in such a project and to see how quickly we can reclaim land that is as A week later the Savory Center’s 2002 bare as a tennis court for much of the year. Ranch and Rangeland Manager Training There will be any number of challenges to Program met for it’s second session at Tony overcome, including what to do with 400 and Andrea Malmberg’s Twin Creek Ranch donkeys that are needed for everyday near Lander, Wyoming. There, participants transport, but can’t be left out of the herd to worked on their Holistic Management® roam freely. We’ll keep you posted. Financial Planning with Certified Educators None of what we have achieved to date Don and Randee Halladay. would have been possible without an The Savory Center’s 2003 program begins extremely dedicated and hard-working bunch on August 23, 2003. For more information of people—the Africa Centre staff who number close to 50. Thanks, all of you. continued on page 16
HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE • JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2003 15
Bulletin Board continued from page 15 about schedules and locations, contact Ann Adams at the Savory Center at 505/842-5252 or anna@holisticmanagement.org.
Audio Book Rental We’ve heard back from some of those who have purchased the new audio version of Holistic Management: A Ne w Frame work for Decision Making (a 15-CD or tape collection), and they have really enjoyed this presentation of the book. Besides the obvious plus of being able to listen while driving, they’ve found the audio recording allows them to replay passages easily so they can better understand the concepts. We are now making this audio version available as a rental. A one-month rental fee is $35, plus $20 for each additional month. Purchase of the collection is $99, (available in the U.S. and outside Australia and New Zealand.) For more information about renting or buying this collection contact the Savory Center at 505/842-5252.
Savory Center Development Corner Meet Our New Advisory Board Members The Savory Center’s Advisory Board was honored last fall when Cynthia O. Harris, M.D., and her husband, Leo O. Harris, of Albuquerque, accepted our invitation to join the group. Both are committed to creating a world in which environments are healing, agriculture is regenerative and societies are humane and just. Cynthia is a retired psychiatrist who specialized in Gestalt Therapy after following a variety of other pursuits. Following her graduation from Radcliffe College in 1945, she pursued graduate studies in Salzburg and Munich before returning to the U.S. and entering medical school at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
16 HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE #87
A Note to Savory Center Friends and Supporters by Shannon Horst, Executive Director
I
want to let everyone know that in 2003 we will be making a big transition here at the Center. I will be stepping out of my role as Executive Director, which I have held since November of 1991, and moving to a new role that will have me overseeing some of our exciting and vital “special initiatives.” Shannon Horst This is a decision I made some time ago for a number of reasons: 1) I think organizations need new and fresh leaders at certain stages in their development; 2) I want to focus on aspects of the Center that are key to its long-term well-being and where my best skills are utilized; and 3) I feel this will also allow me more time for my family and my own community. It is an extraordinary time of growth here at the Center, and all of us (Staff, Board of Directors and Advisory Board) agree that this move will be progressive for me, the organization, and our clients, friends, and supporters. It will provide the Center with additional capacity, further diversify our leadership and better support the opportunities that are on our doorstep. We will, of course, be seeking someone to fill the roles and responsibilities that I will be stepping out of, and we hope to hire a new Executive Director within the next four months. If you, or someone you know, might be interested in this role, please contact our Board Chair, Rio de la Vista, who is leading our search team, at riovista@rmi.net or 719/852-2211. She will be happy to forward a position description to you. I appreciate all of you who have supported me and the Center for so many years and those who are new to our work. I look forward to working with you in my new capacity in the years ahead.
In 2000 she was presented the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award by Chicago’s Roosevelt University for “demonstrating compassionate concern for the welfare of others through significant humanitarian accomplishments.” Cynthia has held many offices, including Board Chair of the International Center for Development Policy, trustee of the Fielding Institute, and Executive Board president of the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland. Leo was born in The Netherlands where he attended the Roman Catholic seminary of the diocese of Haarlem. In 1957 he entered the Catholic priesthood and served in a variety of parishes before moving to Rome to do graduate studies at the Pontifical Biblical Institute. He later taught biblical theology at Lucia Teacher’s College in Rotterdam before immigrating to the U.S. to teach biblical theology at St. Francis Seminary in Loretto, Pennsylvania. In 1984, he and Cynthia moved to a small farm in Connecticut where they both nurtured their passion for the land
and studied all they could to make sure they managed it well. Their interest in regenerative agriculture stemmed from those years and continued to grow when they moved to New Mexico in 1994 and served as directors of New Farms, an agriculture-supportive organization in the northern part of the state. They are excited about Holistic Management and the Savory Center saying that they now have reason to be hopeful for the future. Welcome, Cynthia and Leo.
Cynthia and Leo Harris
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 Kitty Boice P.O. Box 745, Sonoita, AZ 85637 520/907-5574 KatieMackK@aol.com ARKANSAS Preston Sullivan P.O. Box 4483 Fayetteville, AR 72702 479/443-0609; 479/442-9824 (w) prestons@ncatark.uark.edu CALIFORNIA Monte Bell 325 Meadowood Dr., Orland, CA 95963 530/865-3246; mbell@glenncounty.net 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; burrows@cwnet.com Jeff Goebel P.O. Box 1252, Willows, CA 95988 530/321-9855; 530/934-4601 x101 (w) goebel@palouse.net Richard King 1675 Adobe Rd. Petaluma, CA 94954 707/769-1490; 707/794-8692 (w) rking@ca.nrcs.usda.gov Christopher Peck P.O. Box 2286, Sebastopol, CA 95472 707/758-0171 ctopherp@holistic-solutions.net COLORADO Cindy Dvergsten 17702 County Rd. 23, Dolores, CO 81323 970/882-4222; cdvergst@fone.net Rio de la Vista P.O. Box 777, Monte Vista, CO 81144 719/852-2211; riovista@rmi.net Daniela Howell 63066 Jordan Ct. Montrose, CO 81401 970/249-0353 howelljd@montrose.net
Tim McGaffic P.O. Box 476 Ignacio, CO 81137 310/821-4027; tim@timmcgaffic.com Chadwick McKellar 16775 Southwood Dr. Colorado Springs, CO 80908 719/495-4641; cmckellar@juno.com Chandler McLay P.O. Box 262 Dolores, CO 81323 970/882-8802 mcchand@msn.com Byron Shelton 33900 Surrey Lane Buena Vista, CO 81211 719/395-8157; landmark@my.amigo.net 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/fax: 337/580-0068 tinap@bbs.whodat.net MINNESOTA Terri Goodfellow-Heyer 4660 Cottonwood Lane N Plymouth, MN 55442 612/559-0099 terri.heyer@mrusa.com
◆ Cliff Montagne Montana State University Department of Land Resources & Environmental Science Bozeman, MT 59717 406/994-5079; montagne@montana.edu
NEW MEXICO ◆ Ann Adams The Savory Center 1010 Tijeras NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102 505/842-5252 anna@holisticmanagement.org Kate Brown Box 581, Ramah, NM 87321 505/783-4711; kbrown@nedcomm.nm.org
Amy Driggs 1131 Los Tomases NW Albuquerque, NM 87102 505/242-2787 adriggs@orbusinternational.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; mvt9357@aol.com NORTH CAROLINA
Larry Johnson RR 1, Box 93A Winona, MN 55987-9738 507/457-9511; 507/523-2171 (w) lpjohn@rconnect.com MONTANA Wayne Burleson RT 1, Box 2780 Absarokee, MT 59001 406/328-6808; rutbuster@montana.net
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
OHIO
Roland Kroos 4926 Itana Circle Bozeman, MT 59715 406/522-3862; KROOSING@earthlink.net
◆ Deborah Stinner Department of Entomology OARDC 1680 Madison Hill Wooster, OH 44691 330/202-3534 (w); stinner.2@osu.edu
HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE • JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2003 17
OKLAHOMA Kim Barker RT 2, Box 67 Waynoka, OK 73860 580/824-9011 barker_k@hotmail.com OREGON Joel Benson 613 Fordyce St., Ashland, OR 97520 541/488-9630; ytka@jeffnet.org Cindy Douglas 2795 McMillian St. Eugene, OR 97405 541/465-4882; cdouglas@omri.org TEXAS Christina Allday-Bondy 2703 Grennock Dr. Austin, TX 78745 512/441-2019 tododia@peoplepc.com
Guy Glosson 6717 Hwy 380 Snyder, TX 79549 806/237-2554 cowdog@caprock-spur.com ◆ 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; peggy@fbg.net Liz Williams 4106 Avenue B Austin, TX 78751-4220 512/322-2933 evwilliams@austin.rr.com
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 Lois Trevino P.O. Box 615, Nespelem, WA 99155 509/634-4410; 509/634-2430 (w) lmerita@televar.com
Doug Warnock 151 Cedar Cove Rd, Ellensburg, WA 98926 509/925-9127 warnockd@ elltel.net
INTERNATIONAL AUSTRALIA Helen Carrell “Hillside” 25 Weewondilla Rd. Glennie Heights, Warwick, QLD 4370 61-4-1878-5285; 61-7-4661-7383 helenc@upfrontoutback,com Steve Hailstone 5 Lampert Rd., Crafers, SA 5152 61-4-1882-2212 shailstone@internode.on.net Graeme Hand 162 Hand and Associates Port Fairy, VIC 3284 61-3-5568-2158 gshand@hotkey.net.au Mark Gardner P.O. Box 1395, Dubbo, NSW 2830 61-2-6882-0605 gardnerm@ozemail.com.au Brian Marshall “Lucella”; Nundle, NSW 2340 61-2-6769 8226; fax: 61-2-6769 8223 bkmrshl@northnet.com.au Bruce Ward P.O. Box 103, Milsons Pt., NSW 1565 61-2-9929-5568; fax: 61-2-9929-5569 blward@holisticresults.com.au Brian Wehlburg c/o “Sunnyholt”, Injue, QLD 4454 61-7-4626-7187 ijapo2000@yahoo.com CANADA Don and Randee Halladay 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 4H4 780/432-5492; noel@mcnaughton.ca Len Pigott Box 222, Dysart, SK SOH 1HO 306/432-4583 JLPigott@sk.sympatico.ca
18 HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE #87
Kelly Sidoryk Box 374; Lloydminster, AB, S9V 0Y4 403/875-4418 higain@telusplanet.net CHINA/GERMANY Dieter Albrecht Melanchthonstr. 23, D-10557 Berlin 49-30-392 8315 alialb@gmx.net (international) China Agricultural University CIAD Office, Beijing 100094 86-10-6289 1061 GHANA Arne Vanderburg U.S. Embassy, Accra, Dept. of State Washington, D.C. 20521-2020 233-21-772131; 233-21-773831 (w) asvanderb@hotmail.com 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., 31030 52-14-415-3497; fax: 52-14-415-3175 elco-blanco@hotmail.com
NEW ZEALAND John King P.O. Box 3440, Richmond, Nelson 64-3-544-0369 Joking@clear.net.nz SOUTH AFRICA Johan Blom P.O. Box 568, Graaf-Reinet 6280 27-49-891-0163 johanblom@cybertrade.co.za Ian Mitchell-Innes P.O. Box 52, Elandslaagte 2900 27-36-421-1747 blanerne@mweb.co.za Norman Neave Box 141, Mtubatuba 3935 27-35-5504150 norboom@saol.com Dick Richardson P.O. Box 1806, Vryburg 8600 tel/fax: 27-53-927-4367 judyrich@cybertrade.co.za ZIMBABWE Mutizwa Mukute PELUM Association Regional Desk P.O. Box MP 1059 Mount Pleasant, Harare 263-4-74470/744117 fax: 263-4-744470 pelum@mail.pci.co.zw
Manuel Casas-Perez Calle Amarguva No. 61, Lomas Herradura Huixquilucan, Mexico City CP 52785 52-558-291-3934; 52-588-992-0220 (w)
Liberty Mabhena Spring Cabinet P.O. Box 853, Harare 263-4-210021/2; 263-4-210577/8 fax: 263-4-210273
NAMIBIA Gero Diekmann P.O. Box 363, Okahandja 9000 264-62-518091 nam00132@mweb.com.na
Sister Maria Chiedza Mutasa Bandolfi Convent P.O. Box 900, Masvingo 263-39-7699, 263-39-7530
Wiebke Volkmann P.O. Box 182, Otavi, 067-23-44-48; keilberg@mweb.com.na
Elias Ncube P. Bag 5950, Victoria Falls 263-3-454519 rogpachm@africaonline.co.zw
Local Networks There are several branch organizations or groups affiliated with the Center in the U.S. and abroad (some publish their own newsletters.) We encourage you to contact the group closest to you:
United States CALIFORNIA Holistic Management of California Tom Walther, newsletter editor 5550 Griffin St., Oakland, CA 94605 510/530-6410 tagjag@ aol.com COLORADO Colorado Branch of the Center For Holistic Management Jim and Daniela Howell newletter editors 1661 Sonoma Court, Montrose, CO 81401 970/249-0353 howelljd@montrose.net GEORGIA Constance Neely SANREM CRSP 1422 Experiment Station Rd. Watkinsville, GA 30677 706/769-3792 cneely@arches.uga.edu IDAHO National Learning Site Linda Hestag 3743 King Mountain Rd. Darlington, ID 83255 208/588-2693; mackay@atcnet.net
MONTANA Beartooth Management Club Wayne Burleson RT 1, Box 2780, Absarokee, MT 59001 406/328-6808rutbuster@montana.net NEW YORK Regional Farm & Food Project Tracy Frisch, contact person 148 Central Ave., 2nd floor Albany, NY 12206 518/427-6537 USDA/NRCS - Central NY RC&D Phil Metzger, contact person 99 North Broad St., Norwich, NY 13815 607/334-3231, ext. 4 phil.metzger@ny.usda.gov NORTHWEST Managing Wholes Peter Donovan 501 South St., Enterprise, OR 97828-1345 541/426-2145 www.managingwholes.com OKLAHOMA Oklahoma Land Stewardship Alliance Charles Griffiths Route 5, Box E44, Ardmore, OK 73401 580/223-7471; cagriffith@brightok.net
Africa Centre for Holistic Management (A subsidiary of the Allan Savory Center for Holistic Management since 1992) Board of Trustees
Staff
Allan Savory, Chair Ignatius Ncube, Vice Chair Chief D. Shana II Chief A. J. Mvutu Chief B.W. Wange Chief D. Nelukoba Chief S.R. Nekatambe Councilor Ndubiwa Mary Ncube Lot Ndlovu Emeldah Nkomo (Staff Representative) Elias Ncube (Staff Representative) Osmond Mugweni - Masvingo Hendrik O'Neill - Harare Sam Brown, Austin, Texas, ex-officio
Huggins Matanga, Director Elias Ncube, Community Programmes Manager Emeldah Nkomo, Village Banking Coordinator Forgé Wilson, Office Manager Sylvia Nyakujawa, Bookkeeper Dimbangombe Ranch and Conservation Safaris: Roger Parry, Manager Trish Pullen, Assistant Manager, Catering Richard Nsinganu, Assistant Manager, Safaris Albert Chauke, Ranch Foreman
To order products inAustralia/New Zealand or southern Africa contact: Australia: Holistic Decision Making Association, Irene Dasey, P.O. Box 543, Inverell NSW 2360, tel: 61-2-6721-0255; idasey@hn.ozemail.com.au South Africa: Whole Concepts cc, PO Box 1806, Vryburg 8600; tel/fax: 27-53-9274367; judyrich@cybertrade.co.za PENNSYLVANIA Northern Penn Network Jim Weaver, contact person RD #6, Box 205 Wellsboro, PA 16901 717/724-7788 jaweaver@epix.net
TEXAS HRM of Texas Peggy Jones, newsletter editor 101 Hill View Trail Dripping Springs, TX 78620 512/858-4251 delphic@earthlink.net
International AUSTRALIA Holistic Decision Making Association (AUST+NZ) Irene Dasey, Executive Officer P.O. Box 543 Inverell NSW, 2360 tel: 61-2-6721-0255 idasey@hn.ozemail.com.au CANADA Canadian Holistic Management Lee Pengilly Box 216, Stirling, AB, T0K 2E0 403/327-9262 MEXICO Fundación para Fomentar el Manejo Holístico, A.C. Jose Ramon Villar, President Av. Cd. de los Angeles #310 Pte
Col del Norte, Monterrey, NL 64500 tel/fax: 52-844-415-1542 ccjean@prodigy.net.mx NAMIBIA Namibia Centre for Holistic Management Anja Denker, contact person P.O. Box 23600 Windhoek 9000 tel/fax: 264-61-230-515 unicorn@iafrica.com.na SOUTH AFRICA South African Centre For Holistic Management Dick & Judy Richardson P.O. Box 1806, Vryburg 8600 tel/fax: 27-53-9274367 judyrich@cybertrade.co.za
Come Visit Us! AT DIMBANGOMBE
We Offer: • Guided Bush Walks • Horseback Tours • Game-Viewing Drives • Anti-Poaching Patrol Experience • And much more! In an unforgettable setting with comfy lodging, memorable meals
Private Bag 5950 Victoria Falls Zimbabwe
Roger Parry Email: rogpachm@africaonline.co.zw Tel. (263)(11)213 529
www.africansojourn.com HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE • JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2003 19