#093, In Practice, Jan/Feb2004

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20th Anniversary

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RACTICE P a publication of the savory center

January/February 2004 * Number 93

w w w. h o l i s t i c m a n a g e m e n t . o r g

Celebrating 20 Years!

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n the fall of 1984, Allan Savory, Jody Butterfield and a group of supporters founded the Center for Holistic Resource Management. In the fall of 2004, we will celebrate the official 20th Anniversary of The Savory Center. But we have too much celebrating to do to wait for one issue, so we decided to start with this issue and continue through the year.

As you ve noticed already, IN PRACTICE looks different! Thanks to a generous contribution from Advisory Council member, Dean William Rudoy, Ph.D., we have redesigned IN PRACTICE and added some color. Thanks also to Dean, our fall issue of IN PRACTICE will be a very special four-color issue you ll want to save.

As part of our 20th year celebration we ll take a trip down memory lane and reprint important articles from the past as well as update some of those stories. What are those experienced practitioners doing now? How are they incorporating Holistic Management into their lives? What challenges have they faced? What are their hopes for the future?

We ll also take a look at the evolution of Holistic Management and The Savory Center. This movement has grown, and The Savory Center has changed and adapted to meet the needs of our members and educators as well as spread the word. We ll also take some time to tell the stories behind our projects and programs, what has been accomplished and who is involved. In this issue we ve included our work with George Whitten at the La Semilla Cooperative Field Station in Albuquerque.

To start off our 20th year celebration, we have included the winners of The Savory Center photo contest. We had some great entries, and we d like to thank everyone who participated, participants and judges alike.

The judges enjoyed the challenge of selecting from such a wonderful array of photographs, and as always it was great to hear and see how Holistic Management has touched people s lives.

In this issue, Jody Butterfield has also updated a 1986 article on Jan Smuts, the author of Holism and Evolution, who so profoundly influenced Allan Savory s development of Holistic Management.

While the concept of holism and seeing Nature functioning as a whole is inherent in many indigenous cultures, it was Smuts articulation of holism that inspired Allan Savory to begin distilling key management principles that would help people manage holistically.

Smuts understanding of whole system and pattern language was well ahead of his time. The profound, yet simple, paradigm shift required to manage holistically continues to challenge many people today in our reductionist, sound bite society. But for those who are driven to better understand the environment and improve their ability to manage our natural resources thoughtfully, Smuts work offers a deeper understanding as to why Holistic Management is essential for consistent management of constantly evolving and developing wholes whether they be Nature, families, organizations, or communities.

We hope you are as excited as we are about celebrating 20 years of people and organizations creating incredible results on the land, in people s homes, and in their communities. We wouldn t be here without you, and we hope we have helped you along the way in improving your quality of life, your families, your finances, and your land.

These are indeed exciting times as we move forward with our new Executive Director, Tim LaSalle, our expanding Board of Directors and Advisory Council, and a growing network of Holistic Management practitioners and Certified Educators. Here s to a whole year of celebrating. The party is just beginning.

Ann Adams

Our appreciation to Dean William Rudoy, Ph.D. for his generous donation that has enabled us to redesign IN PRACTICE and print in color throughout 2004 in celebration of our 20th anniversary.

IIN NSSIID DEE TTH HIISS IISSSSU UEE

Photo: Molly Galloway

As part of our 20th anniversary celebration, we are printing the winners of The Savory Center Photo Contest. The contest demonstrated the myriad ways that Holistic Management has influenced people s lives. In describing the photo above, teenager Molly Galloway wrote: Mom taught us about quality of life and how important friends and family are. We can do so much more together as a team, than if we just keep to ourselves. Turn to page 11 to see a pictorial display of Holistic Management.

FEATURE STORIES Smuts and Holism

Jody Butterfield......................................2

Proving Up On Proving Ground La Semilla Land Restoration

Craig Leggett..........................................5

A New Appreciation for Biodiversity

Ann Adams..............................................6

The Art of Slowing Down

Jack Varian...............................................7

LAND & LIVESTOCK Clear Runoff Means True Wealth

Binding Soil at Inverary

Jim Howell................................................8

NEWS & NETWORK Savory Center Photo Contest...............11 Grapevine.................................................................15 Certified Educators.........................................17 Marketplace...........................................................20

Savory

The

CENTER

Ad definitum finem

THE SAVORY CENTER is a

501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The Savory Center works to restore the vitality of communities and the natural resources on which they depend by advancing the practice of Holistic Management and coordinating its development worldwide.

FOUNDERS

Allan Savory * Jody Butterfield STAFF

Tim LaSalle, Executive Director Shannon Horst, Senior Director, Strategic Projects Kate Bradshaw, Director of Finance and Administration Kelly Pasztor, Director of Educational Services Constance Neely, International Training Programs Director Lee Dueringer, Director of Development Ann Adams, Director of Publications & Outreach and Managing Editor, IN PRACTICE Jessica Stolz, Finance Coordinator Lee Johnson, Project Assistant BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Rio de la Vista, Chair Allan Savory, Vice-Chair Leslie Christian, Secretary Richard Smith, Treasurer Manuel Casas Judy Richardson Bruce Ward Terry Word ADVISORY COUNCIL

Jim Shelton, Chair, Vinita, OK Robert Anderson, Corrales, NM Michael Bowman, Wray, CO Sam Brown, Austin, TX Leslie Christian, Portland, OR Gretel Ehrlich, Gaviota, CA Cynthia & Leo Harris, Albuquerque, NM Trudy Healy, Taos, NM Clint Josey, Dallas, TX Krystyna Jurzykowski, Glen Rose, TX Dianne Law, La Veta, CO Doug McDaniel, Lostine, OR Guillermo Osuna, Coahuila, Mexico Jim Parker, Montrose, CO Dean William Rudoy, Cedar Crest, NM York Schueller, El Segundo, CA Richard Smith, Houston, TX Africa Centre of Holistic Management Private Bag 5950, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe Tel: (263) (11) 213529; email: rogpachm@africaonline.co.zw Huggins Matanga, Director HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE (ISSN:1098-8157) is published six times a year by The Savory Center, 1010 Tijeras NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102, 505/842-5252, fax: 505/843-7900; email: savorycenter@holisticmanagement.org website: www.holisticmanagement.org Copyright © 2004.

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Smuts and Holism

by Jody Butterfield

e first published the following article in July W 1986, to introduce our members to Jan Smuts,

After obtaining degrees in science and literature, he won a scholarship to Cambridge in England where he went to study law. He was a quiet, serious student. I read much, walked much and thought much. On his rambles, he took books of philosophy and poetry, rather than law. Here he became acquainted with the work of one of America's greatest poets, Walt Whitman, who would have a profound influence on his thinking and would greatly influence his later work on holism.

the South African statesman-scholar who first coined the word holism and elaborated on it in Holism and Evolution (1926). Although other philosophers in other cultures had expressed similar ideas over the centuries, it was Smuts who gave it a name and a theoretical base and who most influenced Allan Savory in the development of Holistic Management. We feel it is worth reprinting in our 20th year because Smuts remains a forgotten figure despite his contributions to world peace, to science, and, of course, to our Lessons in Unity understanding of holism.

Smuts was no stranger to America. In New He finished Cambridge with honors and York in 1929, he was given a ticker tape parade immediately left for South Africa and the honoring him as a founder of the League of woman he wanted to marry. South Africa was Nations and as the world s greatest living in some turmoil when he arrived and set up statesman. But today his name is hardly recoghis law practice. His own people, the Boers nized.

(Dutch for farmer), were deeply mistrustful of the English settlers whom they saw as Smuts was born in 1870 of Dutch ancestry exploiting South on a wheat farm in Africa with the the Cape Province of We find, instead of the hostility backing of the South Africa. As the British Empire. second son in the which is felt in life, that this is a Smuts entered family, his future was friendly universe. We are all interpolitics as State already mapped out Attorney and for him. He would related. The one helps the other. worked to persuade remain on the farm It is an idea that gives strength the Boers to agree to while his elder and peace and is bound to give a settle their brother was edudifferences cated. Although he more wholesome view of life and peacefully; but he was not robust, he nature than we have had so far. was not successful, worked long, hard and the Boers days on the farm.

Wholeness is the key to thought, declared war on the His grandfather and when we take that view we British Empire. sometimes took pity shall be able to read much more Within a few years, on him during the Smuts felt bound to coldest mornings of the riddle of the universe. join with them and and carried him to Jan Christian Smuts proved to be an able the fields in his arms. leader. He emerged When he was 12 from the Boer War years old, his brother a toughened young man with a reputation as died and life changed dramatically. Smuts a brilliant strategist and the rank of General. would now be educated in preparation for His overriding desire now was to mend fences entering the Church. Smuts, in fact, proved with the British Empire and to ease the tensions to be a prodigy and, with the help of a between Englishman and Boer within the warphotographic memory, managed to learn ravaged country. His efforts and those of others English and complete school in four years eventually led to the creation of the Union of (rather than the usual 11). He left for college South Africa. Britain proved willing to forgive at 16 and again proved a brilliant student, but and forget, but the Boers found it difficult. he was also developing in other ways. These Their deep resentment against Britain would were some of the happiest days of my life. I hamper Smuts attempts at unity throughout read much and widely. My mind was simply his career. dazzled and attracted by beauty in all its intellectual forms, but my passion for nature Smuts was serving as Colonial Secretary and made me spend most of my free time in the Minister of Education in 1907 when he had mountains, along the streams and in his first run-in with Mohandas Gandhi, who the innumerable winding valleys. had come to South Africa to practice law and,

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very shortly afterward, politics. Smuts was obliged to jail Gandhi, who had broken the law, but Gandhi proved forgiving. Although Smuts sent him to jail several more times, the two had an admiration for each other that lasted their lifetimes.

In 1910, he helped found the liberal South African Party, which had as its main opposition a group of conservatives led by a Boer War General who still distrusted the British. This group became known as the Nationalist Party (which ran the country up until reunification in 1993). The contention between the two parties came to a head with the outbreak ofWorld War I. The Nationalist Party wanted to come in on Germany s side and sponsored a major rebellion, which was successfully put down. South Africa entered the war on Britain s side.

Smuts led South Africa s troops in the first campaign of the Allies to be brought to a successful conclusion in the war. On his return he was a hero in the towns, but in the countryside he was seen as a despised toolof Britain. The Boers (now Afrikaners ) in his own party were affected by the hostility and began to leave the party in droves.

Smuts feared a repeat of the anger and bloodshed that had torn the country apart in the past and pleaded for unity. In elections that year (1915), his party didn t win a single seat.

In 1916, the British government offered Smuts the command of the East Africa Cam-paign and gave him the rank of Lieutenant General.

Smuts accepted the command and once again proved himself an able leader and strategist. When it was over, he was called to London where he was overwhelmed by the warmth of his reception. Winston Churchill wrote: At this moment there arrives in England from the outer marches of the Empire a new and altogether extraordinary man His astonishing career and his versatile achievements are only the index of a profound sagacity and a cool, far reaching comprehension

The League of Nations At the end of the War, Smuts was dismayed by the emotional hysteria of the Allies and the revulsion they had for Germany. He urged them to be magnanimous and to reduce their demands for reparations from Germany, which was by then bankrupt. His hope was rather to organize the world for victory as he expressed in his treatise, The League of Nations A Practical Suggestion.

This hastily written document was to become famous, for it embodied the major portion of ideas that were subsequently incorporated into the constitution of the League of Nations (the ill-fated predecessor of the United Nations). Although he was urged to remain in England after the war, he returned to South Africa where he became Prime Minister in 1921.

Within two years, the Nationalist Party had successfully maneuvered a coalition with another opposition party, which

Jan Smuts rendered useless any attempts by Smuts to lead the country. He resigned as Prime Minister and returned to a farm he had purchased some years earlier to house his growing family. It was here that he wrote Holism and Evolution, over an eight-month period.

Smuts theory of holism was derived from a variety of sources and experiences. In studying the works of Goethe and Walt Whitman, it seemed to him that there was something greater in the men than in their works and in their personalities, than in their mere words. It was in studying their personalities that he came upon the conception of the whole. The Boer War had left him his first big problem in holism.

We were left fragments out of which we were to make a whole.

Holism and Evolution The First World War provided an even larger set of fragments to piece together. But the strongest stimulus to his thinking on holism came from his reading of the great scientists, Darwin in particular. In the years to come when people look back on the changes in our human attitude, they will probably say the greatest changes have been wrought, not by [war], but by science. Science has proved the greatest constructive force in the world, but it has also proved the greatest destructive agent. Our world of ideas has been practically shattered by the changes in science.

Smuts felt that the most notable change science had made in the world of ideas was the idea of creative evolution. The people of Smuts era had been brought up to look upon the world as something ready-made and completed and moving forward as a fixed, rigid entity. Science had shattered that idea and shown that the world was far from rigid. It was a growing, creative universe, a world in a state of flux with increase in all directions.

The realization of that concept meant a complete metamorphosis in ones outlook on life; there was nothing constant about the universe or its components; the universe changed and grew and developed, just like a human being. One also realized that the world at bottom was not substance but flexible, changing patterns. If you take patterns as the ultimate structure of the world, if it is arrangements and not stuff that make up the word, said Smuts, the new concept leads you to the concept of wholes. Wholes have no stuff; they are arrangements.

Science has come round to the view that the world consists of patterns, and I construe that to be that the world consists of wholes.

The wholes and parts formed and shaped each other. Yet the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. Human personality was the highest whole. People shaped all their thoughts, all their actions by the whole in them, their personalities. At the same time the parts had influenced the whole in them by mutual service and adaptation.

Holism and Evolution ran into three editions in England in 1926 and several in America and Germany. It remains in print to this day. Smuts was anxious to complete a sequel to the book, which he considered Continued on page 4

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Smuts and Holism Continued from page 3

an introduction to the concept of holism, but he never found the time to do it.

The biggest shortcoming in his thinking about wholes, was Smuts failure to include black South Africans in them. He abhorred the system of apartheid later established in the country, and he strived to be fair and just in all his dealings with South Africa s blacks, but his attitude was clearly paternalistic. And he did not seek to unify them into the whole of South Africa.

A United Nations When World War II broke out, South Africans were again divided in their loyalties to Britain and Germany. The Nationalists wanted to remain neutral Smuts and his supporters were horrified by the threat of Nazism and were anxious to aid the Allies in their efforts. When things came to a head, Smuts had the majority of the country with

him and he was called on to form a new government.

Now in his 70 s, although he was fit, Smuts was well beyond leading South African forces into battle. But the British government once again called on him as an advisor and strategist and elevated him to the rank of Field Marshal. As the war in Europe drew to a close in the spring of 1944, he traveled to San Francisco to work with other leaders to hammer out a charter to create a United Nations and personally authored the Charter s preamble.

Once the war was over, political antagonisms in South Africa which had remained on hold during the war once again raged. The Nationalist Party had issued a long statement on a new policy known as apartheid and made it clear that the upcoming elections would be fought on racial lines. In view of his government s wartime record, Smuts hoped for a considerable majority of the votes. And thus the results, a Nationalist victory, came as a

stunning shock. He could not hide his bitter disappointment.

This is a Good World

South Africa then entered what he considered a dark period of totalitarian politics (from which it only emerged in 1993). But true to his nature, Smuts continued to battle on in opposition. The battle aged him rapidly. The mental anguish he must have suffered in seeing his painstaking efforts to build unity in South Africa over the last 50 years, so swiftly torn apart, would have been great. But to the end of his life in 1950, at age 80, despite failing health and overwhelming setbacks, his beliefs remained intact: This is a good world. We need not approve of all the times in it, nor of all the individuals in it; but the world itself, which is more than its parts or individuals, which has a soul a spirit, a pull, a fundamental relation to each of us deeper than all other relations, is a friendly world.

There is not only poetic value but profound truth in the spiritual interpretation of Nature to which Wordsworth and other great poets of Nature have accustomed us. And that truth is not merely that we invest Nature with our own emotional attributes. It is, in fact, to be traced to far deeper sources in our human origins. For we are indeed one with Nature; her genetic fibres run through all our being; our physical organ so connect us with millions of years of her history; our minds are full of memorial paths of pre-human experience. Our ear for music, our eye for art carry us back to the early beginnings of animal life on this globe. Press but a button in our brain, and the gaunt spectres of the dim, forgotten past rise once more before us; the ghostly, dreaded forms of the primeval Fear loom before us and we tremble all over with inexplicable fright.

And then again, some distant sounds, some call of bird or smell of wild plants, or some sunrise or sunset glow in the distant clouds, some mixture of light and shade on the mountains may suddenly throw an unearthly spell over the spirit, lead it forth from the deep chambers, and set it panting and wondering with inexpressible emptiness. For the overwrought mind there is no place like Nature s, for the wounded spirit there is no healing like hers. There are indeed times when human companionship becomes unbearable, and we fly to Nature for that silent sympathy and communion which she alone can give.

Some of the deepest emotional experiences of my life have come to me on the many nights I have spent under the open African sky; and I am sure my case has not been singular in this respect. The intimate rapport with Nature is one of the most precious things in life. Nature is indeed very close to us; sometimes perhaps closer than hand and feet, of which in truth she is but the extension.

Jan Christian Smuts / Holism and Evolution, 1926

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J a nu a r y / Fe b r u a r y 20 04

Proving Up on Proving Ground La Semilla Land Restoration

by Craig Leggett

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ate in 2002 The Savory Center was awarded a 75-year lease on 1,667 acres of land known as La Semilla in Albuquerque.

In 2003 we spent much of our time developing partnerships with numerous environmental education organizations, schools, youth groups, architects, and planners all of which will play a role in this learning site. Last summer, we also won a contract from the State to revegetate 200 acres of state land adjacent to La Semilla. This article is a report of the preliminary results of that effort, which was done in partnership with Savory Center members and ranchers, George Whitten and Julie Sullivan.

Colorado, George thought this project would be a natural progression to hone his skills and share his knowledge with others. He also needed to let his pastures regrow and was looking for a place to graze his cattle for the summer. We were excited about the possibility of working with one of our experienced members, and began planning ahead to the first stage.

weeks. We fed the 124 cow/calf pairs and five bulls a total of about two tons of hay a day, and the herd consumed up to 2,000 gallons (7,570 liters) of water each day.

The cattle impacted, or treated, the areas where they were fed nearly an acre a day leaving hay litter, manure, broken sagebrush, grazed plants, and many hoof prints.

Testing the Results

We also had Terence Dodge, a Soil FoodWeb consultant, come down from Portland, Oregon, to test the site for its soil microbiology before and after the treatments.Tests showed a six-fold In the spring of 2003, Land increase in total fungal biomass, Renewal, Inc. (The Savory Center s including the presence of a for-profit subsidiary) was beginning community of disease suppressive to plan our revegetation efforts on fungi on a treated site. On an 200 acres of state land that was once untreated site, the fungal biomass used as an Air Force explosives test only doubled for the same time site. The idea was to use cattle as a period and was low in count. tool to jump start the ecological After only one treatment with cattle, the La Semilla revegetation site is showing marked improvement with galleta Increased fungi demonstrates processes on that area. The original and black grama grasses (below) growing on bare ground greater nutrient supply and reclamation work performed in 1998 (above). With increased organic matter, we've seen at least moisture-retaining capacity. involved extensive digging and twice the water infiltration rate and six times the fungal We also measured water grading and a conventional seeding biomass. infiltration. After a one tenth of program that resulted in poor plant an inch (2.5 mm) rain shower, establishment. Thus, the New water on disturbed soil with litter Mexico State Land Office s interest cover soaked down an average of in trying something different on such four inches (100 mm), whereas on drastically disturbed land. Our recently capped undisturbed soil proposal to use cattle attracted their it soaked down only two inches interest. As we moved to the (50 mm). After a one-inch (25 implementation phase of this project, mm) rain storm, water infiltrated we knew we wanted to collaborate 50 percent more effectively on with a rancher who could supply his treated sites with litter than on or her cattle for this project since we untreated bare/capped sites weren t in the position to purchase averaging 14 inches (350 mm) the cattle. We had previously done compared to 8 inches (200 mm). this successfully with Savory Center It rained one and a half inches member Rukin Jelks on a reveg(37.5 mm) during the revegetation etation project at the Yuma Proving Breaking Ground treat-ment period (La Semilla averages Grounds in Arizona.

On June 20, 2003, four semi-truck nine inches or 225 mm a year) and the Serendipitously, George Whitten and loads of cattle arrived at La Semilla on range responded with fast growth and his wife, Julie Sullivan, stopped by The the southern edge of Albuquerque along regrowth of grasses and shrubs. Most of Savory Center and Shannon Horst, Senior with George and Julie and their camping the treated area had enough recovery time Director of Strategic Projects, asked them trailer in tow. Then the work began: After for the grasses to go to seed (mostly galleta if they would be interested in working drawing up a grazing plan, we stretched and black grama). with us at La Semilla using their cattle. four miles of electric fence, hooked up We ve appreciated George and Julie s Prompted by a three-year drought and 1½ miles of poly-pipe waterline, moved dedication and help with the La Semilla the desire of George s children to come water troughs, brought on a 2,000-gallon revegetation project. The results we are back to the family homestead, George and water truck, and hauled in six semi-trailer already seeing on the land are very Julie had been looking for ways to diversify loads of hay. encouraging, and with another treatment their ranching operation.

The actual revegetation work started planned for the spring we look forward As a long-time, Holistic Management on August 5th and ran for seven and a half to an opportunity to collect new data. practitioner in the San Luis Valley of N u m b e r 93

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A New Appreciation for Biodiversity

by Ann Adams

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n 1989, Jack Varian, like many ranchers, was struggling. We were in our third year of drought, and I didn t know what to do differently. I was looking over the fence to see what my neighbor was doing and he was looking over his fence to see what I was doing. We were all going downhill and didn t know how to change, says Jack. Luckily, Jack s friend and mentor, George Work, encouraged him to come to a Holistic Management workshop that changed the way Jack viewed his 20,000-acre (8,096-ha) V6 Ranch near Parkfield, California and all the life on it.

Redefining the Ranch

Over the years, Jack began testing some of the actions he had always taken for granted as a rancher. One change he made was how he fed hay to his cattle. Jack realized that normally he would wait until he was out of grass in the late fall, and then he would feed hay when there was rain and the ground was muddy and easily compacted.

Once he realized that he knew ahead of time what his forage needs would be through accurate assessment of the forage his land could produce, then he could feed the cattle hay any time of the year when it was best for the land and wildlife. By choosing the best time, he could also use the hay as an enticement to the cattle to improve animal impact on certain areas. In this way, Jack began spreading hay in August in various paddocks such as old crop pastures to resurrect those fields. He also turned out all his farming equipment and decided it was cheaper to buy the hay that he did need rather than raise it.

Likewise, as he began feeding hay to the cattle out in the fields, he noticed that the wild pigs would follow the cattle and break up their dung to get at the undigested grains.

This action improved the mineral cycle and also aided the wild hogs, which in turn became an additional source of revenue for the ranch as more pigs survived.

This potential for diversification of enterprises was important to the Varians as they were all clear that they didn t want to mine the ranch and add additional acres of desertifying rangeland to that around them. They also saw many of their neighbors retiring and the land being subdivided. They wanted enterprises that gave them more economic opportunities for other family members and encouraged increased biodiversity.

One of the ideas they developed was including guests on their cattle drives so they built a camp with bathrooms and showers to accommodate them. Now they have up to 25 guests for each of the three-day cattle 6

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drives they hold four times a year. They are currently in their tenth year of offering this activity and have a waiting list. All of their marketing is word of mouth and 70 percent of their guests are repeat customers. They also have a waiting list each year for their deer and pig hunting enterprise. Jack spends most of his 1994 was the first year that Jack kept the cattle out of Little Cholame time working on Creek in the summer. This photo was taken in August 1995. these enterprises and growing more grass each year, while Jack s a few more deer, and I ve enhanced the wife, Zera, takes care of the cattle and trains biodiversity on this ranch. the horses. Jack s son-in-law, Mike Massey, Jack s interest in improved biodiversity markets the cattle. is also evident in his work along the riparian corridors of the ranch. For much of his Extending Stewardship first 30 years of ranching this land, the Another decision the Varians made was creekbeds were dry. One stream had been to sell a conservation easement to the dry for 100 years. However, due to the California Rangeland Trust in April 2001, changes in grazing planning, that stream which enabled them to pay off the ranch. is actually running seasonally and portions While they were concerned about taking are running year round. away their children s and grandchildren s The headwaters of the Little Cholame right to decide about the property in the Creek (the Yokut Indian word for pretty future, the Varians felt that potential division one ) begin on the Varians ranch and the of the land after their death was too great creek winds through the ranch for six or a risk of family conflict. With a conservation seven miles. Local government agencies easement, the children could choose to sell have expressed an interest in testing water the ranch in the future, but it would be turbidity and whether the Varians land protected from further development and management has influenced it. Based on subdivision.

Jack s initial observations, he believes their Also, because the Varians believe that they testing will show a decrease in turbidity are stewards responsible to the land, the and soil deposition. easement extends their ability to care for Jack has noticed more willows and the land after they are gone which is an cottonwoods along the riparian areas due important value for them. Sure we have a to the improved soil health all over the responsibility to our four children and our ranch, but also because of efforts to keep nine grandchildren, but we also have a cattle out of the riparian areas in the responsibility to all the other critters on the summer when the young shoots are most ranch. Who will speak for them when we susceptible to cattle browsing. He has also are gone? We ve taken on that role of seen an increase in quail, and local birding preserving their home. The conservation groups have counted an increase of 10 bird easement will speak for them after we are species on the ranch since 1990. gone.

Making use of the USDA-Natural Jack s current management also reflects Resource Conservation Services EQIP that sentiment. I ve learned to look at all grant monies, Jack has also improved his the land, plants, and animals differently spring development and water distribution and to realize their value. Before I graze a over the ranch so that he can better utilize paddock or mash the brush, I consider the the forage and improve the land with his value to the other critters. Each plant or herd of 1400 cattle. As he s improved his animal is valuable in its own right. Land water distribution, he has been able to isn t necessarily poor or bad; it s just different, increase his paddocks from the five or six and different land takes different paddocks he had in 1989 to his current management. I might choose to keep the 44 permanent paddocks, which he further chamisa on the land because of its value to subdivides with temporary fence. Also, the deer. In return, I might be able to harvest because he has increased the number of

J a nu a r y /February 20 04

water troughs and ponds across his property, he is seeing more deer utilizing both the water and the increased forage.

Improved water and food for the deer has helped them withstand increased pressure from growing numbers of mountain lions and coyotes.

While Jack has been ranching for 45 years, he continues to enjoy learning new things and exploring how he can continue to improve the land and the biodiversity on the ranch. Jack s current goal is to double the forage on the ranch in the next five years by improving his grazing management even more and working with more temporary fencing so that he can give the plants in some of his paddocks longer recovery times and improve his animal impact.

He d also like to try some

Three years and three months later in May 1999, the Little Cholame Creek now flourishes under Holistic Management planned grazing.

Trees are returning to the creekbed and water now runs all year long in some sections of the creek.

multi-species grazing to see how that will improve the land and animal performance.

I think what has been most helpful for me about Holistic Management is the monitoring and replan emphasis. It has really helped me see the importance of assuming you are wrong and testing your actions. I look at things differently. My decisions are based more on facts than looking or thinking about things to make them fit predetermined decisions.

I don t always carry out my end of the bargain. I don t monitor as formally as I should. If I did, I suppose I d make even more progress on the land than I have.

But I do know that Allan Savory and Holistic Management saved my bacon. It changed the way I view life and the land, and I m learning how to have more fun as part of the process.

The Art of Slowing Down When I was young and in my prime, I danced to

my ego all the time. I would awake in the morning full of excitement and ready for the challenges of the day. From 1959 to 1989, I was able to ride this runaway horse called ranching. It was exhilarating and exhausting, magnificently satisfying, and sometimes horrifyingly empty. The ride made you nimble and some times left you dazed, and it was always addictive. Addictive to the point that as margins in our cattle business got smaller and droughts seemed to get longer, trips to the bank to pay the line off got to be near impossible.

This 30-year dance marathon was about to end, for the remaining choices were few. Basically, I had to change or go broke and that mortifying option was too humiliating to contemplate. Enter George Work, who caught me at that right listening moment and said, Holistic Resource Management.

I said; What? That sounds like some scam that will cost money and waste time. George said, No, this fellow Allan Savory has a new and different way of solving problems. My inner thought was that he probably sticks pins in a voodoo doll, but George persisted and invited me to attend a three-day seminar.

Well, the rest is history. I became hooked, but it took awhile as I only understood bits and pieces of what he had to say. As I learned to listen more and talk less, this man with his new music got me dancing to his beat and things began to improve as I understood the principles of Holistic Management and learned to slow down and look around.

In the first 30 years of my journey through my business life, when my ego had its hands firmly on the reins of my runaway horse, I did everything at a gallop.

Look at those cattle over there...here they come... there they go. They look fine. Got to keep going.

But, you know, you can see a lot more at a walk than a gallop. In fact, I'm getting literally off my horse and walking, one, two and sometimes three hours a day. Oh look, there goes a redtail hawk, and look at that lizard sitting on top of that fence post over there why I have not seen this much wildlife in years.

People ask, How do you manage your ranch? I say, I do things that slow down the water that falls on the land, and I try to stay out of Mother Nature s way as much as possible. I do that by slowing down and seeing what the land is telling me, cow pies and all.

Jack Varian N u m b e r 93

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LAND LIVESTOCK

Clear Runoff Means True Wealth—

Binding Soil at Inverary by Jim Howell G

raeme and Susie Hand, from Victoria, Australia, lead diverse and challenging lives. Graeme is a Holistic ManagementÂŽ Certified Educator and, among other activities, he and Susie operate a successful consulting business providing Holistic Management training and coaching. Businesses trained and coached are involved in all levels of the meat production chain, environmental tourism, and the farming/grazing industry. Along with partner Mark Gardner (also a Certified Educator from New South Wales) they have also developed a land monitoring procedure they call ECOCHECK, and work with clients all over Australia.

In July 2001, Graeme and Susie made a life-changing decision. With a wealth of experience and knowledge gained through managing small grazing properties and helping others solve the riddles of their land and livestock management challenges, Graeme and Susie were keen to manage and restore a larger grazing property of their own, and so began a search for that perfect farm.

Moving meant they would have to leave a close group of friends, and their school age boys Jack and Tom would have to change schools. These were tough decisions, but the pull back to the land won out. They decided to give the move a try for a minimum of 12 months.

the long summer dormant period, this part of the world falls somewhere in the middle of the brittleness scale. It is much like a long stretch of coastal California, with its similar Mediterranean climate. For decades prior to the HandsÂ’ arrival, the property had been conventionally grazed and cropped, and bare ground had escalated to 80 percent of the total surface area. There was (and still is) a lot of work to be done, but the Hands were up to the task.

Graeme emphasizes that they were initially dealing with a product conversion weak link in the financial chain of production from sunshine energy to solar dollars. Their resource base (specifically the land and its ability to trap sunshine in the form of a diversity of plant life) was suffering, no question, but it was producing nothing in the form of a marketable product. In other words, they needed animals, and cash flow, before they could make anything happen on the ground. Funds had to be diverted to stock purchases instead of fencing and water infrastructure if the farm was going to start to pay for itself and begin to heal ecologically. They developed a detailed land plan, but laying out the money to create it on the ground had to give way to buying animals with which to start. Still, the Hands were anxious to plan their grazing as well as possible given the limited infrastructure, and so made extensive use of inexpensive portable fencing and portable water points to get animals to the Graeme Hand Resettled on Inverary right place, at the right time, and for the After months of hard looking, the Hands settled on a right reasons. property known as Inverary, near the town of Branxholme, The Hands also elected to divert money to several other Victoria. Inverary comprises 200 hectares (500 acres) of purchases that were not necessarily directly addressing their productive cool-season annual and perennial grasslands in a weak link of product conversion, but that took them toward winter rainfall region that receives 700-750 mm (28-30 other aspects of their holistic goal. They made the decision to inches) of annual precipitation. Rain is concentrated over an invest in a new cattle crush (squeeze chute) for reasons of safety 8-month period stretching from fall to late spring, and when working stock. They broke down and bought a second summers are characterized by near total dormancy. The cool, ATV (4-wheel motorcycle) so the family could go out to the nearly continual moist conditions of the rainy season allow paddock and work together, and they attended a Bud Williams for high levels of biological decay to take place, so despite training session to make this work as harmonious as possible.

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J a nu a r y /February 20 04

Product conversion (i.e., understocking) remained the weak link in their financial chain of production for the first two years on the farm. Having more forage than animals, and fairly rapid decay, meant that they were able to return significant quantities of ungrazed forage back to the soil surface as soil covering litter. This ever-increasing litter cover along with good grazing planning, which minimized overgrazing of long-neglected perennial grasses, resulted in major positive shifts in the health of their land. In their initial stages of management, stocking rate started at 1 cow to 2 hectares (5 acres). But after 18 months, the enhanced health of the ecosystem processes (and hence the productivity of the land) made it possible to increase carrying capacity to 1 cow to 1 hectare (2.5 acres), and, according to Graeme, that happened in a 100-year drought. The neighbors couldn t figure out where all the extra grass came from.

Over the past year, the drought has persisted and things have remained challenging. Despite the dry conditions, the Hands were able to continue increasing their stocking rate due to increasingly effective ecosystem processes. At the close of 2003, they were running four times the number of animals they could support when they began managing Inverary 2.5 years ago, with cattle numbers up to 313 head.

During the middle of last winter, their financial weak link shifted from product conversion to resource conversion.

Finally, they had more cattle than they had grass, and now had to shift their focus to getting even better control of the animals to enable more sunlight to be harvested. This meant they could now justify spending money on the implementation of their land plan, and they have initiated that endeavor with the installation of semi-permanent fencing, more subdivisions and water development. This has not only enabled them to trap more sunshine and continue on with their current stocking rate; it has also helped ease the strain of constant fence and water moving, thus alleviating their workload a significant development, given Graeme s hectic travel schedule as a consultant.

Pasture Cropping Possibilities To help strengthen this resource conversion weak link, several research trials have been established, all of which are investigating the practice of pasture cropping. Pasture cropping is based on the concept of exploiting dormant periods in their permanent pastures with the direct seeding of annual crops with complimentary growth requirements.

This allows the annual crops to be planted without tillage and hence no exposure of bare soil. For example, winter cereals can be direct drilled into summer-growing grasslands.

Many applications are possible, but that s the basic idea. On Inverary, one such project is studying the feasibility of seeding oats into weedy cool-season pastures. The Hands hoped the oats would help suppress the weeds without the use of herbicides, and it did that and more. The increased forage dry matter provided by the oats enabled a greater degree of grazing pressure and hence animal impact, which created germination sites for perennial cool-season grasses to establish.

Says Graeme, I especially like this idea because we are

The soil surface on a just-grazed paddock near the creek. What isn t visible is the decaying litter layer (litter 2) that has formed underneath.

controlling weeds through grazing, which produces income, versus herbicide, which exposes soil and produces no income.

They are also experimenting with pasture cropping warmseason annual grasses (such as corn and millet) into their coolseason swards. One method has been to simply broadcast the warm-season grass seed (by hand) in front of the cattle. The hand-broadcast millet was reasonably successful, says Graeme, especially among annual weed species. If the perennial pasture is too dense, then growth of the broadcast annuals is inhibited.

We have just had germination of this year s corn, which was planted using a single disc seeder and a roller. The pasture was grazed harder than usual (during an off-farm holiday).

Even though the pasture is still growing, we believe the cool-season plants were set back enough to allow the corn to germinate and begin growing more successfully than if it had been planted into a lighter-grazed cool-season pasture. The Hands are also working hard to reestablish native grasses and other endangered plants, in addition to a greater variety of warm-season grasses, to extend their growing season (and thus energy flow) into the hot summer.

Stop the Bleeding Graeme is hugely excited about the results he and the family are seeing on the land. His most noteworthy observation has been the quality of water runoff. Formerly that runoff was muddy and full of sediment, and it still is in the creeks entering the property. But when the water leaves his property it is now clear, reflecting the fact that there is little soil movement (see photos on page 13). Mediterranean climates are prone to excessive runoff, especially on soils low in organic matter, because of the saturated soil conditions that frequently develop with abundant winter rains arriving when very little evaporative loss takes place. The soils simply can t hold more water, so it runs off. As long as this runoff isn t carrying away precious soil, but arrives at the creek bed clear and clean and steadily flowing Continued on page 10 N u m b e r 93

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Back to Monitoring

Building Soil at Inverary Continued from page 9

To promote a greater awareness of ecosystem function, and to motivate producers to begin focusing on ecological health at the level of the soil surface (and hence stop the (not surging and rushing), runoff is a natural occurrence. bleeding of topsoil), Graeme, Susie, and Mark (their business But when runoff is muddy and comes in torrents, it isn t partner mentioned above) are diligently working to spread natural. their ECOCHECK monitoring procedure across the Australian By measuring the pedestal height of perennial plants of landscape. Developed around the Holistic Management known age, Graeme has been estimating annual soil losses of biological monitoring procedure, Graeme and partners are up to 10 tons/hectare (25 tons/acre) on farms across Australia providing ECOCHECK as a service themselves, as well as (and not just in Mediterranean southern Australia, but in the training others to provide the service to landowners. By summer rainfall areas of northern New South Wales and generating a detailed report on the monitoring data collected Queensland as well.) This equates to the loss of 1 mm (.25 and a control sheet to guide adjustments in management, the inches) of soil per year. Graeme likens this loss of soil to a ECOCHECK process has proven valuable in helping decision patient bleeding to death, and emphasizes that this bleeding makers stay on track toward their holistic goal. is the most critical issue facing agriculture. If a patient is ECOCHECK has enabled us to start discussing the bleeding to death, no matter what else we do, the patient benefits of early warning monitoring with other land will die if the bleeding isn t stopped. management agencies. Now, rather than having superficial So, how can runoff possibly be clean and clear? Does discussions on the value of certain species, we talk about the the soil have to be 100 percent covered? Graeme says it does, importance of focusing on ecosystem function and monitoring but covered by what? A neighbor of the Hands has nearly that toward a desired future resource base description, adds 100 percent ground cover, but the cover is comprised of Graeme. overgrazed grass plants that never have the chance to develop The health of all the ecosystem processes comes together healthy root systems or any older material to serve as litter. at the soil surface, and a soil surface covered with vigorous Without the root systems to hold soil in place, and litter, living plants and decaying plant litter is about as good as it specifically litter that is touching the soil surface and in the gets. When process of biologically describing the decaying into the l a n d s c o n organic soil horizon, dition in your soil will still be lost. future resource Graeme has observed base descripthat with heavy tion, Holistic rainfall events and Management hence runoff, cattle emphasizes and sheep will that it not just dislodge soil via be how you trampling, and that want the land soil will end up in the to be, but how runoff. With it has to be, decaying plant long into the material on the soil The rest of the Inverary management team Tom, Jack, and Lucy Hand. future, if your surface, the soil whole is to survive and flourish. It s easy to describe this state particles bind to the decaying organic matter, and animal to merely say, or write down, that the soil must be covered cattle hooves don t dislodge them. In that condition, the with a diversity of living plants and decaying litter, that runoff runoff is clear, and soil movement is stopped. A good check, must be clear, that energy flow must be optimal. Based on my explains Graeme, is to observe whether or not the motorbike own struggles, I can confirm with confidence that nurturing or truck leaves a dirty trail across the paddock. If this happens, those conditions into reality is never a straight-forward, linear then stock will also mobilize topsoil and soil will be lost in progression of success. runoff events.

I ve heard Allan Savory liken this process to climbing up When people visit and see the clear-running creek that a greasy pole. Every inch of progress comes at great effort, and winds its way through Inverary, they seem most interested not without setback. Graeme and Susie Hand, despite their in the creekside vegetation and how it must be filtering out short time on this previously abused piece of Australia, have the sediment. But it s not about the creek or the riparian already made fantastic progress up this greasy pole of healing. zone, says Graeme. The focus has to be on the production They re building back true wealth in the form of biological area, or catchment, as any filtering in the riparian area will capital. Keep up the good work, Graeme and Susie, keep be overwhelmed by heavy rainfall events. What it s all about monitoring, and keep us informed of your progress. is keeping the soil in the catchment area in place.

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The Savory Center Photo Contest A s you can see from the following pages, The Savory Center Photo Contest was a great success.

We received such a wonderful selection of photos that the judges had a hard time selecting the prize winners.

The judges viewed the photographs without knowledge of the text we have included here, and the photographs were judged solely on their own pictorial merit and the stories they told.

We have included a number of other photos that garnered votes, but didn t qualify for prizes.

Our thanks to those of you who donated the prizes (listed at left).

The contestants had a great list from which to choose.

Land & Livestock Prizes

First Place Graeme Hand The Savory Center s 15-CD collection of the textbook, Holistic Management Second Place Manuel Casas Ineligible for a prize as a Savory Center Board of Director Third Place Joy Law Mesquite wood-cutting board from Mexico by Ivan & Martha Aguirre of Rancho Inmaculada in Sonora, Mexico.

Contact: rancho_inmaculada@yahoo.com

Quality of Life Prizes

First Place Michael Bowman A self-catering holiday for four at Aspen, David, & Samuel Edge s El Pabellon retreat in the Sierra Nevadas in southern Spain. Contact: mlima_ngong@hotmail.com Second Place Tracy Cholin The Savory Center s Holistic Management® Financial Planning Software Third Place Michael Bowman A one-week stay at Ivan & Martha Aguirre s Rancho La Inmaculada in Sonora, Mexico covering all food and lodging.

Contact: rancho_inmaculada@yahoo.com

First Place: Quality of Life Michael Bowman, Wray, Colorado The photo below was taken at a school in Bethesda in Zimbabwe during our school gift presentation tour where we presented school supplies from other sister schools in the States as part of the outreach efforts of the Africa Centre for Holistic Management. When we arrived, we were greeted by smiling faces and children singing songs to us. The emotion was high and it was a very moving time for all of us. These children were watching as we prepared the table of gifts to present to the children.

Second Place: Quality of Life Tracey Cholin, Kerrobert, Saskatchewan, Canada The photo above was taken at our picnic at the Hawkins farm. The children have always been a part of our management group. From left, Avery (1), Benjamin (3), Meredith (6), and Emma (5) couldn t help but enjoy the wild sunflowers.

Photo contest continued on Page 12

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First Place: Land & Livestock Graeme Hand, Branxholme, Victoria, Australia All water entering our property four creeks coming off four properties managed differently (i.e., cropped, grazed, overrested, etc.) has the muddy color In the photo to the left. We have been managing our property of approximately 200 hectares (500 acres) for 2.5 years. The creek below runs through our property for approximately 1500 meters (1,646 yards) and everyone wants to look at it to see how it is filtering. But I keep saying it s not about the creek, it s about the soil not moving off the land.

These water samples (below, left) are taken after

a significant runoff event 25mm (1 inch) of rain that moved topsoil from grazing and cropping areas and overloaded the filtering ability of any streamside vegetation. The samples, pictured above right, show water as it comes onto our land (left jar) and water as it leaves our property (right jar).

The photo above shows the stream as it comes on to our property from the neighbor s property.

Notice the sediment in the water.

The photo to the right is the water coming off our property.

Note the lack of sediment in the water.

Second Place: Land & Livestock Manuel Casas, Mexico City, Mexico Working with a multi-species flerd to heal the land, as we are on this slip, is a key part of our sustainable agroforestry work at Chapa de Mota, Mexico.

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Third Place: Land & Livestock Joy Law, Hollister, California My family came from Switzerland where this would be called an Alpenaufzug when the cows go to the mountains in the spring. In the U.S. we call it low-stress or Bud Williams-style handling, and it s very much a part of Holistic Management for us. The cows are following the herder to the next field.

Third Place: Quality of Life Michael Bowman, Wray, Colorado This last trip to Zimbabwe really touched my soul.

I think the shaking hands really symbolizes the vision of the Africa Centre for Holistic Management people reaching out to each other.

Photos of Merit Tracey Cholin, Kerrobert, Saskatchewan, Canada This is Benjamin out watching birds in the dugout behind the yard. We found some new species of ducks this spring and learned the names of some of our regular visitors. Benjamin enjoys helping Dad with the cows as well as watching birds or baking with Mom. Holistic Management has given us the tools to plan for Jim to quit his job and be on the farm full-time. This has increased the quality of our lives immeasurably. We spend a lot of time enjoying our family and our farm and are continuing to learn new things about the world we live in.

Tracey Cholin, Kerrobert, Saskatchewan, Canada This sunrise was just too gorgeous to resist.

The picture was taken off our deck.

We sometimes take for granted how lucky we are to enjoy this view every day.

Holistic Management has given us the tools to be confident in our decision-making and to know that this is where we belong.

Photo contest continued on Page 14

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IN PRACTICE 13

Michael Bowman, Wray, Colorado Woman with child in Zimbabwe.

Joy Law, Hollister, California This is the Hollister Hills State Park in San Benito County, California. Joe Morris acquired the lease here in 1996, and we began using Holistic Management planned grazing. I manage the ranch for Joe and am the photographer. The photo above was taken in December 2000. The grass that is belly-high to the cows is lsymus triticoides, a perennial. (There were no perennials when we took over this ranch).

George Whitten, Saguache, Colorado Turtle herding the cattle is an example of low-stress livestock handling.

The photo below is the same area after cows grazed the land for five days in early January 2001.

The photo above is the same area in March 2001.

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Sandy Matheson, Bellingham, Washington On a recent visit to the Mt. Baker area in Washington State, I was in awe at the profound beauty and immense scale of the landscape before me. Since my introduction to Holistic Management in 1995, I have come to appreciate the complexity and simplicity of the world around me. Before then, I would not have even taken the time to visit this incredible place, despite the fact that itÂ’s in the same county.

The

Grapevine news from the savory center

Terry Word

Board of Directors Expands At its quarterly meeting in September, 2003,

the Savory Center s board welcomed three new members. Certified Educator Bruce Ward, of Sydney Australia, and Africa Certified Educator Training Program mentor Judy Richardson, of Vryburg, South Africa, both serve as ex-officio members. The appointment of these two international members is already paying dividends in bringing to the board the perspective of our membership in two of our fastest growing regions.

The board and staff also expressed thanks to Gary Rodgers, of Denver, Colorado, who completed his two-year term in September.

Taking Gary s place is Terry Word of Albuquerque, New Mexico, who, like Gary, brings a wealth of experience and a legal background.

Terry grew up in Alice, Texas, where his parents were schoolteachers. Terry spent most of his youth on and around the ranches and farms owned by various family members. But his passion was birds, something his father engendered in him from a young age. We were always out in the woods, says Terry. My dad knew every bird and plant there was. That s what got me interested in the environment and made me realize you can t have birds if you don t have the environment for them. He spends as much time as he can outdoors to this day, being an avid biker and hiker.

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p e o p l e , p ro g ra m s & p ro j e c ts

Terry received his bachelor s degree in economics and math from the University of Texas/Austin and then shipped off to Vietnam with the U.S. Navy. When he returned to the U.S., he went to law school, receiving his degree in 1973 at Austin. He then moved to Albuquerque to practice law, specializing in medical malpractice.

He was introduced to the Savory Center in 1999 when Allan Savory spoke at a local gathering of hunters and conservationists.

Two years later Terry joined Allan on a trip to Zimbabwe and was hooked. Going over there and staying for two weeks, I had the chance to see the incredible struggle the Africa Centre was up against, which I personally found overwhelming. The fact that the staff keeps plugging along is just remarkable, and the people there are so engaging, so wonderful, that I couldn t resist getting more involved. It just made me want to do more.

We look forward to our next two years with Terry, Bruce and Judy all of whom have taken on their roles with skill and enthusiasm.

Mike Bowman

Advisory Council Update The Savory Center s Advisory Council was

formed in 1986, as the Board of Governors, to assist the Center in fundraising. It was renamed the Advisory Board in 2000 to reflect the equally important role its members played in reviewing Savory Center activities and growth opportunities and providing non-binding advice and guidance.

In 2003 it assumed its present name to distinguish it from our governing board.

From the beginning, election to the Advisory Council, no matter what we called it, has been one way the Savory Center could recognize and honor those who have contributed substantially to the Center either financially or with their time and efforts or both. The Council s newest member, Mike Bowman, profiled below, brings the total membership to 18.

Robert Anderson, Corrales, New Mexico, stepped down as Chair last September, after two years of service that saw the Council triple in size and greatly increase its effectiveness. Jim Shelton, a Vice President of the Oklahoma State Bank in Vinita, Oklahoma, graciously agreed to replace Robert in what is becoming an increasingly important part of the Savory Center s leadership.

Mike Bowman grew up on a ranch in eastern Colorado that his father restored to such health and productivity that The Nature Conservancy purchased it in the 90 s as one of its Last Great Places. The family retained a farming operation near Wray, Colorado, which Mike still participates in managing.

Following high school, Mike discovered a passion for community development, which led him to serve as a founding director of a rehabilitation and activities center for the Wray community. Soon after he was appointed to the National Council of Advisors for the Heartland Center for Leadership Development in Lincoln, Nebraska, a position he s held since 1991.

In 2002 Mike visited the Africa Centre for Holistic Management in Zimbabwe and came away convinced that Holistic Management was key to providing effective change within agricultural and rural communities. He wanted to learn more and do more. And so he is, as our newest Advisory Council member.

I hope my association with the Center and the Council will allow me to use my past (and present) successes in improving rural conditions worldwide, says Mike. I want to help ensure the Savory Center is a catalyst for helping people and producers find a healthy balance between the amorality of our economic system and the efficiency of our food supply.

Colorado Ranch Receives Riparian Award Alan and Patricia Lisenby, owners of the

Rio Oxbow Ranch near Creede, Colorado, received the Award for Excellence in Riparian Management from the Colorado Riparian Association at their annual conference held in November in Alamosa.

The Riparian Association also recognized the ranch managers and Savory Center

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The

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members, Dale and Anne Pizel, for their implementation of land use practices and grazing management that has resulted in significant improvements to the riparian area along the section of the Rio Grande that flows through the ranch.

The 2002 Ranch and Rangeland Manager Training Program at Jim & Daniela Howell s Blue Ranch.

Dale Pizel receiving Colorado Riparian Association Award for Excellence in Riparian Management.

The Lisenbys have owned the Rio Oxbow since 1996 and are deeply involved in all aspects of the ranch management. They have dedicated themselves to its care and restoration through management and riparian restoration efforts. The Pizels, who live on their own neighboring ranch and manage the Rio Oxbow and its grazing operation, have been active partners. Their combined efforts have led to what NRCS District Conservationist, Steve Russell, describes as an extremely healthy riparian area.

Congratulations to the Lisenbys and the Pizels.

Mexican Certified Educator Training Program In the fall of 2003, The Savory Center, in

collaboration with the Fundación para

Fomentar el Manéjo Holístico (Foundation for the Promotion of Holistic Management), began Certified Educator training for 38 employees of Mexico s Department of Agriculture. Divided into two groups, these individuals work with and influence producers from Baja, California to Chiapas, Mexico. Holistic Management Certified Educator and Director of the Fundación, José Ramón Villar will be serving as the Mexico Program Director. Elco Blanco and Daniela Ibarra-Howell are the educator team with Jim Howell serving as the Program Mentor. The entire program is being taught in Spanish and each of the eight intensives will be held in a different region of Mexico, with these groups graduating in 2005.

Ranch & Range Manager Graduation In October 2004, trainees completed their

final graduation session of the 2002 Ranch and Rangeland Manager Training Program at John and Charlotte Hackley s Richards

A group of trainees at a pre-training session in Tamaulipas to prepare participants for the Mexican Certified Educator Training Program.

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Ranch Retreat. This final session includes low-stress livestock handling, a special session on commodity and niche marketing, and a walkabout with Allan Savory. For more information on our 2004 program beginning in August 2004, contact Ann Adams at The Savory Center at 505/842-5252 or anna@holisticmanagement.org.

Savory Center Strategic Planning Last fall Savory Center staff and board

developed a strategic plan that will take us through the next five years. We are indebted to Chris Thorsen who facilitated the planning sessions and to the Whalen Family Foundation for their generous contribution toward Chris facilitation fee. Without the Whalen Family Foundation s investment in The Savory Center, we would not have been able to make this effort such a success. We plan to share more details of our strategic plan in future issues of IN PRACTICE.

New Look & New Name If you haven t visited The Savory Center website recently at www.holisticmanagement.org, you might want to click by for a visit.

We ve made some architectural changes to the site that make it much easier to navigate. In particular, we suggest you visit our online library, which was noted in the recent Rangelands (the Society for Range Management publication) for its mix of interesting articles and links. We continue to collect educational and inspirational stories on the site as well as other articles of interest.