#084, In Practice, July/Aug 2002

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT

IN PRACTICE

in this Issue

Providing the link between a healthy environment and a sound economy JULY / AUGUST 2002 NUMBER 84

Learning From Outreach

by Doug Warnock In collecting the articles for this edition and talking with members, I was struck by ho w many Holistic Management practitioners see community or public outreach as a means of continued learning and motivation. While it might be easier to just practice within the smaller whole of their business or family, these people have found they can learn a lot from working on bigger projects with people from diverse backgrounds. The challenge of being involved in these new ventures with new people keeps them from falling into routine or habit and not making the most of their human creativity .

While management clubs can provide good support for some practitioners, they are not the only way to remain motivated and to learn. Some practitioners find that a community project is a better venue for sharing this new process with others because they have developed a relationship with the other decision makers around a community issue and can introduce these concepts in a context where people are better able to understand them. Regardless of how you approach it, the key to a rewarding outreach experience is to engage others in your community in a way that mo ves you toward your holistic goal; the choice is yours. —Editor

I

n 1995, a dozen Holistic Management practitioners in central Washington, including myself, formed a non-profit corporation, Solar $, through which we now sponsor workshops, develop manuals and conduct educational programs. “Creating Wealth From Sunlight” is our slogan, and we are becoming known in the Western U.S. for our work in support of good land stewardship and our promotion of Holistic Management.

Although many in the group knew each other before, it was only after we became classmates in the WSU-Kellogg Holistic Management Project that we decided to band together in order to learn more and to promote better resource management. We decided to form a non-profit corporation to be in a better position to attract and manage grant monies. We anticipated being able to support state and local projects for which there might be grants from either governmental agencies or private foundations. With official status as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, we are able to receive grants and to manage the funds of

projects associated with our mission and goal.

As Holistic Management practitioners, we decided to call our group Solar $ because the one true source of all wealth is solar energy and we’re trying to help others understand that concept in our communities.

A Purpose The WSU-Kellogg Project was a multifaceted educational program conceived and coordinated by Don Nelson, Washington State University Cooperative Extension Beef Specialist, and directed by Jeff Goebel, a Certified Educator living in Washington state. The program included two week-long training courses per year over a four-year period and combined training in Holistic Management, consensus building, Stephen Covey’s leadership development, enterprise facilitation and the Natural Step Program.

Over 150 people participated, including farmers, ranchers, environmentalists, educators, state and federal agency representatives and members of the continued on page 2

Creating Wealth from Sunshine is the slogan for Solar $, a new non-profit in Washington State that, among other things, helps educate new landowners about how to manage their land. Doug Warnock is one of the founding members of this group as well as a Certified Educator. Like the other people featured in this issue, Doug learned ho w important sharing information with others is for continued learning. Read his lead on this page to learn more about what Solar $ has to of fer and what members of this group have received in return.

HRM of Texas, Inc.—Still Active After All These Years Peggy Jones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Tree New Mexico—Beyond Tree-Hugging Ann Adams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 The Dry Creek Basin—A Rock in the Pond Ann Adams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

LAND & LIVESTOCK— A special section of IN PRACTICE Rancho de la Inmaculada—Prospering in the Desert Jim Howell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Bringing Back the Beasts—Managing Wild Herbivores and Their Predators Jim Howell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Savory Center Advisory Board Savory Center Bulletin Board Marketplace

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The Allan Savory Center for Holistic Management

Learning From Outreach

continued from page one

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 Ann Adams, Secretary Manuel Casas, Treasurer Gary Rodgers Allan Savory

ADVISORY BOARD Robert Anderson, Chair, Corrales, NM Sam Brown, Austin, TX Leslie Christian, Portland, OR Gretel Ehrlich, Gaviota, CA 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

STAFF Shannon Horst, Executive Director; Kate Bradshaw, Associate Director; Allan Savory, Founding Director; Jody Butterfield, Co-Founder and Research and Educational Materials Coordinator ; 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; Ann Reeves, Bookkeeper; Mary Child, Regional Program Development Coordinator.

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 © 2002.

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Colville Confederated Tribes. That diversity helped enhance everyone’s learning in the project and instigated our interest in further opportunities to collaborate.

Early in Solar $’s life, several existing agencies said they needed someone to provide education on land management to a growing number of new landowners with small acreages. David Chain, Kittitas County District Conservationist, is a member of our group and he is the one that brought this need to our attention. He suggested the possibility of obtaining an Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) grant through the local conservation district to fund such a program. Solar $ was willing to take on the responsibility and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) was able to obtain an EQIP grant, which the local Conservation District administered.

Solar $ contracted with the conservation district to begin the Small Acreage Management program in the summer of 1997.

Targeting Managers of Small Farms Since then, Solar $ has conducted educational meetings, field study tours, distributed a bi-monthly newsletter and has written and published the 90-page Small Ranch Manual , a guide to management for green pastures and clean water. The central focus of the manual is on using irrigation water efficiently, controlling soil erosion and enhancing water quality. With over 3,400 land ownerships of 20 acres or less in Kittitas County, there are a lot of people that influence water quality, and the influence can be positive or negative.

“Someone with five acres that are mismanaged can be a real problem and make it bad for all of the other land owners,” says Anna Lael, manager of the Kittitas County Conservation District. We feel that the Holistic Management principles we have incorporated into this manual will help them influence these ecosystem processes in a positive way.

The Small Ranch Manual has chapters on setting a goal, pasture management, pasture irrigation, managing streams and ponds to protect water quality, erosion control, managing animal waste, woodlot

care, wildlife habitat, pest management, landscape care and management, maintaining water purity in private wells, proper maintenance of septic systems, and how to get help in dealing with underground fuel storage tanks. The manual has been very well received with over 3,750 copies distributed.

One example of landowners we have helped is John and Jackie Robinson. They moved to the Kittitas Valley five years ago and purchased 20 acres with the idea of raising horses and cattle. They were inexperienced in managing land and looked for advice. “We had to learn from the ground up,” Jackie says. She credits Solar $ with helping them learn about fencing, irrigating, pasture improvement and grazing management so they could, in turn, have a positive effect on the land.

Other Educational Programs Solar $ also sponsors workshops conducted by a team of Washington-based Certified Educators including myself, Craig Madsen, Sandy Matheson, Maurice Robinette, and Lois Trevino. We have conducted three workshops this year and have several more planned for next year.

These have gone well according to the responses of participants. Most of the participants have been farmers and ranchers in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Through these workshops, we are helping producers manage with a greater focus on the longterm results of their actions and with a more complete sense of direction. The experience has been great for us and has helped us improve our skills as teachers and facilitators.

Planning for the Future Solar $ is looking ahead to other programs and projects. In September we met to review our holistic goal, assess what had been accomplished, and consider new directions. While we want to continue helping managers of both small acreages and commercial ranches, we hope to get more involved in some of the current policy issues, especially those directly related to land and water. We live in an area in which agriculture is dependent upon

HRM of Texas, Inc.—

Still Active After All These Years irrigation water. Water quality and quantity are foremost as issues of the day, and we think Solar $ needs to be more involved in these issues. Solar $ members are also interested in interacting with other organizations that are involved in environmental issues, and we hope to develop better networks in order to collaborate and be more effective in influencing local and regional policies.

Charging Batteries I think most of us are involved because we couldn’t accomplish alone what we can accomplish together, and it can be lonely if you’re the only one trying something new.

“I appreciate being able to work and learn with other folks that are not afraid to think outside the box,” says Joe Meuchel, rancher and Solar $ member. “Attending and participating in this group’s activities helps me keep my battery charged.”

Another member, Dave Duncan, a purebred cattle breeder, says that one of the major benefits of being part of the group is having the support of people with similar interests and goals. This has made the group more effective. “We’ve definitely had a positive effect. We’ve influenced people in developing goals for their resources, both land and human resources.”

For me, it’s been a very fulfilling experience. I have seen a number of people influenced positively by our activities. Being able to meet and work with a group that has common interests and focus helps me keep on track. I can understand the loneliness of one enthused about Holistic Management who has no one with whom to share ideas and plan activities on a regular basis. This type of group and this organization has provided a focus for my energies and I look forward to the new and expanding experiences that we encounter as we continue to move toward our holistic goal.

For more information on Solar $, its activities or the educator team’s workshops, contact Doug at warnockd@elltel.net or phone 509/925-1070.

by Peggy Jones Editor’s Note: We asked Peggy Jones to write an article about the history of HRM of Texas because it is one of the oldest and most activ e regional Holistic Management groups in the U.S. As Peggy notes, coordinating such a group is not without it’s challenges, but HRM of Texas has pro ven to be a vocal presence in Texas regarding land management issues and has helped spread the word about Holistic Management.

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hat is it that has kept HRM (Holistic Resource Management) of Texas going strong for so many years? Texans have a reputation of being stubborn and fiercely independent, yet for a small organization (our paid membership rarely reaches 200), we have been able to accomplish a remarkable amount over the 15 years of our existence. Our success, in fact, is really about that very independence, and our tenacity and dedication to making a difference. It is also about coming together for camaraderie and soaking up new information, bringing in friends and neighbors, and handing the baton to fresh energies when we need to.

In the Beginning Some of Allan Savory’s earliest clients were Texans, and some had even been active in helping found the Center for Holistic Resource Management in Albuquerque in 1984. But being involved in someone else’s organization and creating your own are two different things.

It took some key players getting together to determine if there was enough interest and need to form their own regional organization based on Holistic Management. Those Savory Center members who were active in forming the Texas Branch in 1986 included Clint Josey, Bob Steger, Charles Probandt, David Graf and Claudia Ball, and they are still active today.

As interest in a new branch for Texas and Oklahoma grew (the Oklahoma group got big enough for their own branch by 1992), we wrote our own bylaws and incorporated in 1987 as Holistic Resource Management of Texas, Inc., a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit.

Our Articles of Incorporation defined our purpose, “to promote, organize and sponsor seminars on ecological land and resource

management techniques; to demonstrate and conduct research concerning holistic resource management; to provide educational and scientific presentations; to provide consulting and advisory services to interested individuals in Texas, and generally to foster the development of holistic resource management.”

Determining Course Once we got the organizational structure determined, we still needed to figure out who we were and what we wanted to do within the guidelines we had formed. David Graf recollects, “We struggled with who we were, what the function of the organization should be, and what we needed to do for the people of Texas. Everyone was doing things differently.”

So we came together for facilitated retreats to bond with each other and to sort out our common answers to these questions. We defined and redefined our mission from “halting desertification worldwide through Holistic Resource Management” to “dedicated to forming a healthy ecosystem capable of supporting the people in it” to our current mission, “to provide encouragement and support of holistic management in Texas.”

We formed a solid holistic goal, which has changed very little since 1992. It reads: Quality of Life—We value a healthy ecosystem capable of supporting the people in it, strong family units, financial sustainability, a land ethic, and personal growth and development while enjoying life and the fellowship of a professionally proactive organization.

Forms of Production / Activities—Practicing holistic management, self-sustaining forms of revenue, facilitating training and education, creating public awareness and forming collaborative partnerships.

Future Resource Base—High biodiversity, a healthy water cycle, a healthy mineral cycle, efficient capture of solar energy, and a harmonious interdependence between urban and rural communities through an understanding of ecological processes; an active membership with respect for diversity, continued on page 4

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE • JULY / AUGUST 2002 3

Still Active After All These Years continued from page 3 long-term productive relationships with public agencies and endowment groups, and proactive networking with other groups that manage holistically.

What We Offer These valuable two-day retreats became the yearly Planning Sessions, where participants socialize in a relaxed setting, review the past year’s activities, revisit the goal and mission, and plan objectives for the coming year. Each objective is put through the model and examined for projected outcomes and logjams.

If the project passes the testing guidelines and someone volunteers to chair the committee, we add it to the list. Interested parties volunteer to be on the committee and proceed as a team to implement the project. In addition, any members who feel so moved can set up conferences, seminars, field days, public relations opportunities, etc., on their own and on behalf of HRM of Texas.

Yearly objectives have changed little over the 15 years. While educating those new to Holistic Management was a bigger focus at the beginning, and support of those already practicing Holistic Management is currently our objective, educational projects have continued to be a priority year after year.

We also produce a professional newsletter of theory, anecdotal experiences, research findings, and advice from other practitioners, that includes bulletin board items, a membership form, and contact info on our board of directors.

Our annual meeting is another primary vehicle for educating and supporting new and existing practitioners. We always connect a Holistic Management workshop that runs from a half to three days with the two-day symposium that contains the annual business meeting, board meeting, lectures, tours, and mini-workshops.

Field days/ranch tours are the most popular with our membership and most years we have four to six of them. We have also tried to offer enough short courses each year to meet the demand of new practitioners. We do all of this on top of efforts to work on our public image, seek a larger membership, seek outside funding, and build partnerships with other organizations.

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Strategies & Alliances What have our efforts produced? One example of our results began at our annual meeting in 1992. At this meeting we brought together a panel of agencies, environmental organizations, and landowner groups warring over the Endangered Species Act. By demonstrating that the core values of all these groups are the same, our facilitators Certified Educator Peggy Sechrist and Naseem Rakha were able to introduce the Holistic Management process as a powerful tool that helps build consensus.

HRM of Texas board member Pat Richardson, President C. Wayne Hanselka, and Executive Director Peggy Jones.

The panel chose to further explore this avenue to resolve management conflicts for all of Texas. They expanded to become the PlanIt Texas coalition and, with the help of a generous grant from the Meadows Foundation, took on the management of a central Texas ranch to prove whether or not a property could be managed in accordance with all government regulations, satisfy all environmental organizations, and still please the landowner with the condition and profitability of the land. The project was a huge success and the lessons we learned we disseminated to the public through field days, videos, and a landowner’s manual of techniques and resources.

But many leaders within HRM of Texas felt strongly that if we could bridge the gap between HRM of Texas and the Texas A&M University system by getting them to embrace Holistic Management and spread it through their extension network, much of our mission would be accomplished. As Peggy Sechrist became more involved in networking with other organizations such as SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education), SAWG (Sustainable Agriculture Working Group), and various academic committees and task forces,

our reputation for grounded, positive results began to grow.

In 1995, HRM of Texas and Texas A&M set up a forum to explore each other’s ideas, get to know each other personally as well as professionally, and accept what philosophical differences might exist while building a relationship on common ground. Certainly, HRM of Texas’s approach to education is different than Texas A&M’s (i.e., we provide people with a value-based decision-making model to help them reach a holistic goal while Texas A&M’s focus is research driven development of tools to treat various problems, and educating people to use those tools). But, the common ground lies in our values of a healthy ecosystem and sustainable practices to improve ecosystem health.

Since that date, we have collaborated with Texas A&M extension on many of our field days and annual meetings. We have always had a few rogue agency and academic representatives on our board, but lately the attitude has begun to change. Now HRM of Texas is considered an alliance worth pursuing.

Plans for the Future HRM of Texas is preparing for our 16th year. We have decided to seek more grant funding and not pressure our membership so much to support our activities. We want to focus more on follow-up with new and old practitioners, find more creative ways to get people the training they need. We have chosen to continue our annual meetings and to host the international Holistic Management gathering in Texas in 2003.

We were successful in seeking a National Fish & Wildlife Foundation grant to continue our newsletter, create a website, a member directory, an introduction to HRM of Texas booklet, a new brochure, a demonstration project at the Reed Ranch, and ecosystem education for urban sixth graders at the Hornsby Bend water treatment facility near Austin. We will continue with work on the LaCopita demonstration ranch in south Texas, a three-day educational conference in the Rio Grande valley and our usual slate of field days, workshops and board meetings. Our Advisory Board will host its yearly symposium and the PlanIt Texas Coalition will wrap up its outreach phase and disband. Sounds like another typically busy year for HRM of Texas.

Peggy Jones is the Executive Director of HRM of Texas and can be reached at 512/858-4251 or delphic@earthlink.net.

now I sit down with each Eagle Scout and help him determine what he does or does not know, and then help him structure the project.

In other words, I facilitate his development of his project and not just tell him what his choices are. It’s been so much more fun and

by Ann Adams their success rate has increased. In the past when we gave them a list of resources, they didn’t really know what to do with the hat does someone with 20 years Sue to get more training in Holistic resources so they couldn’t really follow experience in horticulture and Management and in 2000, she joined the through successfully.

Because they now are a tropical plants do for a living? Become Certified Educator Training Program and began part of structuring their own projects , they are Executive Director of a non-profit in New working on a Holistic Management project. The more able to determine what steps are needed, Mexico whose mission is to help educate others Gibson Learning Site, is built around the the details included, and as a result, have been about trees in this arid Southwest state. As Gibson family’s ranch on the Navajo Nation. more successful.

Executive Director, Suzanne Probart has been Sue has been the lead person on this project as “I’m learning to ask more process questions on a learning adventure for the past it reports back to the Rio Puerco Management so that the scout can come up with his own 12 years since she joined Tree New Mexico Committee and the BLM. But this project is answers and understand the relationship as a volunteer. That journey took an exciting only one place where she has integrated what between the different parts of the project. turn when she learned about Holistic she’s learned in our training program.

Using this process really didn’t take any Management in 1999. longer than it had in the old way, and it A Life of Meaning was so much less frustrating. To me that’s what Holistic Management has helped me When Sue began volunteering with do—pay more attention to the process. I Tree New Mexico in Albuquerque in 1990, understand better how important it is for she was a plant broker and provided people to understand what they are doing interior plant maintenance services. With a and whythey are doing it. They are much son about to graduate from high school, more able to then choose how they do it Sue was looking for work that would get with greater results.” her more involved in her community. She Among its numerous projects Tree thought about a number of avenues for New Mexico has an Outreach Program, the community service and decided she wanted River Rescue Program, a Tree Planting and to work with a local organization that a Classroom Education Program and works would get people involved in improving with over 1,200 volunteers annually. Sue their quality of life. has noted that since her training she is Tree New Mexico did just that because Through many of Tree New Mexico's outreach and better able to discern when a project she people can more readily see the connection educational programs, like this treeplanting at is being asked to collaborate on or help in between trees and so many environmental O'Keefe Elementary School in Albuquerque, Sue some way is likely to succeed or fail and concerns and issues such as water, soil, air Probart has the opportunity to help others learn determine if there are missing pieces that quality, and pollution. In 1990, Tree New how to look at trees as part of a bigger will make it a success.

With Holistic Mexico also had a big growth leap because environmental picture.

Management this type of analytical the 1990 Farm Bill’s Urban Forestry Program process is much clearer and she can assess was a source of funding for a new contract. the situation more quickly. She also knows While Sue had heard of the Savory what questions to ask to get other people Center, it wasn’t until 1999 that she actually Successful Projects thinking the same way (e.g., “Are we met Allan Savory and served with him as a addressing the root cause?”

“What is the root Sue readily admits she really didn’t know member of the Bureau of Land Management’s cause?”

“What might some of the unintended what she was getting into when she joined the (BLM), Rio Puerco Management Committee consequences of that action be?”). training program. She certainly didn’t realize (RPMC). This committee, which includes the “I’ve also felt more stretched personally how much she would be affected personally key state, federal and tribal natural resource because I am more observant of people’s by the training. She sees the influences agencies, nonprofits, permittees etc., has been reactions to new pieces of information or the enacted (or charged) to find new approaches to everywhere in her work with Tree New questions I ask of them. In the past, I might Mexico. “I set up my projects differently now address and improve the conditions of the Rio have been more focused on my agenda. Now, because I see things differently. For example, Puerco Watershed, one of the most degraded I’m busy trying to determine their motivations we help Boy Scouts that are applying for their watersheds in the country. At one point Allan and whether or not we can work together or Eagle Scout badges identify worthy projects. In approached her to see if Tree New Mexico if further involvement will be a waste of my the past I usually would meet with them and would be willing to partner on a Holistic give them options A, B, or C and give some Management learning site. She accepted the coaching once they made their decision. But continued on page 6 offer. The first step in this partnership was for

Tree New Mexico—

Beyond Tree-Hugging

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HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE • JULY / AUGUST 2002 5

Tree New Mexico time. I also know better who we need to include (the stakeholders) and how to engage them. For that reason, the success rates on all our projects are higher.”

Has Holistic Management helped Sue work with government agency people? Absolutely.

“I’ve found resource people to be brilliant in their fields, but very focused on their little piece and often unable to see the whole.

They’ve learned a lot of details along the way, but haven’t had any ‘aha’s’ about how all this works together.

‘Holistic Management has helped me pay more attention to the process’ “In our projects we help open people’s mind to that. A component of Holistic Management that has been really helpful in that way is the ecosystem processes. The explanation of how nature functions and how people’s different interests fit within each process really helps people see the bigger picture. I’ve seen this happen with the fire and watershed issues in particular.

“Tree New Mexico is part of a riparian area improvement group that consists of a number of professionals/experts in riparian management. These folks, who are all working to help improve the river and habitat, are some of the most educated and dedicated people in their field, and yet the situation continues to worsen. As part of TNM’s River Rescue program activities, in December 2001, I arranged for Allan to speak about water cycles and ecosystem processes at one of our facilitated gatherings. It was really amazing to hear the questions and to see all these experts thinking about what Allan was saying and what they were hearing. Some of them began to see how many of the past decisions have been made to treat symptoms and not address root cause. When we are able to bring people together and provide an atmosphere that allows for deep thinking, I feel we are working in the right direction and making headway, that we are fulfilling our mission to be a stimulant in the community on bigger issues.”

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Improving Management While Sue has been able to use Holistic Management to help her with her projects, she also believes that it has helped with the dayto-day management of Tree New Mexico. “A lot of non-profits can stumble with their decision-making. They don’t take the time to access the situation (financial or human capacity). With Holistic Management I’ve been better able to lead our staff through that process,” says Sue. “An example of how it’s helped us is the fact that we’ve recently brought on two new staff members, and they’ve really been able to adapt to our organization easily and vice versa, and the communication has been on a much higher plane than with previous new employees. Because I’ve been integrating Holistic Management (setting a holistic goal and testing decisions), the staff now feels like they have more input into decisions and policies and therefore have more ownership in the organization more quickly (within three months of starting). They offer suggestions and take over tasks in ways I never would have dreamed. As a team we are more considerate and there is open dialogue of how we can improve the team and the organization as a whole.”

Tree New Mexico’s motto is to “Plant the right tree in the right place for the right reason.” Since learning about Holistic Management, she has been better able to lead Tree New Mexico in it’s mission and to educate others about how trees are a piece of the larger whole. Through integrating her knowledge of Holistic Management into her projects and into the non-profit she leads, she has made Tree New Mexico more effective in it’s efforts, made better use of time, and increased TNM’s contribution to the community. “We’ve moved from the perception of being a “tree-hugging” organization in the early ‘90s, to a nationally recognized and commended environmental tree-based organization. In the process we have helped educate others on how trees are an important part of a larger whole,” says Sue. “Our decisions are based on that understanding and that has made all the difference.”

Suzanne Probart can be reached at 505/265-4554 or tnm@treenm.com.

The Dry Creek Basin Group—

Rock in the Pond

by Ann Adams

B

ack in 1974 Clyde Johnson joined the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) because he had an interest and college degree in range management and no land base to manage. Over the years he’s learned a lot from the permittees he’s worked with, but perhaps one of his greatest learning experiences was his involvement with the Dry Creek Basin Planning Group. The ripples from his involvement in that effort are still expanding today.

Bringing It Home In 1990, Clyde was the Lead Range Conservationist for the BLM in Hesperus, Colorado. He had heard about Allan Savory and Holistic Management, but he wanted to see for himself if everything he had heard was really true. He talked a fellow agency employee into coming along for the ride when he attended a field day at Mountain Island Ranch where Certified Educator Miles Keogh was the ranch manager.

That field trip was an eye-opening experience. Through proper management at Mountain Island the riparian areas were actually improving and native species of grasses were coming in that hadn’t been there for a long time. Clyde knew he had to get this knowledge to the permittees in his area.

Clyde put the idea of Holistic Management training to a permittee, Debbie Burch, and a colleague, John Hawks. The two took the ball and ran with it. They approached the Grazing Advisory Board (a grazing permittees fund for range improvement) and said that such a BLM-sponsored event offering partially subsidized training costs would be a reasonable expenditure for the board.

The board agreed.

So for five days 80 people including environmentalists, agricultural producers, BLM, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and the 30 grazing permittees came together to learn. The results? “A greater understanding between BLM and

permittees,” Clyde says, but that was just for the short-term.

Mark Roeber from the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) in Paonia, Colorado returned from that workshop and began to influence the work on the West Elk Allotment, which has since gone on to win environmental awards.

Likewise, six months later, the BLM had another three-day Holistic Management training in which the NRCS sent one of their employees, Cindy Dvergsten, who went on to become a Certified Educator in the Dolores area.

Creating a Sustainable Plan But perhaps the greatest outgrowth of that training was the Coordinated Resource Management Plan for the Dry Creek Basin the planning group developed after first setting a holistic goal in 1995. They used their holistic goal to help develop the strategies and objectives specified in the plan and tested their subsequent decisions toward their holistic goal before implementing them.

This simple act alone had a profound impact, as did including the 100 people who said they were interested (even if they only responded by mail). Because this group made an effort to include all interested parties and addressed core values with the holistic goal, they developed a document that could withstand the test of time and the waxing and waning of interest.

So what has come of the Dry Creek Basin Planning Group since 1995? Is such continued public input and commitment sustainable? Clyde decided to find out. He went to a recent meeting to see what they were doing. He found they had recently received $300,000 in Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) money to increase ground cover and improve upland and riparian habitat. There had been some contention over the sage grouse issue because there had been a small population on the allotment and the grouse is an endangered species candidate.

Where this group had once meet quarterly, they now met annually and about half of the 28 people in the room were new to the group. But throughout this transition, there had been enough buy-in by agency

participants that whatever the management team decided, the agency approved.

Moreover, the original plan was still being used to make decisions.

In the current meeting Clyde noted that a woman from The Nature Conservancy wanted to use some of the remaining $60,000 EPA money for tamarisk control so that the willows could flourish in the riparian areas.

One of the ranchers responded that he could understand wanting willows, but that kind of control was very labor intensive, and more importantly, the tamarisk was a symptom of how the ecosystem was functioning and they needed to look at that.

Clyde Johnson: "You can’t be the same once you’ve had Holistic Management training."

Clyde knew that rancher, and knew that had not been his perspective 15 years ago. “Holistic Management principles and concepts carried the day. That rancher was able to see the bigger picture and influence conversations and actions because of them. To me that’s an example of the power of one person who is looking at root causes and is able to help other people see them as well.”

Currently as a new National Monument, Canyons of the Ancients, evolves in southern Colorado, Clyde is trying to influence the planning process there by suggesting similar strategies to the planners. “With so many land ownership and property rights issues

coming to the forefront with this monument, it is critical to get and use public input,” says Clyde. “The public just isn’t buying ‘vacuum’ decisions any more.”

Influencing the Field Clyde also thinks that while Holistic Management may not be embraced by many academics who find this process “unscientific” and too innovative or insulting, it has influenced the range management industry. Holistic Management terminology is now the standard language, with such terms as brittleness, animal impact, and ecosystem processes commonplace.

Likewise, as the need increases for more agency people, and others involved in range management, to see the big picture in range management, Holistic Management will offer more possibilities for improved natural resource management. “Government agents are trained in natural resources in very specific areas like timber, hydrology, and range. Holistic Management pulls these disciplines together. If the agency is working on an Environmental Impact Statement, we have all these specialists writing from their point of view. But, if you have someone on staff who understands Holistic Management, you can pull those points together so everything gels. I do that when I’m reviewing oil and gas leases for the BLM. I look at all the factors that others might not have thought about from their special field and make sure we are looking at the socioeconomic and environmental effects.

After 27 years in the BLM Clyde has chosen to remain at the field level because of who he gets to work with. It is a conscious decision on his part. He finds that his practice of Holistic Management at home is just as exciting—especially working on his grass-fed beef operation with his wife.

“Holistic Management is motivational.

Realizing that every decision influences more than just what you are making your decision about is a powerful experience. You can’t be the same once you’ve had Holistic Management training.”

Clyde Johnson is now a Realty Specialist for the BLM. He can be reached at 970/385-1352 or clyde_johnson@co.blm.gov.

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE • JULY / AUGUST 2002 7

LAND&LIVESTOCK A Special Section of

IN PRACTICE JULY / AUGUST 2002

#84

Rancho de la Inmaculada—

Prospering in the Desert Like all of us, Ivan Aguirre’s holistic journey has been filled with highs and lows and lots of learning.

by Jim Howell

I

love to get off the beaten track. That’s not hard to do in old Mexico.

Last March my wife, Daniela, and I, along with our friends Bryron and Shelly Shelton, headed south of the border for an off-the-beatentrack adventure. The goal: to find our way onto the remote and rugged ranches of some of northern Mexico’s most successful practitioners of Holistic Management. This, and one or two future articles, will attempt to highlight the lessons and insights gained from our journey.

Within a few hours of crossing the border, we found ourselves pulling into the tiny town of Pitiquito, in northern Sonora. We were on our way to Rancho de La Inmaculada, the home of Ivan and Martha Aguirre and their children Dacia, Ivan Jr., Aurelio, and Marco. Ivan had instructed us to ask anyone in Pitiquito for directions to the home of his uncle Hector, who would then join our expedition and lead us out into the middle of the Sonora Desert, delivering us to the doorstep of the La Inmaculada headquarters. After a few inquiries we found Hector, had lunch, inspected our vehicles to make sure they were up to the trip, and were on our way.

The road from Pitiquito to La Inmaculada only covers about 60 miles (100 km), but they are 60 of the longest and roughest miles any of us had ever tried to negotiate. Rocks, gullies, washboards, and ruts gave way to the occasional 50 meter (yard), much appreciated smooth stretch.

Our only mishap was a dented flywheel housing, made apparent by a sudden, awfully dang loud clickitty clack. Luckily, Byron has a selfsufficient streak of ingenuity, and he took it off, banged out the dent, and away we went. The first two forks in the road were signposted, but after that you had to know where you were going. Good thing Hector was along.

We drove mile after mile through cactus, cactus, and more cactus, mixed in with all sorts of desert brush and millions of acres of bare, desert pavement. With just a couple exceptions, there wasn’t a perennial grass plant in sight. After what seemed like an eternity, Hector assured us we were getting close. Still no grass.

This isn’t the first article about La Inmaculada. I’ve read at least two

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others, and the photos I’d seen, which depicted a grass-covered landscape, didn’t look anything like what we had been driving through.

It was hard to imagine this was the same planet. We rounded the last bend, a fenceline came into view, and all of sudden there it was—grasscovered desert. How did that happen? Much of this story will cover those details, but first a little history.

From Industrial Horsepower to Horse Horsepower Ivan comes from a successful business family. Ivan’s father once owned the longest laying-hen house in the world—1.1 km long, to be exact—near the city of Hermosillo, about a four-hour drive south of the ranch. When the first oil crisis of the mid-‘70s shot grain prices through the roof, the senior Aguirre decided he needed to diversify his assets beyond the egg business, and in 1974 he acquired Rancho de la Inmaculada. Originally part of a gigantic 150,000 ha (320,000 acre) estancia, the ranch now comprises 10,000 ha (25,000 acres).

Ivan’s father was a great visionary, and was determined to create the model ranch according to the dominant industrialized culture of his time.

He started by clearing the entire ranch of every single brush and cactus plant. These were all bulldozed into hundreds of windrows, forming a distinctly man-made grid across a previously diverse and chaotic landscape. The brush windrows were mixed with soil to create water diversion dikes, the intention being to trap water on the ranch that would otherwise escape down the ranch’s main channel, formed by the Rio (River) de la Inmaculada. As a result of all the dirt work, the rio’s original meandering channel was obliterated. Some 2,500 acres (1,000 ha) were sown to buffel grass, an exotic, high producing, subtropical native of South Africa. Ten irrigation pumps were developed, delivering water to 12 center pivot irrigation systems. Feedlots were built, underground grain storage pits were excavated, and 10,000 liters (about 2,500 gallons) of diesel were consumed daily to keep everything running—all this in the middle of the Sonora Desert, way, way, way off the beaten track.

It was hard to imagine.

The Aguirres followed this intensive industrialized model from 1975 until 1983. In the middle of it all, Ivan’s father unexpectedly passed away in 1980. At the time, Ivan was in the midst of his collegiate years at Texas Tech University, preparing himself to return home and manage the whole show. Ivan and his brother took a semester off and returned to the ranch in the fall of 1980, only to realize that their father’s dream was hemorrhaging money and sinking fast. Along with their mother, they made the decision to lease out the ranch and let someone else take the financial hit. After graduating from Texas Tech in 1982, Ivan worked as a nature guide in the Sea of Cortez’ Kino Bay before coming home and taking over in July of 1983.

With one horse and one hired man (his mentor and teacher Don Jesus), Ivan started custom grazing 300 mother cows. He was paid with livestock instead of cash, and by the late ‘80s had accumulated 350 of his own cattle and had paid off the ranch’s debt through the sale of all the abandoned idle pumps, center pivots, and diesel engines. He was also taking in 2,000 to 3,000 stocker cattle on a seasonal basis, and things were going well.

Holistic Highs and Lows A big turnaround came in 1985, when Ivan heard Kirk Gadzia give a presentation on Holistic Management at a Mexican agricultural conference. Kirk talked about the beneficial effects of time-controlled, well-planned grazing and animal impact, and about how ranchers in this sort of desert country were actually increasing their stocking rates

750 heifers. Ivan laughs at that purchase today, calling them a “tuity fruity” blend of about every imaginable type of bovine. By the end of 1992, they had accumulated 1800 head of their own (but highly leveraged) cattle. Their year-long average stocking rate worked out to 4 ha (10 acres) per stock unit, which is nearly unheard of in this sort of country. The land was improving, the ranch was profitable, they were living their dream.

Then came the inevitable crunch. By 1994, interest rates had skyrocketed and the rainy seasons started to become less rainy.

Suddenly they were faced with insufficient grass to feed 1800 cows and an interest payment the cows couldn’t make. According to Ivan, “they weren’t doing their homework.” Things had been so good that an attitude of invincibility had crept into their routine. Daily monitoring wasn’t happening, let alone long term careful planning. Dormant season forage assessments went out the window, and by 1996, well into the extended drought that affected all of the Southwest and northern Mexico, the Aguirres were out of grass. For the first time since taking over the ranch, Ivan had to buy in outside feed.

Cattle were sold to pay off debt, and their stocking rate decreased 50 percent to 8 ha per stock unit from 1994 to 1996, and then down to 9 ha from 1996 to 1999. Ivan calls the mid-‘90s “a down time for the ranch,” emotionally and otherwise. Their biological monitoring transects didn’t get done in 1994. Things were so frustrating that it just didn’t seem worth the effort. But sometimes it takes a crisis to shake us back into reality. The Sonora Desert is an erratic place weather-wise, and Mexico

There is a sharp contrast between the majority of the country in this part of Sonora (to the right of the road) and the perennial grasslands of La Inmaculada, to the left.

while also improving the ecological health of their land. Ivan returned home that night to Martha, and with tears in his eyes, exclaimed that “we have found someone who can show us how to do what we’ve been dreaming of.” Since hearing Kirk’s talk, both Ivan and Martha have attended numerous Holistic Management courses. They’ve even had Allan Savory conduct a special course right out on the ranch itself.

Ivan’s dedication to the study and practice of Holistic Management eventually led to his accreditation as a Holistic Management® Certified Educator.

Like all of us, the Aguirre’s holistic journey has been filled with both lows and highs and lots of learning. In 1990, when Mexican interest rates plunged to between 10 and 12 percent, the Aguirres dove in and bought

is an economically unpredictable country. That is reality. Over-extending both ecologically and economically will eventually come back to bite. It seems like most of us have to learn this the hard way, like the Aguirres.

Not all of us buckle down and survive, though. Ivan and Martha, instead of giving up and moving on to less demanding pursuits, analyzed their situation, revised their holistic goal, and got back on track. By 2000 they were debt free and working within the ecological realities of their arid environment. According to Ivan, it wasn’t until then that they and their staff finally began to internalize the decision-making framework of continued on page 10

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9

Prospering in the Desert continued from page 9 Holistic Management, and things really began to click.

Growing Grass in the Desert At 2,500 feet (820 meters) of elevation, the patch of desert embracing La Inmaculada is blessed with an average of 13 inches (330 mm) of annual precipitation. Since Ivan has been back on the ranch, annual totals have ranged from 6 to 25 inches. About 70 percent comes during the summer monsoons in July and August, their main growing season.

Because there is an almost total absence of cool-season grasses, winter rains do them little good in terms of grass growth, but they do add to the bank of soil moisture critical to brush green-up in the spring. Even though every brush and cactus plant had been bulldozed in the ‘70s, much of it has fortunately returned. Today it’s regarded as a fantastic resource rather than a worthless pest. The main brush species include two types of paloverde, ironwood, and mesquite, all of which are legumes. With the exception of extreme drought years, they all flower and leaf out in spring, several months ahead of the summer monsoon season, providing valuable forage during the time of year that the grass is at its worst.

Much of the South African buffel grass planted by Ivan’s father still persists. In fact, it has spread from the original 2,500 planted acres and can now be found across much of the ranch. But everywhere, it coexists with a fantastic diversity of native warm season perennial and annual grasses and forbs. Many of the grasses are high quality members of the grama genus, Bouteloa, with the most abundant species being Bouteloa aristidoides , known as needle grama north of the border.

The ranch has been gradually developed into 78 paddocks, with an average size of 320 acres (128 ha) per paddock. To create higher stock density, cattle are day herded within the existing fence infrastructure.

Ivan says this is all the fence he will ever build, and ideally would like to have no fenced paddocks. He is excited about doing a lot more herding, and envisions a return of the herding culture that once dominated ranch life in Sonora. One of his workers is from the goat herding culture that still persists on the nearby coast of the Sea of Cortez, and Ivan would like to let his family and their goats graze the ranch in exchange for their herding knowledge. Ivan simply states that “we need to learn to herd.”

The return of all the perennial grasses, and the spread of the buffel grass, has primarily resulted from careful Holistic Management® grazing planning. During the summer growing season, Ivan plans to graze each pasture only once, but the plan never works out as expected (as Allan Savory often states, that is precisely why we need to plan!). The erratic nature of summer thunderstorms creates very uneven growing conditions across the ranch. His basic rule of thumb during this time of the year is to “go where it’s good,” but to make sure grazing periods stay short enough to minimize second bites on recovering regrowth. Because warm season grasses can grow so fast when moisture is present, this often means grazing periods of a day or two. Such short grazing periods usually mean that very little forage gets harvested during the growing season. In other words, the cattle are never in one place long enough to make much of a dent in the new season’s growth. So even though the cattle are taken to where the best grass is, most of it escapes grazing during the fast growth months of July and August and is saved for the long months of the dormant season.

Ivan also varies his grazing management based on the inherent productive capacity of each paddock. Some paddocks are predominantly

Mesquite Bean Flour

F

rom the first of July until the first big summer storms, outside kinds of vitamins and minerals. The Aguirres mix it with their labor is contracted to harvest the ripening mesquite beans on coffee and use it as a wheat flour substitute in a wide assortment Rancho de la Inmaculada. The Aguirres have about a three-week of stews, breads, and cakes. window to get the job done, and the beans aren’t After processing, the meal is stored in 110 kg harvested where the cattle happen to be, or barrels, and currently is being shipped to where the cattle are planned to be. This is health food stores in Tucson and to a gourmet because the beans are a great source of energy baker in Minneapolis. The Aguirres are They get U S$8/kg on and protein for the animals during the hottest currently receiving US$8/kg, and their costs costs of US$2/kg— and toughest time of year. are US$2/kg. This year they’re shooting to The beans are hand-harvested directly off the produce and market 10 tons (10,000 kg) of pretty good from tree. Any that fall to the ground are left there to flour. That’s a pretty good seasonal incomea plant many prevent soil and bacterial contamination in the earner from a plant many ranchers spend main crop. The beans are then sun-dried down money trying to kill. ranchers try to kill. to 5 to 7 percent moisture before being crushed Some 35 percent of the pod gets caught in in the hammer mill. The whole ground-up pods those first two screenings, and the Aguirres are then pass through three sieves of increasing determined to find an outlet for it as well. The fineness.

Peruvians, who manufacture flour from a very similar plant called The final product is a powdered, sweet mesquite meal. It’s high algarrobo , use the coarser screenings to manufacture cardboard. in soluble fiber, contains 16 percent protein, and is packed with all --Jim Howell

‘

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in low-lying areas that receive the benefit of spreading flood waters during heavy precipitation events. These areas are several times more productive than the higher country above the floodplain. Through experience, Ivan has learned that these low-lying areas have to be grazed at least once during the growing season. Otherwise, they become too rank and provide very low quality forage during the dormant season. During dormant season grazing, he plans two selections on these high production paddocks, claiming that the cattle perform better with two shorter grazing periods than one long grazing period.

On the higher areas, he plans to use them fairly intensively for two to three years, grazing once during the growing season (assuming adequate moisture), and once during the dormant season. Because the grasses are less lignified and higher in quality in these areas, one long dormant season grazing doesn’t stress the animals. After these two or three years of use, Ivan plans to take them out of the grazing plan for at least an entire year, and thinks that recovery periods of up to three years may even be necessary on the driest, least productive sites. This will enable plants to develop deep root systems and excellent vigor, and will allow older material to accumulate which will eventually add to the soil-covering litter bank.

Ivan emphasizes that his overriding, number one grazing management rule is to stay flexible. We can never know what nature is going to throw at us. Careful daily monitoring and constant adjusting are therefore vital to successful management of plants, animals, and the soil surface. Monitoring and adjusting, and occasional replanning, are just as important as doing the plan in the first place. Back in the mid-‘90s, the Aguirres learned that lesson the hard way—a lesson that will last a lifetime. Has all this careful management paid off on the ground? Well, since the Aguirres began running biological monitoring transects in 1991, total litter has increased from 23 to 63 percent and the distance to the nearest perennial has dropped from 66 cm (26 inches) to 32.5 cm (12.8 inches). I’d say they’re doing something right.

Desert-Bred Beef The La Inmaculada bovines are currently split into three herds. This isn’t ideal, admits Ivan, but it’s temporarily necessary. One herd is ideal, since it allows a much more effective graze/trample to recovery ratio than several separate herds. But the last few years have brought reasonable precipitation and grass growth, which has left them with more forage than cows. To strengthen this product conversion weak link, Ivan is custom grazing two herds of outside cattle, the owners of which don’t want to mix bulls—the reason for three herds this year. One herd will be gone later this year, while the other is contracted for six years.

Ivan gets 50 percent of the calf crop as payment. With the outside cattle, the stocking rate has been bumped back up to 7 to 8 ha (17 to 19.5 acres) per stock unit.

His own herd, which started out as that 750-head mixed up bunch of tuity fruity cull heifers, has been bred to Beefmaster bulls for the past six years, so they’re starting to even out a little. Culling is based mostly on fertility. Though managed as a single herd for grazing management purposes, Ivan manages the La Inmaculada brand cows as two herds from a reproductive and culling standpoint—the A herd and B herd. The A herd is bred to calve in spring, with the bulk of the calves coming in May. There’s a good reason for that. Remember all that brush that flowers and puts out tender new leaves in the spring? Well that’s prime feed for lactating cows. The calves can’t get at it too well, but they don’t need

The Aguirre’s herd of Beefmaster-cross cows heading back out for their evening graze. These and several hundred more were being loose herded to concentrate grazing and animal impact to ward the back of the paddock.

much high quality nutrition from the land for the first couple months.

By the time the monsoon rains start in July and the grass comes on, the calves are big enough to start popping on that new growth. Ivan’s neighbor has been gathering weaning weight data for years. May-born calves are historically always the heaviest at weaning, and breed back percentages are the best as well.

All the yearling heifers are initially bred in August to October (at 14-16 months) to calve during the spring calving season. Those that conceive stay in the A herd, and the rest go to the B herd. If they miss again, they’re out. If a mature cow from the A herd misses, she goes to the B herd as well, and stays there as long as she keeps having a calf.

All these A herd cattle that miss during their late summer breeding season are put back to the bull as soon as winter wears off during the following spring, and they’re now considered to be B herd cows. They calve from December to March. About 60 percent are A cows and the rest are Bs. Including yearlings and two-year-old first-calf heifers, the A herd conception rate has averaged 76 percent over the years, and those cows milk all the way through the winter till weaning in April, with no outside supplement but a little sea salt. That’s awfully good for a Sonora Desert ranch carrying such a high stocking rate. The herd only gets one 3-way vaccination a year. The occasional sick animal gets put in the sick pasture. If she starts to get better, she goes back with her mates. If she starts to look worse, she gets sent down the road before she falls over.

Mesquite Miracles That’s the scoop on the cows and the grass, but there’s more to this story. The Aguirres are mesquite farmers, too. Starting in 1985 and continuing through 1997, La Inmaculada was a mesquite charcoalproducing machine. Remember all those windrows of piled up brush and cactus from the brush clearing days? Well the mesquite trees were snagged out and turned into barbecue fuel. Some 8,000 tons of it were shipped off the ranch over the course of those 13 years. The charcoal paid for all the fencing and stockwater developments. Now that the continued on page 12

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Prospering in the Desert continued from page 11

These three photos show the diverse plant community dominating Rancho de la Inmaculada—a variety of warm-season perennial grasses and forbs, growing under a diverse leguminous shrub community of mesquite, paloverde and ironwood.

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Aguirres have pretty well muscled their way through all the dead mesquite, and now that lots of new mesquite has grown back, their focus has shifted to figuring out how to transform this renewable resource into value-added products.

For those of you not from the American Southwest or northern Mexico, the mesquite is a leguminous tree or bush that produces copious quantities of seed pods in late spring/early summer, especially if it’s been a wet year. A bumper “bean crop” in the southwestern deserts refers to mesquite beans, not soybeans. In more productive areas of the Southwest, such as the Edward’s Plateau of Texas, the mesquite is generally maligned as a grass-killing, moisture robbing noxious weed.

But in the drier parts of the Southwest, most ranchers are tolerant of their mesquite plants due to this abundant production of high protein, high energy pods, only they don’t call them pods, they call ‘em beans.

They are a fantastic source of desperately needed nutrients at a time of year usually characterized by a nearly depleted bank of quality forage.

The Aguirres value their beans as cattle fodder, but are also tapping into other economic uses for this abundant legume, one of which is the production of mesquite flour (see sidebar on page 10.)

The second mesquite enterprise utilizes the wood itself to make attractive, durable flooring. Small diameter limbs--down to about 2 inches--are pruned from living trees. The smallest parts of limb (about 30 percent) are left on the soil surface to add to the soil cover, another 15 percent of the limb (not suitable for flooring) goes to make charcoal, and the remainder goes to the sawyer in the recently constructed woodshop, where the limbs are milled, glued, and sanded into the finished product.

The Aguirres are currently marketing through the San Pedro Mesquite Company, based in Tucson (see related article in IN PRACTICE, #81, page 5). This is the first time anybody has tried to produce this sort of product from small diameter mesquite, so the whole enterprise is still in the prototype stage. San Pedro Mesquite provided the machinery, know-how and marketing expertise—now it’s up to the Aguirres to get the whole process running smoothly out on the ranch.

The whole family is excited about the potential of this new venture, and Martha is keeping close track of every step, from pruning to marketing. In addition to the flooring, the Aguirres are experimenting with other products, such as welcome mats made from the scraps of wood that don’t fit the flooring specifications, and cutting and serving boards. They’re even looking into marketing the sawdust as smokehouse fuel.

The Aguirres and their staff are true stewards of the land. They have a sense of place rooted in their love for every detail and intricacy of their environment. They have an uncommon commitment to the piece of the world they have been entrusted to care for. They are the type of people who deserve to be living on the land. In fact, if we are to reverse the decline of biodiversity and the spread of deserts across the world’s brittle ranges, they are the sort of folks who have to be on the land.

They exude the passion, the love, the vision, the discipline, and the “stick to it” attitude to which we would all do well to aspire. Many thanks to the La Inmaculada team for sharing your generous time, knowledge, expertise, incredible home, and inspiration.

Jim and Daniela Ho well will be leading a tour to northern Mexico ranches in No vember of 2002, including Rancho de la Inmaculada.

You can contact them at 970/249-0353, or ho welljd@montrose.net.

Bringing Back the Beasts--

Managing Wild Herbivores and Their Predators

by Jim Howell Editor’s note: The following summarizes an exchange of ideas that recently took place between Chris Gill, Allan Savory, and myself. Chris is a successful businessman from San Antonio, Texas, who also ranches in the Trans-Pecos area of west Texas just north of the town of Van Horn. He is enrolled in the Savory Center’s Ranch and Rangeland Managers Training Program, and is a keen wildlife enthusiast. He is committed to restoring healthy, self-sustaining levels of natural herbivore populations on his west Texas ranch. He is not only striving to boost populations of resident mule deer, pronghorn, and desert bighorn sheep, but has undertaken an ambitious elk reintroduction project. Merriam’s elk, a subspecies of the North American elk that once

thrived in the desert Southwest, has been extinct since the turn of the last century. Chris recently released a herd of 52 Rocky Mountain elk that he acquired from a failing elk farm in Minnesota, adding one more native grazer (or at least near-native, being a subspecies classification remo ved from the true native) to his ranch’s mix of herbivores. So far they’re adapting well. Chris’ ranch also supports healthy concentrations of mountain lions and co yotes, and he is concerned with their impact on his struggling populations of mule deer, pronghorn antelope, and desert bighorns. He recently sent a letter to Allan Savory and me, requesting some input on dealing with this challenge. Below are his question and our responses.

I

Dear Allan and Jim, realize that bringing back healthy populations of wild herbivores I appreciated Jim’s piece, “Living with Predators,” in the March/April is important to you. I can’t argue with your policy of reducing 2002 issue of IN PRACTICE. But here is a quandary. I do not doubt there predators at times, but I do have some comments. As you stated, are ways humans can intervene between their cattle and predators to you’re conscious of the fact that the real root cause of the low reduce predation levels to bearable levels. But there are no such herbivore numbers is the state of their habitat, and that reducing techniques I know of to protect mule deer herds from mountain lions that kill a deer every five days, and more often in summer when there are litters and heat to spoil kills. One cat can kill 60 deer a year. We trapped and killed five cats at Circle Ranch last summer. Our deer herd is only 300. We have more deer than most of our neighbors. Antelope predation is even worse. The game experts tell us that there is a less than 12 percent survival rate after predation for antelope fawns.

So what is the technique by which we protect our wildlife from these predators? Eventually the solution is lush perennial grasslands in which fawns can hide. But what do we do in the 20 years between now and the time that we can hope to re-achieve these conditions?

Mountain lion populations tend to be limited by occupied territories We have had an intensive predator control program, and or home ranges. this consists of trapping coyotes during the fawning season.

This is in April and May for antelope, June and July for deer.

Since we have suppressed coyotes and mountain lions, we have predators is a temporary measure as you rectify the problem. had a noticeable increase in surviving young. It seems to me that if In the healthy population you ultimately desire, predators will everything is in balance, predators are wonderful, but when things play a crucial role. For this reason and because you probably have get out of balance predators can devastate deer, antelope and desert neighbors killing predators, you will need to act with some caution. bighorn sheep. Perhaps predator suppression is treating a symptom While the coyotes are not likely to be too drastically reduced, the rather than a cause. But, to pursue Allan’s analogy of the headache same might not be true for the lions. I’m not sure what that level and the hammer, sometimes you have to get symptoms under of over-harvest on lions is, but Texas Parks & Wildlife should have control if the patient is to survive so the doctor can cure the an idea. root problem.

Some research from Idaho indicates that average lion density in Therefore, my question is, why would you object to seasonal that area is about 35 square km (a little under 9,000 acres) per lion. predator control in the short-term while we are doing the various I can’t remember how big you said your ranch is (35,000 acres sticks in things to restore our perennial grasslands?

Sincerely, continued on page 14 Chris Gill

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Managing Wild Herbivores and Their Predators continued from page 13

A

s you strive to restore healthy wildlife populations you have recognized one of the main problems--trying to build up elk, pronghorn and deer numbers subject to predation in habitat my mind). If that’s right, and if lion densities in Idaho are anything like that is seriously depleted. As you have noted, these animals, given densities in west Texas, then you might be getting pretty thin on lions good cover, would thrive despite the predation. I would go further. after those five you killed last summer.

They would be healthier because of the predation.

On the other hand, from what I’ve read, lion populations tend to It could well help to reduce predation by culling predators in be limited by occupied territories or home ranges of individual animals. the early stages. With the coyotes there will be little danger (as far In other words, young lions frequently die if there are no vacant as we know), but with the lions you will need to act with some territories to fill. If you vacate a territory by killing a lion, therefore, caution. I am assuming your neighbors are also killing predators, it will likely be filled in short order by a juvenile looking for a place including lions, and you will not want to reduce their numbers to call home. The same applies for coyotes. Those juveniles will most too low. likely be much less efficient hunters (for a year or two anyway), As the range begins to regain health due to the use of your which might allow some time for more wild herbivores to survive livestock under planned grazing, the problem should begin to ease past the juvenile stage. with increasing cover for fawning and calving. Everything you can Conclusion: If your neighbors aren’t trying to eradicate their do to speed this range of recovery will help the wild herds and help predators (or haven’t already), you’ll probably never run out of them you financially. The best way I know of speeding range reclamation is on your place. The inexperienced good planning of the grazing and striving at juveniles that replace those that you all times to get high animal impact with the do remove will probably be less hard best graze/trample to recovery ratio you on your herbivores, and you should can achieve. Keep assuming you are wrong see a gradual increase, as you’re and monitoring to bring about the future already experiencing. By planting landscape your holistic goal demands. If those elk, you’ll potentially be reducing you detect that litter isn’t increasing, or some pressure on your deer and that plant spacing and/or capped soil are pronghorn populations as well, not decreasing, then increase the impact assuming the lions can figure out and so on. how to kill elk again.

Ultimately you will be managing not Remember that you may be able only the grazing of your livestock but to restore all the native herbivores to the grazing and browsing of the wild abundant numbers, but if they’re herbivores. This necessitates getting them Coyote populations aren’t generally adversely af fected behaving like domestic livestock in the moving and keeping them from becoming by culling programs. absence of predators, they’ll be just as static. Otherwise they will do as much hard on your land and plant damage as static cattle do. We are all communities as poorly managed learning how to do this, including myself domestic livestock. You have to be able to control, at least to some on the ranch we manage with the Africa Centre for Holistic extent, when and where the wildlife are. When you eventually get Management in Zimbabwe. herbivore numbers up significantly, this whole issue will have to What we have learned both in Africa and here is that once there be addressed. is a large herd of cattle being managed under good planned grazing, Luckily, human hunters can do a good job of keeping wild many of the wild grazers begin to move and follow them. When we herbivores out of areas you don’t want them to be in, and in the first noted this many years ago, buffalo, wildebeest, zebra, kudu, and areas you do want them to be in. You’ll eventually have to do a impala were moving two days behind the cattle. We surmised this was wildlife grazing plan, and instead of using fences to control the because they obtained a better plane of nutrition on the sprouting grazing, you’ll use well placed humans. They don’t necessarily have plants. At first this concerned me because it lengthened the grazing to be hunting, but just keeping the elk (or pronghorn or deer) period beyond that planned and shortened recovery periods. However, spooked out of the areas you don’t want them to be in. If you had with the very high animal impact we noted the range improved eco-tourists coming to go hiking or mountain biking, you could shift incredibly--from bare ground with only occasional annuals to solid their major areas of activity to the parts of the ranch you were perennial grassland with many species. So, what is best for the land trying to temporarily keep the wild herbivores out of. In the areas (increasing perennial grasses and cover) is also likely to be helpful in you do want them to be in, you would release your pressure on them beginning to get wild populations moving. when in those areas. We’ve got a lot of learning ahead of us as we You, like us, have many years of exciting learning ahead as we restore our wild populations of native grazers. Keep us up to date demonstrate to the world that we can reverse biodiversity loss and on your progress. desertification.

—Jim Howell —Allan Savory

14

LAND & LIVESTOCK

IN PRACTICE #84

Meet the Savory Center’s Advisory Board This dynamic group of long-time supporters assist us in making important contacts for program development and fundraising and in the last year have given generously of their time and talents in working with the staff and Board of Directors to develop a long term strategic plan for the Center. We are indebted to them and more grateful than we can ever say .

Robert B. Anderson, Chair, Corrales, New Mexico Robert is an officer and principal of SunValley Energy, an independent oil and gas exploration company based in Roswell, New Mexico. Prior to that he served as Executive Director of the Foundation for the Development of Polish Agriculture in Poland and as a senior advisor for Cornell University’s Central and Eastern Europe initiative. In both cases he helped promote a market economy and private enterprise through a variety of programs, of which a microlending program was the most important.

Robert was originally attracted to Holistic Management because of its range and ranch applications, but he came to see that it had potential beyond that—reversing desertification and other urgent global concerns. He attended his first course 20 years ago. Robert has also served on the boards of the Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development, The American Farmland Trust, The Nature Conservancy, and The Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. He also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia.

Sam Brown, Austin, Texas and Lena, Mississippi Sam has been a Center supporter since the early ‘90s, and has served on both the Africa Centre’s Board of Trustees as well as the Savory Center’s Advisory Board. Sam graduated from the University of Southern California (Los Angeles) with a BS in Geology, and immediately went to work in Venezuela as a geologist and paleontologist. His first exposure to Holistic Management was through his purchase of a free-choice mineral manufacturing company. He was offered a seat in a 5-day “school” Allan was teaching in Albuquerque took it, and never looked back.

Today Sam and his wife, Sherry, own and operate a farm and registered Angus operation in Lena, Mississippi, though primarily based in Austin. Sam is involved with the Savory Center because Holistic Management is “one of the newest and most refreshing ways there is of thinking about how one goes about making decisions.”

and UCLA Film School, and the New School for Social Research. She worked in film as an editor, screenwriter, and documentary filmmaker until 1979 when she began writing full time. Her work has been published in The Atlantic, Harper’s, The New York Times, Time, Life, National Geographic Adventure, Audubon, Architectural Digest , and O Magazine , among many others, and has been widely anthologized. Her books have been translated into Danish, French, Italian, German, and Japanese. She has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, a Whiting Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Harold D. Vurcell award for distinguished prose by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Gretel first learned about the Savory Center’s work through the Powder River

Leslie Christian, Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington Leslie is President of Progressive Investment Management Corporation. She has more than 25 years experience in the investment field including nine years in New York as a Director with Salomon Brothers Inc. In addition to her ongoing responsibilities as President of Progressive, Leslie co-founded Portfolio 21, Progressive's no load mutual fund committed to environmental sustainability, and heads its management team.

Leslie received a bachelor's degree from the University of Washington and an MBA in Finance from the University of California, Berkeley. She has earned both the Certified Financial Planner and Chartered Financial Analyst designations and is a member of the Seattle Financial Analysts Society and the Association for Investment Management and Research. She has served on the boards of several nonprofits and has been active in such organizations as Artfair Seattle, Black Dollar Days Task Force, Center for Savory Center Advisory Board. Top row: Guillermo Osuna, Allan Contemporary Art, New Savory (Center staff), Gretel Ehrlich, Doug McDaniel, Robert Beginnings Shelter for Anderson, Rio de la Vista (Center director), Richard Smith. Bottom Battered Women, New City row: Sam Brown, Bunker Sands, Gail Hammack (guest). Not Theater, Seattle Women's pictured: Leslie Christian, Clint Josey, York Schueller, Jim Shelton.

Commission, Leadership Tomorrow, King County Coalition Against Domestic Violence, United Way Planning and Resource Council in Montana in 1979. She was Distribution Committee, and the asked to join the Board of Directors in 1986 Pride Foundation. (she served until 1991). She has remained on Leslie became involved with the Center the Advisory board since then. Gretel divides after hearing Allan speak at a conference. She her time between California and Wyoming. believes the Center’s approach offers a rare She has served on the Wyoming State Library combination of philosophical strength and Board and the Polartec Board for Malden Mills. practicality. “Holistic Management makes sense She works with the Nature Conservancy and at all levels because there is a recognition of the Green River Land Trust in Wyoming, and core issues and a viable methodology for Zen Center Hospice in San Francisco. finding solutions.”

Clint Josey, Dallas, Texas Gretel Ehrlich, Gaviota, California and Clint is a petroleum engineer, but also has Cora, Wyoming Gretel was educated at Bennington College continued on page 16

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE • JULY / AUGUST 2002 15

Advisory Board continued from page 15

a cattle ranch at Leo, Texas. (The ranch will be hosting our international gathering of members in 2003.) He has a BS degree from University of Texas/Austin in Petroleum Engineering, and a master’s in Mathematics from Southern Methodist University.

Clint took a Holistic Management course in the early ‘80s and thought from the beginning that the Savory Center’s work was important.

He was among the original group of ranchers, farmers, academics and others who formed the Center and he served on the original Board of Directors.

He currently serves as a director for The Nature Conservancy/Texas and the Native Prairies Association of Texas, and on the advisory boards of the North Texas University’s environmental science department and HRM of Texas.

Doug McDaniel, Lostine, Oregon Doug grew up in a small northeast Oregon logging community, received a BS degree from Oregon State University in Production Technology. He’s had a varied career in logging, construction and ranching.

He first learned about the Center and Holistic Management from agricultural magazines. He is deeply committed to saving his community and a way of life that is threatened. He sees Holistic Management as a means to achieve that. He is involved in the Savory Center because “I still think this organization has the most to give in settling problems in the environment. There’s more to be gained from this organization than any I’ve been associated with.”

He currently serves on the board of Wallowa Resources (a local organization that focuses on trying to maintain family-wage jobs for people in Wallowa County through proper care of resources—grazing and timber. He has also served on the boards of a number of organizations associated with environmental concerns, the proper use of resources, or community development and revitalization.

Guillermo Osuna, Musquiz, Coahuila, Mexico Guillermo met Allan Savory the first time Allan lectured in the U.S.—in 1978 at an international stockmen’s school in Phoenix, Arizona. Guillermo attended the first “school” Allan ran in San Angelo, Texas, two years later, and has been involved with the Center ever since. He sees Holistic Management as a real

16 HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE #84

alternative for solving Mexico’s land deterioration problems.

Guillermo was born in Mexico City and received his BA degree from Dartmouth College. In 1986, together with a group of ranchers, he formed a non profit organization in Mexico to promote Holistic Management.

This organization, known as Fundación para Fomentar el Manejo Holístico A C, is currently involved with the publication in Spanish of Holistic Management . It is also training government extension people in Holistic Management and will coordinate the Center’s first Certified Educator Training Program in Mexico. Guillermo currently serves on the board of the Fundación Mexicana para la Conservacion de la Naturaleza (Mexican Foundation for Nature Conservation).

Bunker Sands, Dallas, Texas Bunker is the Executive Director of the Rosewood Corporation, a family owned company that has interests in real estate, hotel management, oil and gas, venture capital, and ranching. He has a degree from Trinity University and learned about the Savory Center as he explored how to manage some ranch properties sustainably.

In the late ‘80s the Rosewood Hotel in Maui, Hawaii, hired away one of the Center staff to work with them to manage the hotel property holistically (it included a ranch). Bunker notes that learning about Holistic Management changed the way he thinks. He believes that when more decision makers work toward their holistic goals, the world will be a better place.

Bunker is on the board of trustees of the Nature Conservancy of Texas. He has received a number of land stewardship awards from the state of Texas and the Environmental Protection Agency. He is also a member of the World Economic Forum.

York Schueller, El Segundo, California While relatively new to the Savory Center, York is already assisting with the marketing and development of our ecotourism and community development efforts at the Africa Centre for Holistic Management in Zimbabwe.

York is a computer animator who recently joined the staff of Dreamworks SKG after a number of years in animation, multimedia, and website development. He earned a BS degree from San Jose State University in Industrial Technology with an electronics and computer technology concentration, and minors in International Business and ElectroAcoustic Music.

York first heard about the Savory Center when he visited the Africa Centre two years

ago. “The holistic approach had a lot of appeal and the community involvement with the Africa Centre was great.” York has been involved with a number of environmental organizations but currently devotes most of his volunteer time to recording for the blind and dyslexic.

Jim Shelton, Vinita, Oklahoma Jim is the Executive Vice-President of Oklahoma State Bank in Vinita. His family also owns an 1800-acre cattle ranch outside of town.

He earned an Animal Science degree from Oklahoma State University and is an alumni of the Oklahoma Agriculture Leadership Program.

He later graduated from the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking at Southern Methodist University.

Jim learned about the Savory Center through newspaper and magazine articles in the late 1980's and from a friend who had attended some of the early courses Allan taught. He became an Advisory Board member nearly two years ago, something he considers an honor and both a humbling and inspiring experience “because of the level of intelligence and enthusiasm the staff and other advisory board members bring to the Center.”

Jim is involved in the local Chamber of Commerce and is President of the Board of Education of Vinita Public Schools. He is also a member of the Long Range Capital Planning Commission for the State of Oklahoma, a member of the Ag 2000 Task Force for the State of Oklahoma, a member of the board of directors of the Oklahoma State University Alumni Association, and also various other local and state organizations.

Richard Smith, Houston, Texas Richard is the President of Ventex Management, an investment company involved in a wide range of industries, and earned his BA in American Studies at Yale. He has served on the boards of a number of private and public companies engaged in oil and gas exploration, manufacturing, organic and natural food retailing, hospital pharmacy management, pediatric home health care, newspaper publishing, and land development.

For 35 years he has managed the familyowned ranch in Kerr County, Texas both for cattle and wildlife. He has been excited about Holistic Management since he first attended a course Allan Savory taught in 1984. But he remains involved because he believes that the issue of desertification is a valid concern that needs to be addressed and that the Center and Holistic Management can do that. He wants to help the Center get its message out.

Savory Center Bulletin Board Grants Support Savory Center’s Work

W

e would like to extend our thanks once again to the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for their ongoing support of our work. We recently received a $100,000 check as the second installment of a $250,000 unrestricted general support grant.

We also received a $40,000 grant from the Flora Family Fund for our work in the Lost River Valley as part of our efforts in the U.S. Forest Service Holistic Management National Learning Site in Challis, Idaho.

And last but not least, the Savory Center recently received a $20,000 grant from the Lumpkin Family Foundation to support the work on some of our programs in the local community.

On another note, we would like to thank Christina Allday-Bondy, Liz Williams, Richard Smith, Chuck Herring, and Ginny Agnew for their fundraising efforts. In March they gathered together an interested group of potential philanthropists for two dinners with Allan Savory in Austin, Texas.

A Training Program for Mexico

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ears of effort and persistence on the part of our members in Mexico have finally paid off in what looks to be a multi-year effort that will train Holistic Management® Certified Educators for Mexico. With strong backing from two members of President Vicente Fox's cabinet—Secretary of Agriculture Usabiaga and Secretary of Environment Lichtinger—the new training program will be launched in January 2003.

Mexican trainees, like those accepted into the U.S. program, will need to go through the same rigorous application process--though all interviews and written materials will be in Spanish. Translation of the Holistic Management textbook is complete and publication (in Mexico) should occur before the end of 2002. In the meantime, all of the Holistic Management® planning guides, charts and forms have been translated—largely by Certified Educator Elco Blanco.

While we here in Albuquerque are excited by this opportunity, our enthusiasm is nothing compared to the Mexicans who have worked so hard for so long to make this happen— Jesus Almeida, Jr., Octavio Bermudez, Elco Blanco, Moncho Villar, Guillermo Osuna, Manuel Casas, and the many others they inspired who opened the doors that made this possible.

New Directions

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e are indebted to Cynthia O. Harris, MD, and her husband Leo O. Harris, who after only a brief acquaintance with the Savory Center and our work, made a major gift early this year so we could in turn invest it where we needed it most. In their eyes and ours that was to engage fundraising counsel. Cynthia and Leo in turn recommended Durkin Associates of Milwaukee, whom we engaged in January. It has turned out to be one of the best investments we’ve ever made, and we knew it within the first two weeks.

Among other things, Bill Durkin and his staff conducted face-to-face interviews with more than 20 of our members and financial supporters, and from them, and subsequent interviews with our staff and Board of Directors, they were able to tell us a lot about ourselves—the good, the bad, and most of all, the confusing. They helped us clarify our message so people could begin to grasp what we do and what we plan to accomplish in the near and long term. Out of a mound of opportunities that have recently come our way, they identified a handful that were truly extraordinary and helped us focus on those.

In the next months, we suspect you’ll see the difference this challenging exercise in selfexamination and forward planning has made for us, and appreciate what this means for the Savory Center’s future. None of this would have been possible had Cynthia and Leo not seen our need for it and helped us make it happen. We are truly grateful.

David West Ranch Monitoring

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n March 14th, Allan Savory and Savory Center staff met with a number of interested individuals and government agency employees to begin the first round of land planning and biological monitoring sessions on the Ozona, Texas ranch bequeathed to the Savory Center last year by David West.

Participants included area ranchers and Certified Educators, Joe and Peggy Maddox (West Ranch Managers), and representatives from the Sibley Nature Center, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Holistic Management on CD

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hrough the efforts of Paul Griffiths in Australia, we now have available to us the textbook, Holistic Management: A New Frame work for Decision Making , on CD (15 CD’s to be exact). Paul, a well-known radio personality in Australia, has professionally captured this definitive text on Holistic Management in a way that makes it come more alive to those of us who are auditory learners.

He intersperses his rendition of the text with a recorded interview of Allan that took place at Dimbangombe, Zimbabwe (The Africa Centre for Holistic Management). For more information on ordering this CD collection see the advertisement on page 23.

Africa Update

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e have continued to make progress with our Africa programs despite the political

and economic troubles in Zimbabwe leading up to and following the presidential election and its controversial results. In particular, we have launched two new women’s banks and the demand for more remains high. Likewise, we continue to have very strong support from the local community with more chiefs asking to join our Board of Trustees.

We just completed a rigorous selection process for the first individuals who will take part in our game scout training course—the first offered under what will become our wildlife and environmental management college, and developed an internship program with Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine that will be launched this summer at Dimbangombe under the direction of Dr. Chris Jost. Lastly, we met with other NGOs (non-government organizations or “non-profits”) in the area, as well as neighboring land holders who are enthusiastic about the college of wildlife and environmental management and will work with us to make it a success in the region.

Outreach Efforts

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e would like to extend our thanks to Phil Metzger of the South Central New York Resource & Conservation District for his efforts in arranging for Allan Savory to speak at the Farm Diversity Conference in Norwich, New York, and to Jim and Judy Reed for hosting a field day for HRM of Texas at the Reed Ranch near Corsicana. Lastly, thanks to the Burrows family near Red Bluff, California for hosting the Holistic Management of California gathering.

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE • JULY / AUGUST 2002 17

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 ARKANSAS Preston Sullivan P.O. Box 4483, Fayetteville, AR 72702 501/443-0609; 501/442-9824 (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; cindydv@reanet.net Rio de la Vista P.O. Box 777 Monte Vista, CO 81144 970/731-9659; 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 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 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

Roland Kroos 4926 Itana Circle Bozeman, MT 59715 406/388-1003; KROOSING@aol.com Ann Adams Montana State University Department of Land Resources & Environmental Science Bozeman, MT 59717 406/994-5079; montagne@montana.edu Cliff Montagne NEW MEXICO 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 Kirk Gadzia P.O. Box 1100, Bernalillo, NM 87004 505/867-4685; fax: 505/867-0262 kgadzia@earthlink.net

INTERNATIONAL AUSTRALIA Graeme Hand 162 Hand and Associates Port Fairy, VIC 3284 61-03-5568-2158 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 61-07-4626-7187 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 3438 Point Grey Rd Vancouver, BC, V6R 1A5 604/736-1552; noelm@telus.net Len Pigott #120 Stewart Crescent, Kindersley, SK S0L 1S1 306/463-6236, 306/463-2696 JLPigott@sk.sympatico.ca

18 HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE #84

Kelly Sidoryk Box 374; Lloydminster, AB, S9V 0Y4 403/875-4418 higain@telusplanet.net

Wiebke Volkmann P.O. Box 182, Otavi 067-23-44-48; keilberg@mweb.com.na

CHINA/GERMANY Dieter Albrecht Melanchthonstr. 23 D-10557 Berlin 49-30-392 8315 alialb@gmx.net (international)

NEW ZEALAND John King P.O. Box 3440, Richmond, Nelson 64-3-543-3830; Joking@clear.net.nz

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 52-637-78929; fax: 52-637-10031 Elco Blanco-Madrid Cristobal de Olid #307 Chihuahua Chih., 31030 52-14-415-3497; fax: 52-14-415-3175 elco-blanco@hotmail.com Manuel Casas-Perez Calle Amarguva No. 61, Lomas Herradura Huixquilucan, Mexico City CP 52785 52-5-291-3934; 52-5-992-0220 (w) NAMIBIA Gero Diekmann P.O. Box 363, Okahandja 9000 264-62-518091 nam00132@mweb.com.na

SOUTH AFRICA Johan Blom P.O. Box 568, Graaf-Reinet 6280 27-49-891-0163; j&tblom@eastcape.net 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 Liberty Mabhena Spring Cabinet P.O. Box 853, Harare 263-4-210021/2 263-4-210577/8; fax: 263-4-210273 Sister Maria Chiedza Mutasa Bandolfi Convent P.O. Box 900, Masvingo 263-39-7699, 263-39-7530 Elias Ncube P. Bag 5950, Victoria Falls 263-3-454519; rogpachm@africaonline.co.zw

Ken Jacobson 12101 Menaul Blvd. NE, Ste A Albuquerque, NM 87112 505/293-7570; kbjacobson@orbusinternational.com The Savory Center 1010 Tijeras NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102 505/842-5252; kellyp@holisticmanagement.org

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 Department of Entomology OARDC Wayne Berry 1680 Madison Hill Wooster, OH 44691 330/202-3534 (w); stinner.2@osu.edu

David Trew 369 Montezuma Ave. #243 Santa Fe, NM 87501 505/751-0471 trewearth@aol.com

OKLAHOMA Kim Barker RT 2, Box 67 Waynoka, OK 73860 580/824-9011 barker_k@hotmail.com

Vicki Turpen 03 El Nido Amado SW Kelly Pasztor Albuquerque, NM 87121 505/873-0473;mvt9357@aol.com

OREGON Joel Benson 613 Fordyce St. Ashland, OR 97520 541/488-9630; ytka@jeffnet.org

NORTH CAROLINA Sam Bingham 394 Vanderbilt Rd. Asheville, NC 28803 828/274-1309 sbingham@igc.org

Local Networks

NORTH DAKOTA Deborah Stinner

TEXAS Christina Allday-Bondy 2703 Grennock Dr. Austin, TX 78745 512/441-2019 ; tododia@peoplepc.com R.H. (Dick) Richardson Guy Glosson 6717 Hwy 380, Snyder, TX 79549 806/237-2554 cowdog@caprock-spur.com 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@fgb.net UTAH Chandler McLay P.O. Box 12, Monticello, UT 84535 303/888-8799; mcchan@msn.com

Cindy Douglas 2795 McMillian St. Eugene, OR 97405 541/465-4882; cdouglas@omri.org

WASHINGTON Craig Madsen P.O. Box 107, Edwall, WA 99008 509/236-2451; madsen2fir@mindspring.com

Don Nelson Sandra Matheson 228 E. Smith Rd. Bellingham, WA 98226 360/398-7866; smm1@gte.net 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 WYOMING Miles Keogh 450 N. Adams Ave Buffalo, WY 82834 307/684-0532 mkeogh@trib.com

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

MINNESOTA Land Stewardship Project Audrey Arner, Program Director 103 W. Nichols Ave. Montevideo, MN 56265 320/269-2105 www.landstewardshipproject.org

OKLAHOMA Oklahoma Land Stewardship Alliance Charles Griffiths Route 5, Box E44, Ardmore, OK 73401 580/223-7471; cagriffith@brightok.net

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

NEBRASKA Nebraska Branch of the Center For Holistic Management Brenda Younkin Kury P.O. Box 3723, Alpine, WY 83128 307/654-3527; bkury@hotmail.com www.users.uswest.net/~vkury

PENNSYLVANIA Northern Penn Network Jim Weaver, contact person

NEW YORK Regional Farm & Food Project Tracy Frisch, contact person 148 Central Ave., 2nd floor Albany, NY 12206 518/427-6537

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

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 406/328-6808; rutbuster@montana.net

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

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

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 Zeus 921, Contry La Escondida,

Guadalupe, NL 67173 tel/fax: 52-8-349-8666 fmh@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

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