5 minute read
A Nod to Partnership and a Note of Thanks from
After just over 25 years as an employee of the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW), I’ve elected to retire at the end of 2022, ending my civil service
career. During the last 25 years that I’ve been a state employee, Nevada has experienced significant changes that have also affected the relationship between the Nevada ranching industry and NDOW. There have been environmental changes as cheatgrass expands and fire threats increase. Industries and their actions and impacts are growing and shifting with dynamic demands on minerals like gold and lithium, discoveries of new deposits, new techniques, and new and emerging clean/renewable energy objectives. Feral horses and catastrophic drought plague the state. Nevada’s population has also experienced unprecedented changes in size, distribution, and demography. However, the two changes most relevant to this message, are the changes within me as a person and the changes within the state’s political landscape. Both changes have fostered a reinvestment in the NDOW/ranching industry relationship. As a much younger biologist in Elko, I recall the resentment I felt at being required to attend and participate in the BLM’s development of a holistic resource management planning effort for an Elko County ranch. I didn’t have time for such nonsense, as my science was my empirical truth and I was too busy doing God’s work to be bothered by such nonsense as a HRM planning effort. Since those early days, I have come to realize that regardless of the task at hand, it takes true open, honest, relationships to accomplish and sustain success. That awareness was key to change within me that was essential to better adapt to Nevada’s changing political demography through partnership with Nevada’s ranchers as well. Nevadans historically referenced our state legislature as a “cowboy legislature.” State legislators like Dean Rhoades, John Marvel, and John Carpenter, among others, had long-tenures and wielded significant influence on all issues affecting the state and particularly for rural issues and industry priorities. As Las Vegas rapidly grew, political observers noted that the state of Nevada would be increasingly governed by southern Nevadans with, in some instances, different priorities and values than those traditionally the focus of Nevada’s more northern rural legislators. As a result, rural issues would not have the same favor, voice, or platform at the state legislature and elsewhere they had traditionally known. Although the benefits of healthy rangelands, resistant and resilient ecosystems, and large intact landscapes are equally sought and enjoyed by many, often Nevada’s livestock producers and NDOW pursued them separately with the belief that gains for wildlife would come at the expense of livestock and vice versa. Consequently, we were most often divided and as a result, were less effective with our diluted voices and disparate efforts. Gradually realizing our shared challenges has allowed us to work together ever more frequently and certainly more productively for rangeland health. The strength of partnership has enhanced our effectiveness, increased the volume of our voices, and yielded significant wins for ecosystem health. I am not naive to the continued struggles of drought, fire, feral horse numbers, vegetation decadence, or the bureaucracies that still hinder us. Nor am I naive to our continued differences in perspectives and priorities at times. However, joining forces in an open, honest, transparent, and trusting partnership has paid off for both the NDOW and Nevada’s ranching industry. The list of partnership projects and benefits is too long and complex to recite here but there are things happening every day because of our expanding partnership that 25 years ago seemed unlikely if not impossible. Conservation easements, vegetation treatments, herbicide and seeding projects, native seed production, fencing projects, water development, are just a few examples of successful collaborations. Nevada’s ranching industry was key to improving the Nevada ranching and NDOW partnership by looking for ways to focus on our shared challenges rather than our differences. Some refer to the 80/20 rule where potential partners are better off focusing on the 80% upon which they agree, rather than the 20% that divides them. We know that we will not likely reach agreement on all things, and yet we have a choice in how we define our relationships. Do we define our relationships by what we have in common or by our differences and disagreements? Regardless of the relationship, professional, personal, family, marriage, etc., focusing on differences will divide and destroy. Focusing on our similarities and our shared challenges like fire and invasives, predators, feral horses, and drought, will give us a better partnerships and greater chances at achieving desired results. We have all heard the expressions “politics make for strange bedfellows” and “necessity is the mother of invention.” I believe that the state’s changing demography that has increasingly resulted in challenges of relevancy for Nevada’s livestock industry as well as for Nevada’s wildlife conservation efforts, has heightened a need for a previously thought unconventional partnership. It is a partnership that is young but with much room to grow and one valuable relationship for which I am incredibly grateful. Necessity, resulting from one of the most rapidly changing states in the country, has caused us to focus more on the 80% upon which we agree, in working together to further stem the impacts from shared challenges rather than standing alone with weaker and less effective voices. I’ll take the open honest transparent partnership with Nevada’s ranchers that focuses on our shared needs and purposes rather defining ourselves by what we choose to hate about one another. Positive proactive partnerships pay dividends never realized by divisive debate. As I ride off and say goodbye, I fear what I’ll miss the most are the productive partnerships, the cherished friendships, and the supportive fellowship that results from working together to overcome challenges. Thank you, Nevada ranchers, for your patience with us and for your partnership in maintaining healthy rangelands, open spaces, and keeping working lands working. Clearly, we are not finished, and whatever the task, we are better together than when we go it alone.
