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USDA | Intertribal Ag Council Retreat Focuses on Arid Pasture Recovery Efforts in Nevada
Intertribal Agriculture Council Retreat Focuses on Arid West Pasture Recovery Efforts In Nevada
By: Jim Komar, NRCS, Reno, NV
Photographs by: Jim Komar, NRCS, Reno, NV and Shanna Bernal-Fields, NRCS, Boise, ID
An inspirational mix of new and established partnerships came together in August to share the progress one northeastern Nevada Ranch is making to reverse decades of soil degradation and riparian area damage through innovative, regenerative management strategies.
On August 10 and 11, The Cottonwood Ranch near Wells, Nevada hosted the Intertribal Agriculture Council (IAC) for a workshop retreat. “The Cottonwood Ranch opportunity embodied three pillars - regenerative ag applications, riparian restoration, and the restoration of arid rangeland systems – that IAC was looking for on this retreat,” said Emily Luscombe, the new Natural Resources Director of the Intertribal Agriculture Council. IAC staff recruited tribal representatives from across Nevada, including members of the Yerington Paiute, South Fork Band of TeMoak, Yomba Shoshone, Duck Water Shoshone, and the Walker River Paiute Tribes to participate. IAC works with Tribes and Tribal Producers across the nation, promoting Indian-use of Indian resources for the benefit of Indian People. Programmatic offerings include legal and policy development, USDA technical assistance, natural resources management, marketing support, and Native youth in food and agriculture leadership development. IAC seeks to address systemic inequities to better serve Native producers, and Indian Country as a whole.
For the folks at Cottonwood Ranch, bringing IAC in was another step in their continuing effort to share their story and bring a fresh set of eyes and minds to the challenges of returning the land to a healthy, functioning state. For Ranch Manager McKenzie Molsbee and her Dad, Agee Smith, collaboration has always been at the core of the Cottonwood Ranch brand, even in times of significant conflict on riparian area management and other resource issues that touch people beyond the borders of the ranch. Over the past five years, ranch manager McKenzie Molsbee and her Dad, Agee Smith, have re-examined the question of what does the 1,200 acre ranch need to thrive and restore ecological function again? Decades of managing animals on pastureland under an uncontrolled wildland flood irrigation system had fragmented the riparian corridor, compacted the soil, broken the air, water, and nutrient cycles, leaving the plant and soil biological community on life support. Needing to make a change, the ranch turned to neighbors, consultants, and conservation professionals like NRCS District Conservationist Jaime Jasmine in nearby Elko for help formulating a new approach, beginning with two key irrigated pastures. First, NRCS and the state of Nevada helped the Ranch convert the inefficient flood irrigation system to center pivot sprinklers. Soil and pasture experts from Missouri to New Zealand weighed in with soil health improvement strategies focused on managing the “underground livestock” that govern soil air, water, and nutrient cycling. Pastures were re-seeded and nutrient rebalancing treatments begun that continue through a second season of change for the Cottonwood Ranch. With much of the shift in management now complete, the Ranch and IAC’s Luscombe sought outside expertise to assist in learning from the early results of the Ranch’s new regenerative management strategy. Part of their request was to employ a rainfall simulator to see how the restoration areas were performing, something Emily had seen used effectively at another event.
The problem was, rain (simulated or otherwise), can be a pretty scarce commodity in Nevada. NRCS Nevada State Soil Scientist Jim Komar reached out to NRCS Idaho, and Curtis Elke, Idaho State Conservationist and Idaho State Soil Scientist Shawn Nield came to the rescue.
Not only did the Idaho NRCS team offer their Soil Health trailer with the rainfall simulator, they also offered two of Idaho’s best – Resource Soil Scientist Shanna Bernal-Fields, and Courtney Cosden, a joint NRCSUniversity of Idaho Extension Soil Health Instructor - to assist with the request. The Retreat began with Agee Smith recounting the Ranch history, engaging in an open discussion of the ongoing challenges managing a highly-degraded system, and the inspiration that had caused their shift to regenerative management principles. Participants then toured the Ranch, observing the degraded conditions on the ground that had led to change, and the treatments underway aimed at restoring soil function.
“We were able to select four sites illustrating the current range of conditions, from a never having been degraded site all the way to a sample site representing a still-degraded, non-functioning site,” explained Komar.
NRCS staff employed various infield assessment tools to evaluate soil function across the four-site progression to help tune everyone’s five senses to the clear differences between healthy and unhealthy soils. But, as Komar said, “you can talk an hour about what to expect when a drop of water hits the land, but nothing speaks more clearly than showing what happens using a rainfall simulator.”
The rainfall simulator showered a steady rain on five trays representing various conditions the participants had probed onsite. As expected, the rainfall simulator received great response from IAC participants and Smith, who called it “one of the most effective visuals I’ve ever seen”.
The simulator showed very little of the roughly one inch of rain applied penetrated into the heavily compacted pasture subject to decades of wildland flood and grazing by livestock while the treated pivot-irrigated pasture samples showed more water infiltrating into the soil profile, a hopeful sign of progress. The “well-managed irrigated pasture” site delivered the performance Molsbee and Smith aim to regenerate across the Ranch, with one inch of water soaking in without any runoff. “It took quite a long time to get here, and it will still take some time to recover,” said Molsbee of their progression towards functioning pasture. “We’re optimistic we are heading in the right direction.” Following the simulator demonstration, participants closed by touring restored riparian and burn recovery areas where management practices are promoting recovery, and a closing session focused on ecosystem function, pollinator protection, and sources of assistance to Tribes with their resource concerns.
For more information about how NRCS can assist with soil related issues, contact your local USDA Service Center.
IAC, Cottonwood Ranch retreat group photo
NRCS Idaho Resource Soil Scientist Shanna Bernal-Fields (blue shirt, right) conducts a field discussion at one of the sites on Cottonwood Ranch.
Nevada – Idaho NRCS teams up to help with the Intertribal Agriculture Council at the Cottonwood Ranch in Elko County, Nevada. Pictured left to right: NRCS Nevada State Soil Scientist Jim Komar, NRCS Idaho Resource Soil Scientist Shanna Bernal-Fields, and NRCS – U. of Idaho Soil Health Instructor Courtney Cosden. Idaho NRCS educator Courtney Cosden prepares a rainfall simulator sampling tray reflecting the benchmark degraded condition on a Cottonwood Ranch pasture.
Agee Smith checks for soil compaction along a transect in a treated irrigated pasture on the Cottonwood Ranch.
