Dixon Water Foundation

Promoting healthy watersheds through sustainable land management

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Register for Southern Soil Health Conference

December 15, 2015 by Administrator

The Southern Soil Health Conference is coming up on January 12-13 in Ardmore, Oklahoma.

This conference for producers and land owners focuses solely on Soil Health, Cover Crops and Grazing. At least 75% of registrants are people directly involved with the land—production agriculture (crops and/or livestock) and land owners. This conference will also be producer driven with almost all the speakers and presenters being farmers. Keynote speakers will include: Dr. Allan Williams, Steve Tucker, John Heerman, and Darin Williams.

In addition, we will have 8-10 Texas and Oklahoma producers sharing about their individual experiences with Soil Health and how it has affected their farming operations. Some of these speakers are Jimmy Emmons, Craig Watson, Yates Adcock, Max Martin and more…

This conference is about knowledge and learning and not selling products. We will not be having a commercial trade show to promote individual companies or products.

The Southern Soil Health Conference is sponsored in part by the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Farm Foundation, No-Till on the Plains, Southern SARE, Texas Grazing Land Coalition, Dixon Water Foundation, Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts, Oklahoma Conservation Commission, Sand County Foundation, and the Natural Resource Defense Council.

Learn more and register on the Green Cover Seed website.

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Filed Under: Events Tagged With: education, ranching, soil

National Conference on Grazing Lands on Dec. 13-16

November 24, 2015 by Administrator

The sixth National Conference on Grazing Lands, a unique conference for livestock producers by livestock producers, is coming up December 13-16 in Grapevine, Texas. The program lineup includes a tour of Dixon Ranches Leo Unit and soil health presentations by ranch manager Robbie Tuggle and science advisory board members Dr. Lisa Bellows and Dr. Richard Teague.

Learn more about or register for the conference on the National Grazing Lands Coalition website or in this article by Hugh Aljoe, foundation board member and Noble Foundation producer relations manager.

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: education, field program, grasslands, Leo Unit, ranching

SRSU sustainable ranching students in Odessa news

October 25, 2015 by Administrator

Students in Sul Ross State University’s sustainable ranch management program were featured in an article in the Odessa American. Steve Lang writes:

Despite a steady rain, students learned basic welding techniques in assembling gates on the O2 Ranch.

“They got to use a bit of grit to get the job done,” said Bonnie Warnock, Clint Josey Endowed Chair for Sustainable Ranch Management.

Respect and Vision are other operative words for the new program, which will offer both a B.S. degree and certificate program in sustainable ranch management. Through a combination of classroom and hands-on ranch experience, students will learn how to manage a ranch, literally from the soil up. The curriculum includes classes in soils, range management, wildlife management, animal husbandry and agricultural business…

…Rob Kinucan, Dean of the College of Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, said the Sustainable Ranch Management program came to fruition through a pleasant combination of personnel and support.

“This has been an aspiration of Bonnie’s since she first joined the faculty, but we never had the mechanism to make it happen until the Dixon Water Foundation created the endowment,” he said.

“This is a wonderful opportunity and we have the perfect person to lead the program. Bonnie has the right combination of an academic background blended with applied life skills in ranching. This is a stellar program that really fills a niche in West Texas.”

Read the full article on the Odessa American website. And learn more about the sustainable ranching program on the Sul Ross website.

Filed Under: In The Media Tagged With: education, grants, ranching

Cross Timbers Landowner Workshop at Leo on Oct. 2

September 30, 2015 by Administrator

Landowners in Cooke County are invited to a one-day workshop on October 2 with Texas A&M AgriLife at Dixon Ranches Leo Unit. From 7:30am to 4pm, participants will learn about recognizing the cross timbers, wildlife habitat management & tax appraisals, range management, conservation easements, soils, and invasive plants. Admission is $20. CEUs available. For a complete program, download a PDF of the Cross Timbers Landowner Workshop agenda.

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: education, field program, Leo Unit, ranching, soil

Kids on the Land at Bear Creek

September 17, 2015 by Administrator

Our education partner Kids on the Land was at Dixon Ranches Bear Creek Unit in September. Their outdoor environmental programs teach children about the region where they live, connecting them to the land and a more sustainable future. With support from the foundation, Kids on the Land partnered with Morningside Children’s Partnership to provide this program to third through fifth graders from the Edward J. Briscoe Elementary School, which is a neighborhood in Fort Worth that has suffered high unemployment, violence, substandard health care, and low educational outcomes for years. Check out the photo gallery below and the testimonials to see what an impact this program had.

September 17 is North Texas Giving Day, when matching donors will double any contributions made to this great organization. Visit the North Texas Giving Day website to learn more.

Kids on the Land at Bear Creek

Kids on the Land at Bear Creek
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Photo by Angie Dickson/Kids on the Land

“Being a [volunteer] for KOL is the hardest work I have ever loved. Because of this experience many of these students will never look at their world in quite the same way. It is humbling, awesome and a joy to witness the impact one day in nature can have on a child.”—Karen McGinnis, Kids On the Land volunteer

“Teaching students in the Kids on the Land program connects them to their sense of place and the world they live in. It touches their souls and connects them to real world learning in a meaningful life changing way.” —Kathy Cash, Kids On the Land volunteer

“Best day of school ever!” —Charles, Briscoe 3rd grader

Filed Under: Recent News Tagged With: Bear Creek Unit, education, field program, grants

Josey Institute hosts climate change dialogue

September 16, 2015 by Administrator

The Josey Institute for Agroecology at North Central Texas College in Gainesville is hosting a community dialogue about climate change on Sept. 17.

“People are naturally attuned to short-term thoughts and actions, while global climate conditions require long-term strategies,” said Dr. Lisa Bellows, director of the Josey Institute. “Education from a local to global perspective is imperative to ensuring sustainability.”

The institute was created through a grant from the Dixon Water Foundation last year.

Special guest Pat Hoerth, an advocate for sustainable agriculture and a published author, will join the community in this conversation. Hoerth is the director of Turtle Rock Farm, a farm in Red Rock, Okla., dedicated to modeling sustainable practices in living and farming.

Fore more information on the event, read this article in the Gainesville Daily Register or on News 12 KXII.

Filed Under: In The Media Tagged With: education

North Texas Land Scholars application deadline July 1

June 15, 2015 by Administrator

North Texas Land Scholars is a five-day leadership camp that fosters a passion for land stewardship through hands-on activities like hunter safety, plant and insect collections, quail habitat analysis and dissections, and much more. A partner of the Dixon Water Foundation, UNT Quail created this program to encourage youth to become responsible leaders and land stewards, and ultimately to restore the ranch and wildlife legacy of Texas. The application deadline is July 1, and the 2015 camp runs July 26-31 at Camp Grady Spruce. Financial assistance is available, and scholarships are awarded during the camp. For more information and an application, visit the North Texas Land Scholars website. 

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: education, grants, wildlife

Hickory Creek Watershed workshop in Denton May 21

May 14, 2015 by Administrator

A Texas Riparian and Stream Ecosystem Workshop in the Hickory Creek Watershed will be held on May 21 in Denton. The training will focus on the nature and function of stream and riparian zones and the benefits and direct impacts from healthy riparian zones. This workshop is supported in part by a grant from the Dixon Water Foundation and is being co-hosted by the City of Denton and the Upper Trinity Conservation Trust. Learn more about this program and similar riparian workshops on the Texas Riparian Association’s website. RSVP required by May 15.

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: education, field program, grants, water

Walt Davis on educating ranch managers

April 24, 2015 by Administrator

Walt Davis, a fifth-generation rancher and Dixon Water Foundation board member, was recently asked what should be included in a ranch management curriculum. The foundation supports sustainable ranching programs at Sul Ross State University and North Central Texas College, which are training a new generation land stewards who should understand the concepts Mr. Davis stated so well:

“The first bit of knowledge that I would suggest as critical to ranch managers is that all agriculture— ranching included—is a biological, rather than an industrial, process. The ranch most likely to be both profitable and sustainable will be the one that best mimics the complex web of relationships between soils, vegetation, grazers and predators that nature has used to create the productive and stable grassland communities that existed in various parts of the world prior to human intervention.

This program of natural management evolved over eons of time and is based in the fact that anything that is detrimental—in the long run—to any part of a functioning system is harmful to the entire system. It does not produce the most pounds per acre of animal life or the most pounds of grass, but rather a system that is highly resilient and effective in converting solar energy into biological energy over long periods of time.

The closer we can keep our management to this model, the more apt we are to build ranches that are ecologically, financially and sociologically sound. The major difference should be that humans assume the role of primary predator. This allows humans to benefit—take subsistence and create wealth—but it also means that we must take on the functions performed by predators: control numbers to suit conditions (set stocking rates); prevent abusive grazing (keep animals concentrated and moving); and maintain genetic fitness in the grazing animals by selection and culling.

A second concept of value would be the importance of biodiversity in improving the health of soils, plants, animals and bank accounts. Every type of organism has needs and the abilities to provide for those needs that are different from those of even its closest relatives. Having a broad range of healthy populations—made up of healthy individuals—of different kinds of organisms insures that no one species increases in number to pest status and that the resources of sunlight, water, mineral nutrients and space are fully utilized with none being over-utilized. Weeds and brush proliferate because the local environment is degraded and ecological niches are not being filled. Most weed and brush control methods make the situation worse by further simplifying the environment. We should manage for what we want; not against what we don’t want.

Stockmanship is a skill of vast importance that is woefully lacking on many ranches. We create most animal health problems by stressing the animals.

Finally, the importance of and the rationale behind planned, time-controlled grazing. This must include getting in sync with the realities of climate, vegetation, water, and the use of adapted animals. Basic to successful grazing management is an understanding of the relationships between grasslands and grazing animals and that proper grazing builds grassland health.

Many of the problems of ranching originated with the shift of emphasis from husbandry to science. We must use science to understand nature, but it is a mistake to attempt to use science to control nature. There is a severe shortage of people who understand that we must promote the health of the whole animal-plant-soil-human-wealth complex we call a ranch, in order to create profitable and sustainable operations.”

Walt Davis writes regular columns for the Farm Progress family of magazines and other publications. He has published two books: How to Not Go Broke Ranching and A Gathering At Oak Creek and has three others under way. You can learn more about his work at waltdavisranch.com.

Filed Under: Recent News Tagged With: education, ranching

Land-use change in the Trans-Pecos

March 25, 2015 by Administrator

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Texas’s water supply depends heavily on the stewardship of private agricultural land, which is increasingly being fragmented and developed. Learn more about changing land use in the Trans-Pecos and tools for private lands conservation at an upcoming seminar, “Going, Going, Gone!” on April 30th in Alpine. To learn more and register, visit the Texas Agricultural Land Trust website.

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: education, ranching

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The Dixon Water Foundation promotes healthy watersheds through sustainable land management to ensure that future generations have the water resources they need.
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4528 County Road 398
Decatur, TX 76234

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P.O. Box 177
Marfa, TX 79843

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