Dixon Water Foundation

Promoting healthy watersheds through sustainable land management

Soil Health Conference in Fort Worth on Jan. 13 & 14

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soilhealthconference_web

Green Cover Seed will be hosting the Southern Soil Health Conference, an Educational Opportunity for Producers and Land Owners, in Fort Worth on January 13 and 14, 2015.

The Dixon Water Foundation is one of several organizations sponsoring the conference: Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Texas Grazing Land Conservation Initiative, No-Till on the Plains, Sand County Foundation, Out On The Land, and Natural Resources Defense Council.

This unique conference will focus solely on the Five Keys to Soil Health: Keep the Soil Covered; Minimize Soil Disturbance; Crop Diversity; Living Roots in Soil at all times; and Integration of Livestock with the Land. This conference is for producers and land owners, 75% of the registration slots will be reserved for 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; Gabe Brown, Scott Ravenkamp, Robin and Kelly Griffeth, and Paul Jasa. 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 Todd Kimbrell, Terry McAllister, Jonathan Cobb,and Lisa Bellows. And 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.

To register or learn more, visit Green Cover Seed’s conference website.

Location:
Best Western Plus South
100 Altamesa Boulevard E
Fort Worth, Texas, 76134
Phone: 817.293.3088

Date: January 13th & 14th, 2015

Cost: $100 Per Person – Your Spouse can register for $50**

*NOTICE – The cost of registration DOES NOT reserve your hotel room. You must book and cover the cost of your hotel room on your own. To reserve your room at the Best Western Plus, contact the hotel (information listed above) and be sure and mention Southern Soil Health Conference when you are booking your room to get the discounted rate of $69 per night.

 

Rendezvous recap

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In early November, more than 200 people celebrated healthy lands and a sustainable future during Rendezvous 2014 at Dixon Ranches Leo Unit. The sold-out weekend included the Josey Pavilion Grand Opening, HMI’s 30th Anniversary Celebration, and two Open Gate Ranch Days at Dixon Ranches Leo Unit and the Running High Ranch in Bowie. Enjoy a recap of the event in the image gallery below:

Rendezvous 2014

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Rendezvous and Josey Pavilion in NTFR magazine

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North Texas Farm and Ranch magazine’s November issue spotlights the upcoming Holistic Management Rendezvous 2014 and Josey Pavilion Grand Opening at Dixon Ranches Leo Unit. Check out the article about this sold-out event, or view the full November issue on NTFR’s website. The regional agricultural magazine also features a monthly column by Lisa Bellows, director of the Josey Institute for Agroecology at North Central Texas College.

RMBO produces video about Mexican grasslands

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One of our partners, Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory, collaborates with private landowners in northern Mexico to support working ranches and improve grassland habitat for birds and other wildlife. They produced this great video about sustainable ranching in Chihuahuan Desert grasslands earlier this year.

Holistic Management Rendezvous Nov. 7-9

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The Dixon Water Foundation and Holistic Management International are co-hosting the Holistic  Management Rendezvous November 7 – 9 at Leo Unit in Cooke County and the Running High Ranch in Bowie.

Learn, grow and connect as we get out on the land, learn from each other, swap stories, and share ideas on how best to manage land for a sustainable future. This unique event will include the Josey Pavilion Grand Opening, HMI’s 30th Anniversary Celebration, and two Open Gate Ranch Days at Dixon Ranches Leo Unit and the Running High Ranch in Bowie.

While we are expecting a large contingent of land stewards, ranchers and organic farmers from Texas, we’ve already got a number of confirmed producers flying in from around the US and several continents. While there will be plenty of time to network with your peers, enjoy fine dining and live entertainment, we’ve also got a number of in-depth learning opportunities for you to expand your skills and knowledge of Holistic Management. This includes an optional post Rendezvous workshop following the main events.

To register, view the schedule, or learn more about this event, visit HMI’s website.

 

 

Certification process begins for Josey Pavilion

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To be certified as a Living Building, the Betty and Clint Josey Pavilion must meet the rigorous standards set by the Living Building Challenge for one year of operation. That evaluation period officially started on October 1, 2014, and if all goes as expected, the pavilion will become the first building of its kind in the state of Texas.

Architects Lake|Flato have published an online brochure describing how the pavilion functions as a Living Building, and you can also learn more about the pavilion on our website.

The grand opening of the Josey Pavilion is coming up on November 7 and will kick off Holistic Management International’s Rendezvous 2014 and 30th Anniversary. Registration is still open for this weekend of celebration and learning for anyone interested in sustainable land management.

The new brochure describing the pavilion is available on Lake|Flato’s website.

Rodent recovery at Mimms in Texas Wildlife magazine

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The recovery of small mammals at Dixon Ranches Mimms Unit in Marfa, following the 2011 Rock House Fire, was featured in the September 2014 issue of Texas Wildlife magazine. Writing for the Texas Wildlife Association publication, graduate student Bobby Allcorn and Professor Bonnie Warnock of Sul Ross State University‘s Borderlands Research Institute describe their Dixon-supported research on rodents at Mimms and a neighboring ranch in Presidio County. They write:

Rodents are such an integral part of their ecosystems that management plans for a landscape, or a species, should take into account the potential state of the small mammal population. The research being conducted here will help landowners and wildlife professionals make more informed decisions and develop better strategies to achieve their goals.”

Society for Range Management to visit Mimms and Alamito Creek

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“Borderland Conservation: Two Countries, One Cause,” the 65th Annual Meeting for the Texas Section of the Society for Range Management, is being held in Alpine and Marfa October 7-9. A ranch tour of Dixon Ranches Mimms Unit is scheduled for Wednesday, with presentations on field recognition of ecological sites, soil interpretation, map unit design, and soil inclusions.

“The Marfa Triptych: The Desert” on Mimms Overlook

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The Overlook at Dixon Ranches Mimms Unit will be the site of Ballroom Marfa’s second performance by Austin-based composer Graham Reynolds on Saturday, October 4. More information on this event is on Ballroom Marfa’s website.

“The Desert is a solo performance for layered piano, a production that uses means both digital and site-specific to process the acoustic instrument’s sounds. With The Marfa Triptych, Reynolds is composing three musical portraits of West Texas. While the first and last parts examine people and their place in this part of the world, The Desert focuses on the natural world itself. In researching the piece, Reynolds has been exploring the landscape and the natural history of the area. When he performs the concert, the hope is for the audience to focus a bit less on the performer and more on being part of nature.” — Ballroom Marfa

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4528 County Road 398
Decatur, TX 76234

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Marfa, TX 79843

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