Promoting healthy watersheds through sustainable land management
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.
“There is a difference between appreciating nature and respecting nature. The Living Building Challenge and Josey Pavilion do both,” says Corey Squire in a new feature on the Josey Pavilion in Texas Architect this month.
Also this month the pavilion was selected as a finalist in the Architizer A+ Architecture Awards.
The Dixon Water Foundation’s Texas Environmental Excellence Award was featured in the Gainesville Daily Register.
“We’re deeply honored to be recognized by TCEQ and the governor’s office,” said Robert Potts, the foundation’s president and CEO in the article by Kit Chase. “We are thankful for all of the hard-working people and collaborative partnerships that make our ranches, as well as our grant and education programs, successful. And we hope this recognition sparks more interest in the sustainable grazing practices we demonstrate on our land.”
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality this week honored the Dixon Water Foundation with a Texas Environmental Excellence Award in Agriculture, the highest environmental honor in the state. These prestigious awards bring attention to the most innovative and effective projects that strive to protect the state’s natural resources.
“With a patient and consistent dedication to holistic land management, the Dixon Water Foundation is assuring the most free and open lands in the state can remain healthy and productive for future generations,” says TCEQ’s announcement. Read more about the foundation’s award on the TEEA website or in this article by the Gainesville Daily Register.
A new Arizona State University research team is examining the benefits of adaptive multi-paddock grazing, the type of management used on Dixon Ranches.
“By using measures—such as the carbon stored, the water absorbed and retained, populations of fungi, bacteria, wild life and insects, and rancher and animal well-being—we are comparing adaptive grazing with conventional grazing to see if the former actually improves ranch ecosystems,” said Peter Byck, professor of practice at ASU and director, producer and writer of the documentary Carbon Nation. “We hope to study and compare 36 ranches located in four diverse eco-regions across the U.S. and southern Canada.”
Also on the ASU research team is Richard Teague, a Dixon Water Foundation advisory board member and Associate Resident Director and Professor with Texas A&M AgriLife Research. The team is presenting their research at the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual meeting this week.
Read more about the research project at: http://phys.org/news/2015-02-capturing-carbon-soil-real-scale.html#jCp
Carefully planned grazing can increase native grasses and restore grassland overtaken by exotics, according to recent research at the TomKat Ranch in California. Like Dixon Ranches, TomKat Ranch practices Holistic Management.
From an article about the grazing study in Conservation magazine:
According to the experimental paradigm, the density of cattle was increased by subdividing the grazing area into sub-units. The cattle were allowed to graze in one area for a specified period of time (between one day and one week), and were then shifted to the next area. Each paddock therefore received between 70 and 120 days of rest in between grazing periods. This went on for two years. In July of 2011, 2012, and 2013, the researchers surveyed for native grasses.
The proportion of “vegetation survey units” that included native grasses at all increased from 8% in 2011 to 80% in 2013. The surface area covered by native grasses remained small throughout the study (less than 5%), but increased significantly over time. In 2011, the researchers spotted only single, dispersed, individual grasses from among the native species. By 2013, they found a number of small but dense patches, each containing multiple individuals.
The gains made by the native grasses were meager, but promising. The results convincingly suggest that switching from season-long open-ended continuous grazing to a more rigorous planned schedule will facilitate the restoration of California’s grassland.
This short video from NBC Bay Area explains more about the research, which was published in Ecological Restoration.
If you consider yourself a gardener, farmer, rancher or landscape architect, think again.
“Instead, you are a soil manager,” says Dr. Elaine Ingham, who will be giving a workshop and free lecture on soil health March 20-21 at Cedar Valley College in Lancaster.
Ingham is a leading soil microbiologist, composting guru, and former chief scientist of the organic-farming icon, The Rodale Institute. Whether your soil is growing tomatoes in an urban backyard or cattle forage in a pasture, Ingham offers practical knowledge about how to make soils and plants flourish without synthetic chemicals.
The free lecture on Friday, “Talking Dirty Soil Solutions,” provides an introduction to the soil food web—the complex system of microorganisms that create and sustain healthy, fertile soil. The lecture will be held in the Cedar Valley College gym from 9am to 10am.
A full-day workshop on Saturday delves deeper into the soil food web, compost, and compost tea technology. Ingham will explain the elements of a thriving soil food web, teach participants how to analyze and improve soil, and demonstrate how to make composts and organic extracts to strengthen the soil food web. This workshop costs $99 and will be held from 9am to 5pm in Cedar Valley College rooms M121-M122.
Ingham will share more of her wisdom during a benefit dinner on Thursday, March 19, at the Farm Girls’ Waxahachie classroom. Live music by Justin Smith and a farm-to-table banquet prepared by Chef Amy, co-owner of Field to Meal, will raise funds to provide free workshop passes for agricultural producers. The festivities start at 7pm and the requested donation is $65 to $150. To reserve a spot at the banquet, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/farm-to-fork-dinner-benefitting-farmers-tickets-15826384141
For more information, to register, or to nominate a producer for a free workshop pass, visit carboneconomyseries.com or call (469) 554-9202. The lecture and workshop are presented by the Carbon Economy Series, in partnership with the Dixon Water Foundation.
The Texas Water Resources Institute’s latest txH20 magazine is dedicated entirely to land and water stewardship and features the Dixon Water Foundation in “Committed to Conservation.” Another excellent article emphasizes that in Texas, conserving private lands conserves water, and starts with this quote from former President and Texas native Lyndon B. Johnson: “Saving the water and the soil must start where the first raindrop falls.”
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.
The Betty and Clint Josey Pavilion received an Honor Award at the 2014 AIA San Antonio Design Awards last week. Designed by Lake|Flato Architects, the pavilion was featured in an article about the awards on The Rivard Report.
