Promoting healthy watersheds through sustainable land management
The Dixon Water Foundation is sponsoring an upcoming series of Playa Country radio programs on sustainable grazing management. Playa Country is produced by the Playa Lakes Joint Venture.
The Dixon Water Foundation’s Mimms Unit in Marfa will be profiled on RFD TV’s Out on the Land on February 4 and 5, 2014. For showtimes and channel information please visit Out on the Land‘s schedule. [The complete episode is now available online.]
“Manage the land properly and the wildlife will come,” says Dixon’s Vice President Clinton Josey in this article from the Texas Wildlife Association’s magazine. Writers Robert and Janelle Fears describe how wildlife benefits from holistic land management on Dixon’s four ranches. The article from the December 2013 issue of Texas Wildlife is republished here with permission of the Texas Wildlife Association.
MARFA – Laughter and moos filled the air as a herd of children met the herd of cattle at the Dixon Water Foundation’s Mimms Unit last Friday, during the Marfa International School’s week-long “Living Classroom” at the ranch.
Twenty-four students from kindergarten through eighth grade learned about desert grasslands and sustainable land management through science projects and presentations by local experts. The children experienced what it’s like to be a wildlife biologist tracking animals; to be a scientist monitoring water and soil quality; and to be a botanist identifying grasses and collecting native plants. Chasing grasshoppers, listening to birds, and writing about the landscape were also part of the program.
Herds of kids and cows had a close encounter during the Marfa International School’s outdoor education program at the Dixon Water Foundation’s Mimms Unit.
“This has been amazing,” said teacher Lisa Gordon. “To be outside actually doing this kind of science has so much meaning.”
The Dixon Water Foundation’s President and CEO Robert Potts introduced the ranch’s cattle management system, which mimics the grazing habits of native bison to conserve water, wildlife and the desert grassland.
“Cattle are the tool we use to keep more rainwater in the ground, improving the soil and improving the grassland,” he told the students, before demonstrating how he moves the ranch’s herd between pastures.
Mark Brandin, Marfa International School director, said the week was an enriching and memorable experience for all of his students.
Marfa International School students Amos and Felix learned to identify grasses and other native plants during the outdoor education program.
“I believe each child at MIS now has a much greater appreciation for the unique land in which we live, and we look forward to further studies at the ranch throughout the year,” he said.
The Dixon Water Foundation frequently welcomes students to its ranches in Marfa and northeast Texas. Last month Marfa ISD eighth-grade students had a nature writing workshop at Mimms, and Sul Ross State University wildlife management students took a field trip there in September.
Educators are invited to contact Potts at rpotts@dixonwater.org for information about visiting the ranch, as well as to discuss funding opportunities for using the ranch as a classroom.
Grazing cattle and sustaining bobwhite quail can be part of the same equation, says Kelly Reyna, our partner with UNT Quail. Reyna and our Bear Creek Unit were recently featured in this article, “Saving a Texas rite of passage, one ranch at a time,” on the North Texas Quail Corridor, an initiative to conserve this treasured but increasingly scarce game bird.
A Dixon-funded research project by Sul Ross State University graduate student Bobby Allcorn was featured recently the Big Bend Sentinel and the Aggie News Network from Texas A&M University. Allcorn has been monitoring small rodent populations at Mimms Unit after the Rock House Fire in 2011.
MARFA – Rodent researcher Bobby Allcorn had a busy September. Each week the Sul Ross State University graduate student trapped hundreds of small rodents—from petite silky pocket mice to husky wood rats—on the Dixon Ranches Mimms Unit. That’s great news for a host of other wild animals.
“The effects of the Rock House Fire, combined with the drought, devastated the small rodent population,” said Allcorn, whose research is funded by the Dixon Water Foundation, a non-profit that promotes healthy watersheds through sustainable land management. “These animals do rebound with precipitation though. And they’re coming back in force.”
While the drought persists, recent rains have been a boon to small rodents, like this silky pocket mouse found on the Dixon Ranches Mimms Unit near Marfa. (By Bobby Allcorn/Borderlands Research Institute)
In 2011, the Dixon Water Foundation partnered with Dr. Bonnie Warnock of Sul Ross’s Borderlands Research Institute to monitor the small-rodent population on the Mimms Unit. Then the historic Rock House Fire burned most of the ranch on Marfa’s northwest edge.
Without vegetation to eat or hide in, the number of mice and rats crashed, to the point that researchers rarely caught a rodent. The effects ricocheted throughout the food web, from bobcats to quail.
“Predators eat small rodents, so if there aren’t any small rodents, larger animals become prey more often,” Allcorn said. “For example, pronghorn really suffered after the fire. Not only was there no forage for them, but predators went after them more.”
Small rodents play other roles in maintaining healthy grasslands. They disperse seeds and can even alter the plant composition of an area.
“They’re a representation of overall ecological health,” Allcorn said.
Allcorn will finish his small-rodent research next year, at which point he’ll be able to draw more conclusions.
“But for now I can say the population and diversity have certainly increased since last year, due to the rainfall,” Allcorn said. “That’s a great thing for all the other animals and the environment.”
One of the Dixon Water Foundation’s grant recipients is the North Texas Land Scholars program. This camp, tentatively scheduled for July 13-17, 2014, aims to connect youth to nature by improving their scientific literacy while teaching the value of land stewardship.
How did the Rock House Fire and 2011 drought affect soil microbes at Mimms Unit? That was the subject of a recent research project by Masahiro Ohnishi, a Natural Resource Management graduate student at Sul Ross State University in Alpine. The Dixon Water Foundation funded Ohnishi’s research, which was featured in “The Road to Recovery” in the July 2013 issue of Texas Wildlife, republished here with permission of the Texas Wildlife Association. Ohnishi’s research was featured previously in the May 16, 2013 issue of the Big Bend Sentinel.
From left to right: Dixon Water Foundation Vice President Clint Josey and wife Betty Josey; Melissa Bookhout, the foundation’s treasurer and office manager; Robert Potts, the foundation’s president and CEO; Robby Tuggle, ranch foreman; Greg Gammill, president of Lincoln Builders; and Tenna Florian, Lake|Flato architect.
DECATUR, MARFA–The Dixon Water Foundation broke ground on June 17 on the Betty and Clint Josey Pavilion, which aspires to be the first “Living Building” in Texas.
The 5,000-square-foot pavilion will be a site for meetings and educational events at the Dixon Ranches Leo Unit in Cooke County. Lake|Flato architects of San Antonio have designed the facility to meet the Living Building Challenge, the most rigorous international green-building certification. Construction is expected to finish later this year.
To meet the standard, the pavilion will generate all of its own clean, renewable energy and capture and treat its own water. Building materials will be non-toxic and sourced responsibly and as locally as possible.
The Living Building Challenge is a natural fit for the Dixon Water Foundation’s mission of promoting healthy watersheds through sustainable land management. The Leo Unit is one of four Dixon Ranches where the foundation demonstrates environmentally and economically sound ways to manage rangeland. The foundation’s other ranches are in Cooke and Parker counties and Marfa, Texas.
The pavilion is named after Clint Josey, the foundation’s vice-president and board chairman, and his wife, Betty. As landowners, the Joseys have been advocates of holistic land management for 30 years.
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