This article caught my eye this morning. It’s not about what you have, it’s about HOW you use it.

What is Real Organic Ranching?

35 percent of public lands — 155 million acres — are used for livestock grazing in this country. And almost all of it is destructive; overgrazing can destroy native vegetation, damage soils and stream banks, disrupt natural processes and contaminate waterways with fecal waste.

But not the lands managed by Glenn and Carol Elzinga and their seven daughters: At the Elzinga family’s Alderspring Ranch in May, Idaho, they have implemented a practice called “inherding.” These practices have transformed dryland grazing on their 40,000-acre public land allotment from those that harm the land to those that heal.

Most ranchers in the US practice “continuous grazing” — turning cattle out onto public lands for the summer and rounding them up three months later. But continuous grazing is the bane of those trying to preserve our country’s dry grasslands. Most of these grazed areas are now so degraded that they’ve lost their biodiversity. There are few trees, if any, left by the waterways; and there is a lot of bare ground.

As Glenn says, “Cattle follow the 2 ‘Gs’: Gravity and Grass.” With the continuous grazing that most ranchers use, the riparian areas become so damaged because the cattle spend all of their time grazing (and pooping) by the water. With the loss of grasses and woody species by the waterways, there is no habitat for what Glenn calls the 3 “Bs” — Birds, Bears and Beavers. Beavers are considered a keystone species because they fell woody plants, which helps slow down the water. Without vegetation and beaver dams, water flows more quickly off the land — causing first erosion and then surrounding land that dries out more quickly because of the lost water. And the ripple effect goes on …

Wait a minute, are you telling me that having beavers in the watershed can keep grass lands healthier in a way that benefits cattle? WHOA! Next think you’ll be telling me that they’re good for humans, too.

Instead of “continuous grazing,” the cattle herded by the crew at Alderspring continuously walk. It’s an incredible thing to watch. Picture this: 500 head of cattle with their heads down, sneaking a bite here and there — walk through any given spot on the range in a matter of minutes — guided by the crew on horseback. And the Elzingas don’t allow the cattle to return to that spot again for 3-7 years, depending on rainfall. These are dry areas and recovery is slow!

Not only is this approach to grazing better for the land and the cows — another wonderful side effect of managing the herd in this way is that the meat raised on a more diverse landscape is much healthier for us, too. While cattle in a feedlot eat mostly corn (that they never evolved to eat), the cattle from Alderspring graze on 2,500 different plant species. Studies have shown that the thousands of diverse plant phytochemicals can then accumulate in the meat. The Elzingas have had metabolomic tests done on their beef compared to thousands of beef samples from around the world: The omega-3 fatty acids from the beef at Alderspring Ranch exceed that of omega-6. One benefit leads to another.

“Instead of acting on an ecosystem, we became part of it,” Glenn says. “That’s the vision that changed for us. When we partner with nature like that and become part of ecosystems, to me that’s what Real Organic is

Whoopie Ti Yi Yo, git along little beavers! Keep the cows moving and let the beavers stay put!

The sad thing is that many people are totally against grazing in the West because continuous grazing of cattle devastates the landscape. But by keeping the cattle and the aftermath of their presence out of the waterways, the Elzingas have shown us a better way.

“We all drink out of the creeks,” Glenn asserts. “We don’t purify or filter the water and we never get sick. It’s like what water was meant to be. It’s beautiful — and I can’t do that on anybody else’s grazing allotment, because it’s fetid. It’s got fecal matter floating down it and it’s got sedimentation. It’s wrong.”

It turns out that, like beavers, ranchers are a keystone species, too — it is human management that has cascading effects. We hold the keys to whether our public lands are nurtured or destroyed. We are the agents of change. And while the Elzingas bring us hope, the cattle industry at large would do well to take notes.

Let the beavers be beavers and let the cowboys be cowboys.

This photo is dated October 23, 20007. It was taken before The big November meeting, before Worth A Dam and before Skip installed a flow device. this is our first set of kits about five or six months old. There were four of them. This was one of the biggest willow trees in the area we called the annex.

I was impressed by the way dad felled this tree and the kits could nibble at it for days, all the while it stayed fresh and green in the water. I called it the “refrigerator tree”. But I haven’t seen this photo in years because I accidentally typed regrigerator tree instead.

It’s been nearly 18 years and some things never change.

File this under the “I could have told you that!” department.

Researchers find adverse effects of apex predator reintroduction: ‘The conservation message is don’t lose them in the first place’

A 20-year study on the effects of reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone National Park found that removing the apex predators has caused far more damage than expected to the park’s ecosystem. 

Colorado State University researchers launched the study in 2001 to determine if bringing gray wolves, grizzly bears, and cougars back to Yellowstone’s northern range would help its food web and ecosystem recover, according to the university’s summary of the study.

However, without predators to keep the ecosystem balanced, elk numbers skyrocketed to unsustainable levels, which led to the decimation of willow and aspen trees along small streams. In turn, beavers that used willows as a food and shelter source left the area, which meant the trees’ root systems no longer benefited from the flooding caused by beaver dams. 

Scientists thought the reintroduction of wolves to the park in 1995 would allow the animals and plants to recover from the cascading effects of losing apex predators, but they found it wasn’t that simple, as the summary stated.

While cougars and grizzlies have made a comeback, bison herds have replaced many elk. Since they share the elks’ food sources, willow and aspen trees remain threatened. 

That’s because you didn’t keep the BEAVERS. If you had that goal in mind the WHOLE time you would have understood that you needed some elk-removers to keep the willow around and you would have protected the too often credit-stealing wolves.

The researchers hope the study, which was the longest of its kind, will encourage the conservation of the planet’s large carnivores and ecosystems in general. 

Thankfully, there’s plenty of promising news in that regard. One study found that 29 species in Australia have recovered from the brink of extinction because of persistent conservation efforts. 

Scientists are also using biobanking to collect cell samples from endangered species and potentially launch breeding programs or cloning to restore biodiversity. 

Don’t overwhelm these people with data. They just need to focus on ONE thing. It’s very simple really. Protect the beavers and their food. That’s it.

Everything else. the birds and the frogs and the fish and the bats and all the things that eat them, will follow along accordingly.

This was good news to read from our friends down south.

Dam it up: North County cities are using man-made and natural beaver dams to control erosion and fire in the Salinas Riverbed

According to SLO Beaver Brigade Founder Audrey Taub, the family of beavers that reside in this area is one of four in Atascadero. They maintain two dams that span the width of the riverbed holding up to 3 feet of water that slowly flows for about a mile, to which Taub named them “ecosystem engineers.”

Even in times of drought, these beaver-inhabited areas remain wet year-round and provide a resource that humans have historically tried to engineer for fire prevention, water retention, and species conservation, said Taub, whose group monitors the activity in the area.

Both Atascadero and Paso Robles are using beaver engineering to help reintroduce the amphibious rodents to the area and allow the animals to maintain a lush Salinas Riverbed by doing what they do best—being beavers.

On Aug. 26 Paso Robles notified residents of a riverbed project to harvest willow stakes to enhance environmental health and water quality in the Upper Salinas River corridor starting in October. Its purpose: to build man-made beaver dams in Atascadero.

Wow  convincing their RCD to make BDAS with beavers in mind is a great! Good work Beaver Brigade at securing recruits!

I was a little worried about the phrase “Willow Stake Harvesting” because I think its the wrong time of year for that if you want them to grow. Remember once upon a time we were lucky enough to work with Waterboard Guru Ann Riley and she did a great training and teaching about willow cuttings in Martinez.

Planting Swords into Plowshares – Willow Version

14 people showed up from Martinez, Napa, and Oakland and Berkeley to put some magical willow cuttings in the banks of Alhambra Creek.  (I say magical because at the right time of year willow can be cut from trees and turned back into trees. Imagine that!) Creek restoration expert Ann Riley from the SF waterboard is always an outstanding teacher and Friends of Alhambra Creek Volunteers turned out to hear what she would say.

Okay not the right time to use willow stakes to grow things but hey if you just want them to weave between the posts, that’s different.

Willow stake harvesting involves trimming live willows and replanting those pieces along unstable riverbeds. The willow stakes eventually form a new root structure and provide soil stability, preventing further erosion along the bed.

Upper Salinas-Las Tablas Resource Conservation District (RCD) Executive Director Devin Best helped spearhead this project and is currently working on engineering beaver dam analogs—human-made dams that mimic beaver activity.

“[Analogs] just seems kind of the path of least resistance on some level, and also has real potential to kind of change the way that we’re addressing species decline, climate change, landowner resiliency, and all these other concerns that we’re trying to deal with on a large scale,” Best said. “But a much more strategic and effective method.”

I still a a little worried about timing. But It’s great to read you have SUCH support from the RCD,

With funding from the county, and a partnership with the California Conservation Corps, the organizations will collect willow stakes within the Salinas River in Paso and transport them to the Atascadero area to assist with erosion issues.

The project started when SLO County contacted the RCD about a quick fix for some erosion near a pipeline on private land near the Upper Salinas Riverbed. When Best assessed the land, he determined that process-based restoration was the solution, a low-technology strategy that mimics nature and eventually could involve beavers.

“One of the elements of process-based restoration is using beaver dam analogs because they replicate natural stream channel morphology and processes to help reduce sediment and increase water retention, and actually do some flooding, which is a good thing that you want to see when they hold water during certain events of the year,” Best said.

He said they hope to encourage vegetation growth where none currently exists.

“By incorporating some willows in there and keeping them alive, we hope to restore the riparian corridor as well as maybe find some beavers that might move back into that area,” he said.

Well that’s what we like to hear. Good work brigade!

Best said the implementation of the beaver dam analogs may involve some trial and error, but that’s the nature of process-based restorations.

“The concern is, are these things going to work and are they going to be successful? And it’s like, well, you have to start to find out what works and what doesn’t work,” he said. “So I’m happy to be sort of that risk taker and at the forefront of … the early adoption of these things here locally.”

Willow stake harvesting in Paso Robles is scheduled to begin at the end of September, and construction of the Atascadero dams between Oct. 1 and 15. Δ

Great attitude. I wish you beavers.