Playing it smart, paying it forward

The industrial era made for methods that pushed the yields of ranching higher than ever before possible. Though, the pace of changes has somewhat slowed, often in pairing with an ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ wariness. But modern stressors have forced a mass reconsideration of the modern sciences involved.

Water, fuel, medicine, tax, feed, everything has a bottom line impact to the industry, and with longer, warmer, smokier summers compounding against productive norms, many ranchers worry they aren’t simply working their land, but using it up. Fortunately, science shows up in work boots.

“Why not sell naturally raised beef and do it while being ecologically stable?” says Anna Clare Monlezun, who represents the Grazewell program, calling it ‘Regenerative Ranching’, and in tandem with program director Dallas Defrees they’re working to personally introduce the process and the benefits of conservation.

Similar efforts nationwide have become more than a trend with many modern ranchers, accounting for vast territory across the nation. Stock breeders and farmers are starting to see the upsides to letting modern science make its case, especially now as the land they’ve grown with changes to meet a climate that’s increasingly chaotic.

“Sustainable Northwest is a conservation program that focuses on working lands trying to find creative solutions to help ecological and economical challenges,” said Monlezun, who showed up in work attire at the Kerns’ Rainbow Ranch, for what would be a day of digging, pouring, measuring and recording.

Grasshoppers were abundant on Sept. 7 at the mountainside property, west of Haines, where the participating ranchers, cousins Mark and Tim Kerns, gathered to perform a brief survey of what they’re already doing well and where they needed the most help.

“There’s three players here,” said Monlezun for the Grazewell program’s introduction: marketing cooperative Country Natural Beef, a collective of about 100 farmers and their 6 million acres of property, North Way ranch consultants and the Sustainable Northwest conservation group.

“This is the Grazewell journey, you’ve already started this enrollment process, so we mapped you with GIS (geographic information survey), and we understand you want to look at some soil layers, biomass and plant composition.”

Tim Kerns says that the company of the ranch has five Oregon State University degrees among its operators, and over the survey described over 309 years of ranching experience from its combined ownerships.

“I’m only 34, but I didn’t start working until I was about two or three.” Joked Mark Kerns.

The Kerns’ weren’t unfamiliar with conservation, saying they’ve adopted several techniques in keeping with the process. “Lot of the stuff we do nobody really notices if you’re doing it,” said Tim, “but after 20 years, they notice if you don’t.”

Bedrocks to Treetops

“We want to add organic matter, add plants. Based on your objectives on what you want to see in that area, be it applying manure, feeding hay to increase biomass,” said Defrees to the Kerns’, “that’s what we are going to do at every plot today, every management location.”

“We’ll come back and revisit these places every five years.” said Defrees, “The next two phases are over the next 10 to 15 year period, focusing on these five sites.”

Mark Kerns had chosen a nearby pasture for analysis, one he’d utilized for years but otherwise referred to as a ‘Gravel pile’. Stepping out into the field, Anna Clare lobbed an ordinary piece of wood after a few blind spins in place, and where it landed she hammered in a rebar marker.

The aforementioned gravel, though invisible, made itself evident with every attempt to shovel and bore, hidden just beneath the surface in a denying layer.

Though it was a flat plain and tall grass stood from it, it was sparse, and turfed with dry juncus plants, something normally more riparian than pastural. “Drought has definitely made it (propagate), it’s an annual, so it’s more likely to thrive because they have a shorter life cycle,” said Defrees. “They naturally senesce and go dormant, as opposed to perennials that have a more vegetative season.”

One of the first tasks is taking samples, something accomplished with a ratchet-topped boring tool, corkscrewed into the ground to extract a cylinder of soil, rocks, roots, creatures and all. The ecological sample itself is sent away for intensive study.

Defrees says they’ll eventually test the acidity, toxicity, absorbency, drainage, carbon and nitrogen content of the soil, and as well observe the invertebrate, bacterial, fungal and plant communities alive within the sample, perhaps three inches wide and eight inches long. A meta analysis will accumulate with every iterative return to the site.

In a simple absorbency test, Defrees begrudgingly sunk a toothed cylinder into the ground a few inches and then added water to the exposed top, measuring the time it took for standing water to saturate straight downward. It had her waiting almost 8 minutes for the pools at the top to finally settle.

“There’s a reason they call it ‘Rock Creek’,” said Mark Kerns. In the eras before the ditches and water rights were established, large swaths of similar land were permanent marshes, which made for fertile soil when drained away in modernity.

The juncus however, or toad rush, was outcompeting available graze in the gravel-locked dirt, and cattle had no taste for it. The ground itself could likely be tilled, sifted, fertilized and respread, but the conservation process doesn’t inherently call for these measures.

Riparian growth, even if it seasonally dries out, can still be crucial for the ecology around it, facilitating a larger scale of abundance and diversity. The specifics of the plan can vary from site to site, but the goals still collide on the objective of adding organic matter, and what the location is already adding is among the first considerations.

Comprehensive Action

The session of marking, measuring and testing would go on to extend throughout the day, and as far away as the Wallowas side of the valley where the Kerns’ properties needed help. But the real changes would hopefully be apparent years into the future. Defrees offered her insight on what the future holds for the program.

“We work collaboratively with the rancher to develop objectives and implement management actions within the first year,” said Defrees, “in subsequent years, we collaborate to measure outcomes, look at what’s working and what’s not, and adapt over time to meet the objectives.”

“Some examples of objectives are increasing desirable forage and biodiversity, decreasing bare ground, improving water filtration, improving soil health and sequestering carbon.”

“Some of the actions might be timing, i.e. when cattle graze certain areas. Or introducing organic matter. Or seeding for native plants,“ said Defrees, “For example, at my family’s ranch we reduce erosion and weeds in targeted areas by seeding dryland perennial bunch grasses. These grasses will establish a strong root system, which helps prevent erosion and also compete against weedy species even in years of drought.”

“We want to promote an abundance of diverse, native, perennial species – for example perennial bunch grasses, nitrogen-fixing forbs such as clover, and species preferred by pollinators. These species promote healthy diversity across the entire ecosystem, from soil microorganisms to pollinators to wildlife. They also store carbon and improve soil health.”

“All of these ranches are maintaining and adopting regenerative practices to help improve biodiversity, soil health, water infiltration, carbon sequestration and overall ecological lift,” said Defrees of the 6 million acres her program extends to.

“The ranchers within this program have a long history of responsible land stewardship,” she said, “this program was developed to help quantify the great work these ranching families are already doing, and to enhance it.”

When the boots come off at the end of the day, everyone wants to feel their toes in the garden. Especially as conditions change, they hope the work they do now keeps the ranches verdant and operating ahead of the curve.

“The best tool in our toolbox is to take care of the land to make it more resilient towards climate change,” said Defrees, “healthy lands with well-functioning ecological processes can withstand prolonged drought, wildfires, cold, heat, and other types of climatic changes better than land that is in poor condition.”