Monitoring our Impact on the Land
There is more than one way to know a place. There is more than one way to see a landscape. There is more than one way to understand land health. And there is more than one way to sense if a landscape is healthy.
Spring Musings
I was thinking today about how different spring times can be from one year to the next.
Rock Climbers on the MP
Foraging up on rocky slopes is unusual for normal cows, but not surprising for our Beefmasters cows.
Invasive Species Control
When the invasive Russian olive, Chinese elm, and tamarisk trees were introduced to the Chico over 100 years ago by settlers, they served as both erosion control and decoration for the mostly barren high plains of the Front Range. Unfortunately, these species (although effective at their intended purpose) caused unforeseen problems to the surrounding ecosystem.
The Bison and the Rancher
How ranchers and the bison they manage might save each other from extinction.
Learning to Think Like a Mountain
Aldo Leopold, considered by many the father of wildlife conservation and the wilderness system in America, once wrote of watching a wolf die when he was young.
Danger! Bison (Do Not Approach)
What does it take to conserve a species whose original range once stretched uninterrupted across an entire continent?
Origins of the Diamond Star
Our brand has become a symbol of the pride we take in breeding a herd of cattle that is the embodiment of our philosophy of ranching.
Hope on the Range
Over the course of the summer of 2017, I tried to grapple with understanding the meaning of the ranching heritage of the West, and, given the history of irresponsible and destructive ranching practices on western rangelands, the unique ways that ambitious biodiversity conservation is able to coexist with for-profit livestock production at a large scale at Zapata.”