Browse our Growing Library of Success Stories
By:
Ashley Pratt
Sparling Ranch Conservation Bank creates a win-win for ranchers, developers, wildlife
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Sage Grouse Initiative
Research from an eight-year study in the Warner Mountains shows why strategically removing encroaching trees spells good news for sage grouse, a declining upland bird that serves as a benchmark for the overall health of the sagebrush biome. Researchers quantified a six-fold increase in sage grouse’s preferred habitat following woodland management and a population growth rate that was +12 percent higher in the treated area than in the control area without management.
This adds to a growing list of research — much of it based on the long-term study in the Warners — that documents the myriad benefits of conifer removal for wildlife and grazing lands.
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Leopold Conservation Award Program
An inspiring transformation at Witcher Creek Ranch is thanks to Marie and Glenn Nader’s willingness to think big and bold.
Marie, Glenn, and their son, Alan, are dedicated to promoting water conservation and soil health on a working cattle ranch. They credit state and federal conservation-focused programs and grants with helping them make dramatic changes on their 2,880 acres of Modoc County.
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Leopold Conservation Award Program
For Colby and McKenzie Pace, raising beef cattle includes keeping a sharp eye on preventing overgrazing and noxious weeds and seeking out ways to improve their land for nesting and migrating shorebirds. This forward-thinking approach to livestock and wildlife management earned the Coalville couple — and their Half Circle Cross Ranch — the 2020 Utah Leopold Conservation Award.
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Leopold Conservation Award Program
Located northwest of Sacramento, Full Belly Farm is co-owned by Andrew Brait, Paul Muller, Judith Redmond and Dru Rivers. They began farming together in the 1980’s when many farms were failing and there was no established organic produce marketing system.
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Leopold Conservation Award Program
Dino Giacomazzi is a fourth-generation dairy farmer whose farm is comprised of 900 dairy cows on 900 acres in Hanford where the farm has operated since 1893. Dino represents what it means to farm responsibly and sustainably, enhancing natural resources as part of his work.
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Leopold Conservation Award Program
Tim Koopmann is a third generation rancher who owns and operates an 850 acre cow-calf operation in Sunol. The Koopmanns’ ranch is an agricultural gem surrounded by development.
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Leopold Conservation Award Program
Brad and Randy Lange are third-generation winegrape growers on their 6,500-acre Lange Twins Wine Estates vineyard near Lodi. The Langes have improved natural habitat on their property through restoration of a riparian area along the Mokelumne River and the implementation of unique, eco-friendly pest-control methods.
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Leopold Conservation Award Program
Located near Eureka in Humboldt County, the 5,000-acre, fifth-generation Lone Star Ranch is a shining example of diversity and environmental stewardship. The ranch is owned by Mark and Dina Moore, who are both strong believers in voluntary conservation practices, often striving to exceed the minimum regulatory obligations to improve and sustain natural resources, wildlife and ecosystems. Their mission is to “leave a legacy of stewardship and long term financial security to the ranch and children”.
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Leopold Conservation Award Program
The Lundberg family’s commitment to agricultural conservation can be traced back to the ravages of the Dust Bowl.
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Leopold Conservation Award Program
Al Montna, whose family has been farming in California since the late 1800s, has grown various crops through the years, such as peaches, prunes, wheat, and walnuts. Today, his Montna Farms consists of more than 2,500 acres of specialty short grain rice.
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Leopold Conservation Award Program
Bob and Dean Giacomini purchased a dairy from Bob’s father and ran their fluid milk business while raising four daughters on the farm in coastal Marin County.
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Leopold Conservation Award Program
Jim and Mary Rickert have worked in production agriculture all of their lives, developing a deep love for the land and wildlife on the many acres they manage. Hired in 1979 by the original owner of Prather Ranch, the Rickerts have responsibly managed the land and recently became majority owners. Under their care, Prather Ranch has grown from 3,000 acres of pasture, hay and timberland, to over 35,000 acres.
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Leopold Conservation Award Program
John Diener’s Red Rock Ranch consists of approximately 5,000 acres in Fresno County. He farms an array of high value row crops, using innovative approaches to land, water, and wildlife management.
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Leopold Conservation Award Program
Craig McNamara’s 450-acre Sierra Orchards is a diversified farming operation that includes field, processing, and marketing operations and produces organic walnuts and grape rootstock. Sierra Orchards is proof that an agricultural operation is able to be green without going into the red.
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Leopold Conservation Award Program
Jeff Thomson’s great-grandfather, C.B. Crawford, began farming near his 160-acre homestead in 1888. After the farm’s water source ran dry, he became a market duck hunter on Jerry Slough, 40 miles west of Bakersfield. With money saved from duck sales, C.B. bought several farming parcels that are still farmed by the Thomson family today.
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Leopold Conservation Award Program
Chet Vogt’s Three Creeks Ranch in Glenn County is a 5,300 acre 500 cow/calf operation. The core of Chet’s holistic approach to ranching is intensive managed grazing, which rotates the cattle among 32 fenced paddocks.
By:
K. Gregg Elliott
The nonprofit Soil Health Academy (SHA) is just one of many initiatives spawned by regenerative agriculture guru Gabe Brown in collaboration with additional expert partners. SHA holds regenerative agriculture workshops around the country that are open to anyone who’s interested, and they are routinely sold out.
By:
Gregg Elliott
When Heather Dutton, fresh out of undergraduate school at the Warner College of Natural Resources and graduate school in the College of Agriculture at Colorado State University, began her first job working for a non-profit river restoration organization in the San Luis Valley, she was thrilled. She also felt confident that her technical training in restoration ecology had prepared her for the challenges she’d soon be facing.
Heather was in for a surprise.
By:
Natural Resources Conservation Service
This video is the story of a young scientist, Hugh Hammond Bennett, who recognized 80 years ago that the United States was at risk of losing it’s most important resource – its soil. He made it his mission to change the trajectory of agriculture at a time of great crisis and to provide farmers and ranchers with the information and tools they needed to be sustainable.
This 21 minute video is the story of the conservation movement that Hugh Hammond Bennett began and includes interesting insights into the policies and structures that he set up that we continue to rely on today. His work revealed so much of what we’re rediscovering and renaming as “regenerative agriculture.”
