| In 1999, a corner
was turned quietly in the “grazing wars"
when the state of Colorado awarded a 25-year lease on
its 87,000-acre Chico Basin Ranch, located southeast
of Colorado Springs, to ranchers Duke and Janet Phillips
through a competitive process.
This wasn't because they had beat out The
Nature Conservancy for the lease. This was no political
victory of industry over the environment, as many in
the conservation community at the time feared it would
be (one anti-grazing activist complained that the Colorado
State Land Board could have made “more revenue
for public schools and better protect the ecological
value of the land if it had opened up these 'grazing
lands' to competitive bidding for non-ranching, non-extractive
conservation purposes.")
That's because the Phillipses had every
intention of hitting high environmental standards on
the ranch – a goal that has been admirably achieved
despite a persistent drought.
But it wasn't a victory for the "New
West" of wealth, recreation, and lattes, either.
That's because the Chico is no ‘hobby' ranch.
Duke and Janet Phillips are full-time ranchers and run
the ranch as a full-fledged cattle operation, deriving
the bulk of their income from beef sales and custom
grazing.
In fact, their ability to turn a profit
in dry times while delivering high environmental values,
as well as diverse educational opportunities, is the
reason their work represents something new under the
sun in the West.
I'll even go one step further – I
believe it is a sign of the end of the “grazing
wars” itself. The decision by the State of Colorado
in 1999 to award a lease to the innovative Phillipses
instead of a traditional ranching operation, or a conventional
conservation “reserve,” even with grazing
included, means the “debate” is largely
concluded.
Not the shouting, of course – that
will go on for years.
The Chico Basin Ranch is demonstrating that
the “zero-sum” arguments of both extremes
in the grazing “debate” – that conservation
can only advance as far as ranching retreats, as some
in the environmental community assert, or that private
property rights are paramount to state or federal ownership,
as some in the ranching community argue – are
rhetorical positions.
On the Chico, you can have your grass and
eat it too.
But that isn't all. Duke and Janet Phillips
also set out to demonstrate that you can make a profit
in cattle ranching, contrary to some popular opinion
(especially by novice ranch owners). Their path to profitability
was a simple one: deliver goods and services that society
values, such as healthy food, recreational opportunities,
open space protection, education, and healthy wildlife
populations.
All they ask in return is compensation for
their hard work – which allows them to maintain
a livelihood they love with the freedom to make their
own management decisions, and raise their four children
in a rural setting.
Shouting, in other words, is seldom heard
on this particular stretch of range.
Role Model
The Phillipses had big plans for the Chico
Basin Ranch right from the start: to be a model for
the future of ranching in the Southwest. To that end,
Duke and the staff employ nearly every progressive ‘New
Ranch' practice at work today, including:
• Planned, or short-duration,
grazing by livestock;
• Low-stress cattle handling;
• Prescribed grazing (utilizing cattle to create
specific environmental impacts);
• Goat grazing to control noxious weed infestations;
• Custom grazing a neighbor's cattle for a fee;
• Little or no predator control (including prairie
dogs);
• Producing grass-fed beef for health-conscious
urban markets;
• An internship program for young ranch managers;
• Guest ranch services for customers interested
in birding, hunting, and fishing;
• Educational activities for local schools and
other groups; and
• Media and other outreach work.
This does not even include the varied conservation
goals of the ranch which, because it represents one
of the largest contiguous blocks of shortgrass and sand
sage prairie in Colorado, is the site of significant
biological diversity. For example, more than one hundred
and fifty species of migratory birds have been identified
in the ranch's grasslands, riparian areas, and wetlands.
"The rancher must understand
– Duke Phillips,
Colorado rancher
This diversity is one of the reasons why
the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory, a nonprofit organization
dedicated to conservation, education, and research,
signed up enthusiastically as an original partner with
Duke and Janet Phillips, sharing their goal of “working
together to live with the land.” This partnership
has produced an important link between city and county
residents.
“We believe that a key to protecting
the health of the land and food supply,” said
Duke Phillips, “is building bridges between people
in urban and rural areas so we can understand that we
both desire the same thing: a diverse and healthy landscape
that provides clean air and water, healthy food, and
healthy and abundant wildlife.”
As an example of their commitment to this
philosophy, over the past seven years, the ranch has
entered into partnerships with The Nature Conservancy,
the Colorado Natural Heritage Program, the Colorado
Division of Wildlife, the Native Plant Society, and
many others.
 |
Duke
Phillips speaks at a Rocky Mountain Bird
Observatory at a workshop on the Chico Basin Ranch
in Colorado in May. |
But this is not “feel good”
stuff – on the contrary, Duke Phillips sees this
bridge building as vital to the future of his profession.
“The rancher must understand that
today he is not managing his land just for his family
and business,” he said. “As the world becomes
a smaller place, he has to learn to deal with people
from outside his ranch boundary fences, who are concerned
about the effects of his management on the land.”
The same could be said of the urban-based
bird watchers who attend the workshops that Rocky Mountain
Bird Observatory conducts on the ranch each year. As
subdivision development makes open space increasingly
scarce on the Front Range of Colorado (calculated at
a rate of least an acre on hour being lost), alliances
with progressive landowners and managers becomes increasingly
critical.
Partnerships are the easy part, however,
when compared to the much more difficult task of making
these relationships work economically. And it is here
that the Chico Basin Ranch has turned another important
corner.
New Economics
Twenty-five years after the rise of sustainable
models of ranch management, 15 years after the start
of the collaborative movement, and a few years after
the end of the “grazing debate,” the principal
challenge in front of many of us who care about the
West is this: how to make conservation profitable, and
thus sustainable.
Until recently, conservation as an activity
was either subsidized by environmental organizations,
government agencies, and wealthy landowners, or created
as a byproduct of regulation or other administrative
action. Rarely was it undertaken as a deliberate element
of a ranch or farm management plan, mostly because traditional
markets value short-term exploitation of natural resources
over long-term sustainability.
But much of this has changed in recent years
with the rise of models of sustainable use in a variety
of ecosystems. The main question remains: how to get
society, i.e., urban dwellers, to compensate rural land
owners and managers financially for things that they
value.
In other words, if urban wants it and rural
has it--food, water, wildlife, open space, recreation,
etc.-- then urban should find a way to pay for it reasonably.
The alternative is to continue to subsidize
conservation, often at very high costs.
For example: If the public values open space,
wouldn't it be far cheaper to help a private lands rancher
or farmer stay in business, often by assisting him or
her to reform their land-management practices, than
to purchase the ranch when it comes up for sale at subdivision
real estate rates?
Paychecks, it seems to me, are the most
efficient, and long-lasting, form of conservation. Plus
they have the critical benefit of providing for on-the-ground
stewardship, which is increasingly important in this
era of multiple ecological challenges.
This question of paychecks is exactly what
Duke and Janet Phillips had on their minds when they
bid for the Chico. And they are making good progress
on an answer.
Today, for example, 20 percent of the ranch's
income comes from non-beef related enterprises, such
as guest services, educational workshops, and other
recreational activities. To push this total higher,
they plan to form a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
to conduct additional research and educational outreach
on the property.
More significantly, was the decision in
2005 by the Colorado State Land Board to substantially
reduce the lease fee as a reward for the effective ecological
management and social outreach conducted on the ranch.
The ranch newsletter, the partnerships, the outreach
work, and the good will that Duke and Co. have developed
all mean something tangible and important to Colorado.
This decision translated into something
tangible and important to Duke and Janet Phillips, who
recently added on to their modest home, and are now
confronted with the costs of putting their kids through
college.
There is no silver bullet, however. There
is no simple formula for profitability, or for managing
land. Every landscape is different, every ranch family
is distinct and every challenge unique.
But as the Chico Basin Ranch demonstrates,
the broad strokes are clear, especially if we share
the common vision of linking social and environmental
health for the long-run benefit of urban and rural resident
alike.
|
