The Canvas of the Land Steward
by Bill Fox
The act of management in a grazing world is truly an “art.” The land and its components, the canvas, the animals and their actions, the paints, and the steward who guides them all, the artist. Each with their own goals for the art they produce, but all with a vision and the passion to create! To constrain the artist through prescription is to stifle the beauty that one can create.
In the grazing land conservation community, many conversations continue to seek the next great idea, the silver bullet for grazing management or some other aspect of land stewardship; suggesting “command and control” of the resource can evolve versus the creativity of artist and their works. This approach, often, seeks to include components of complexity into an organizational framework; usually resulting in old prescriptions couched in new jargon.
I question the construct of any prescriptive grazing system as something new or unique. To put it simply, successful land stewards have been grazing regeneratively for decades. Their successes or failures providing the colors put to canvas. Grasslands, by definition, must regenerate constantly after any grazing or other disturbance. No matter the “grazing system,” employed, if managed well, all grazing becomes regenerative. Where it does not, the canvas is recycled, and the artist begins anew. Well managed, continuous grazing has the same aspects of ecological recovery as a highly complex grazing system. A high intensity, low frequency approach can produce the same regenerative response as a two-pasture switchback. Each the result of the artist, their skill, their operational environment, and their vision for the canvas. To confuse the subject by attributing some level of “success” to one system over another is to confound the overall conservation goals of grazing management…the maintenance of resilient grazing lands that provide for the desired outcomes of owners, managers and society as a whole. The artist seeks to find balance within their canvas where soils, plants, animals, and humans co-exist in a masterpiece of their making.
As a whole, successful land stewards seek to manage highly complex biological systems through the use of grazing livestock and wildlife. Emphasis should be placed on the term “manage,” for no matter what “system” you employ, “control” over grazing lands has a very limited chance for success. This is why so much emphasis is being placed on discussions such as those of “Principals before Practices,” an educational program led by Texas A&M and the Texas Grazing Lands Coalition. Every grazing land has a set of driving principles based upon its biotic and abiotic processes…and if those processes are “managed” efficiently, then regeneration is likely an outcome that can be recognized. This is not based upon how many animals you graze, or how many fences you install, but on the skill and vision of the manager/artist who applies the strokes with their brush. Individual practices or systems are variables that are dependent on the continued resilience of the land base and are achieved through the artists own vision and action.
“Working lands are the lifeblood of our country and provide vital benefits to all of society! To conserve them and those who steward them is a passion worth pursuing.”
So, I encourage grazers, don’t get caught up in the “jargon,” but, instead, focus on applying science and practical experience-based management that results in resilient grazing lands and meets the goals of your land management programs. To do so, regardless of the grazing system, is more likely to meet operational, environmental and social goals desired for our grazing lands.
From small cattle and dairy farms in the northeast to the vast ranches across the Great Plains and the West to the highly productive operations in the southeast; working lands provide a foundation and life blood to families and communities across the “fruited plain.” For those in and around the industry, we recognize and live this fact every day; but for much of our country, these “fruited plains” are only what they see on their TV or in their own imaginations. The goal should be the promotion of the artist and the value of their “works” through the successes and recovery from failure; where just like in our most precious museums, the art can be enjoyed and the artist recognized for the resilient beauty they maintain throughout time.
Management decisions must be made every day in the pursuit of land stewardship and are usually made with less than perfect knowledge by individuals with varying levels of experience and personal drivers. Those tasked with the responsibility of stewarding the lands they manage are confronted with challenges that require a decision in the present that may have long-term implications, both to the operation as well as across a broad array of society. To try and narrow managers into a “titled” approach to their management, imposes another level of complexity to the management process. Picasso, Beethoven, and Michealangelo did not follow a prescription to create their art, nor should one be imposed on the artists of the land. Data, information, and knowledge transferred to the artist are the supplies they use to create the wisdom that produces the works of art, or in this case, the resilient grazing lands of our “fruited plain.”
