Landowners Use Ranching to Save the Most Threatened Ecosystem in the World
In this video from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, learn how private land stewards are working with the Lesser Prairie Chicken Landowner Alliance (LPCLA) to sustain their ranching livelihoods whole restoring health to grasslands through brush management and other practices. The Lesser Prairie Chicken has lost 97% of its population since the 1800s. Currently, 95% of remaining birds live on private lands, depending on ranchers to sustain their grassland habitats.
Learn more about how the LPCLA is working with ranchers to keep operations viable for the health of grasslands and the animals that rely on them at grousepartners.ORG/LPCLA.
Bill and Debbie Barby of Protection have been selected as the recipients of the 2024 Kansas Leopold Conservation Award. Given in honor of renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold, the award recognizes landowners who go above and beyond in the management of soil health, water quality and wildlife habitat on working land. In Kansas, the $10,000 award is presented by the Sand County Foundation, American Farmland Trust, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts and Ranchland Trust of Kansas (RTK).
The Barby Ranch is located in both Clark and Comanche counties. Through rotational grazing, prescribed burning and the removal of invasive trees, Bill has restored the ranch’s native habitats and ecological functions. Thousands of acres of healthier grassland and riparian areas provide habitat for the Lesser Prairie Chicken, whooping crane and Arkansas River shiner. Conservation partnerships have achieved improved water quality, biodiversity and carbon sequestration on the landscape.
“RTK is delighted to announce that Bill and Debbie Barby are the Kansas Leopold Conservation Award recipients,” said Barth Crouch, RTK board chairman. “I have followed their commitment to conservation for many years. Bill has been very strong in sharing his efforts and projects with other ranchers and ranching families across the state.”
The Kansas Leopold Conservation Award is made possible thanks to the Farm Credit Associations of Kansas, ITC Great Plains, Kansas Department of Agriculture-Division of Conservation, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, Kansas Ducks Unlimited, Kansas Forest Service, Green Cover Seed, McDonald’s, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and a Kansas Leopold Conservation Award recipient.
Historically a vast ocean of grasses could once be found throughout Kansas, but today our diverse prairie biome is collapsing. In this podcast, Dirac Twidwell, professor of rangeland ecology at UNL, talks about how our prairies are disappearing. Trees continue to spread throughout Kansas’ prairies, and that’s causing our open grassland landscapes to decline. For ranchers, saving the prairie environment means being a tree killer, not a tree hugger.
Up From Dust is hosted and reported by Celia Llopis-Jepsen and David Condos. This episode was written by Celia Llopis-Jepsen and produced by Mackenzie Martin with editorial support from Scott Canon and Suzanne Hogan. Mix by Celia Llopis-Jepsen and Byron Love.
Photo by Cornell Lab's Center for Conservation Media
Reconsidering Cedar
Managing the spread of eastern redcedar in Nebraska, is critical to the ranchers in the area. This film shows how extensively cedar trees have spread over the last 20 years, across the entire Great Plains biome.
According to Dr. Dirac Twidwell, from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, “There is no other threat I can measure in the Sandhills that displaces production and wildlife habitat as much as woody encroachment. I can connect this to every citizen that lives in the Great Plains.”
The Lazy KT Ranch of Freedom has been selected as the recipient of the 2021 Oklahoma Leopold Conservation Award. Given in honor of renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold, the prestigious award recognizes farmers, ranchers and forestland owners who inspire others with their dedication to land, water and wildlife habitat resources in their care.
Dr. Katie Blunk and her family own and operate Lazy KT Ranch. In 2012, after retiring from her veterinary medicine career in Nevada, Katie came home to her ranching roots with her husband Michael Horntvedt. She embarked on her life’s next journey, an immersion into conservation and cattle ranching. A decade later, the Lazy KT Ranch is thriving from an ecological and business perspective.
For Katie and Michael, good land stewardship practices go hand in hand with good stockmanship practices. Whether selling quality Black Angus cattle as seed stock to other ranchers, or selling beef directly to consumers under their “Jackass Ridge Beef” label, they provide their customers with assurances that their cattle have been raised in a low stress environment.
Katie says the best and most economical conservation tool for their ranch is the strategic application of prescribed fire and grazing. This combination has restored the prairie ecosystem while producing quality forage for cattle, and wildlife habitat. She credits the Cimarron Range Preservation Association with encouraging this approach. Katie serves as president of the association which brings neighbors together with neighbors to help with beneficial prescribed fires.
The Oklahoma award is presented annually by Sand County Foundation, American Farmland Trust, Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association, Noble Research Institute, Oklahoma Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture, ITC Great Plains, Oklahoma Conservation Commission, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.
