Gregg Simonds   
Gregg has been consulting and/or managing ranches in the Western United States since 1974.  In 1978 he started working for Deseret Land and Livestock and was the manager until 1996. In 1997, U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) reported, “that Deseret Land and Livestock was a model for self-sufficiency that excels at protecting land and wildlife.”
Gregg has consulted for some of the nation’s largest private landholders (i.e. the King Ranch, Padlock Ranch, Malapi Borderlands Group) and The Nature Conservancy.

He has developed conservation plans in Mongolia and Bolivia, and has served as a faculty affiliate in the Animal Science Department at Colorado State University and an adjunct Professor in the Range Science Department at Utah State University.

Brief description of the presentation:

“Managing Wildlife and Livestock Together for Maxmizing Land, Animal and Financial Health”
Gregg will show examples of wildlife, livestock and land interaction that maximize the synergies between them while minimizing the trade off.

“Monitoring and Financial Planning with Wildlife Enterprises”
Will show example on how to monitor land management so that plans, learning and communication can be improved through time.

Jerry Cooke      
In addition to teaching 2 years at Texas A&M, I spent 28 years with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.  I’ve worked at TPWD in 3 Divisions [Law Enforcement, Wildlife, Coastal Fisheries] and over most of the State [East Texas, Edward’s Plateau, South Texas, Big Bend].

My research has ranged from wildlife diseases, Bobwhite Quail Population Dynamics, and Desert Mule Deer Population Dynamics to the systems and processes that drive/shape them.  I was one of the first to bring computers to wildlife management and the first to do landscape scale [1,000,000 acres], spatially-explicit predictive modeling as a wildlife/ecological tool.  And now, I do love my hammock time!

Brief description of the presentation:
We see what we see.  We always feel that we understand what we see and may even have some insight into how what we see came about.  But just as a whistled tune, that anybody could easily recognize, will probably appear nowhere in the sheet music for the original song, what we see is the emergent properties of many complex and interactive processes.

My career has been built around seeing things that most others have also seen but found insignificant.  My presentation will be taking you along on the walk that led to my understanding of the System.

Greg Simons

Simons formed WSI upon graduation from Texas A & M University in 1987. In addition to his busy schedule overseeing the general management of WSI, Simons has also been involved with a multitude of industry and civic related activities.

He is past officer of Texas Chapter of The Wildlife Society, co-founder of West Texas Deer Study Group which has hosted 8 different symposium type meetings, board member of Texas Wildlife Association and past Region 3 Chair for TWA, and currently serves as assistant chair of San Angelo CVB board. He has served on numerous committees, including White-tailed Deer Advisory Committee for the State of Texas, TWA Deer Advisory Committee, and has been involved with the highly successful Texas Brigades youth camps with fundraising and other associated activities.

Simons has been called on to give a wide range of seminars and programs across the Country including entrepreneur related topics, marketing hunting, outfitting hunting trips, wildlife habitat related topics, harvest photography, and other enterprise type topics. He has served as an expert witness in court cases, and is also former co-owner of Texas Hunting Directory. Simons has hunted around the globe including 6 foreign countries. He, his wife Deborah and their two children reside in San Angelo.

Brief description of the presentation:
Greg will discuss in light details business concept development, financing, and implementation.  Will discuss in greater detail marketing ideas relative to the hunting business.

David Griffith
David Griffith is a partly retired public servant of 35 plus years.  He is a former agricultural science educator of 22 years, worked as a legislative aide for two Texas legislators, Representatives Zeb Zbranek and Harvey Hilderbran, and most recently was Regional Director for United States Congressman K. Michael Conaway, Texas Congressional District 11, in his Llano Regional Office. David is a seasoned professional, confident in his personal strengths and abilities, vigorous, energetic, and has a sensitivity and compassion for people. He is an active and participating member of his church and has an excitement for mission work. His hobbies and outdoorsman activities are encircled by his love of cooking.

David offers over 30 years of cooking and catering experiences.  Growing up in a family of cooks, he later turned the knowledge gleaned into a successful catering business complimenting his professional career. As a native Texan, raised in a farm and ranch environment in Southeast Texas, his cooking style has been influenced by a wide variety of local cultures, adding to his unique abilities. His background brings a blend of down home comfort foods with the logistics and knowledge required in cooking for large and small groups alike.

David has cooked and catered for corporate company picnics, church and community events and fundraisers, all types of receptions, celebrations, and family dinner parties, as well as having managed a conference center for a large Houston, Texas, corporation. More recent, David cooks for the professional outfitters, Wildlife Systems Inc. of San Angelo, Texas, www.wildlifesystems.com during Texas’ far-reaching hunting seasons. David is also a partner in G-W Chuck Wagon Catering offering the uniqueness of western and cowboy cast iron cooking. www.nailheadspur.com/chuckwagon.

David is available to travel to your facility for your cooking needs and is more readily available during the Spring and Summer months. References may be provided on request.

Brief description of the presentation:
In determining what makes the ‘food’ a successful part of a hunting lodge, many factors have varying degrees of influence. They could include, kind and type of facilities and equipment, number of guests, menus and budgets, logistics.  However, three main factors come into play.  (1) Food Safety (2) Customer Service (3) Qualities of the Cook.

John Martin  
John Martin is a familiar face in south Texas to anyone talking finances or conservation.  John holds an MBA and spent over 25 years as a financial consultant and certified financial planner.  In 1987, he was a founding member and first president of The Valley Land Fund, a non-profit land trust in the Rio Grande Valley and in 1994 created its biennial Wildlife Photo Contest.

John’s passion for the conservation of wildlife and habitat on private lands and his leadership role in developing partnerships between landowners, business and wildlife photographers led to the founding of ICF and the Pro-Tour as tools in the creation of the nature photo tourism industry.  As a result, there are now ranches hosting photographers for a fee, providing a new source of revenue for the landowner and an economic incentive for preserving habitat.

John and his wife Audrey live on 40 acres of reforested wild land near Edinburg, Texas. John’s topic is developing a ranch for participation in the private lands Nature Photo Tourism Industry.

1. How to set up.
2. The Income potential
3. How to market to photographers

Panel of wildlife enterprise managers

Forrest Armke  
Forrest has spent 41 years managing successful wildlife programs, 25 of them as manager of the 32,000-acre Ford Ranch near Brady. He has been practicing Holistic Management 22 years on the range. 
The Ford Ranch has a very intense wildlife program with hunters 7 months of the year. Quail in Jan. and Feb., spring turkey in April and May, dove in Sept. and Oct. , and whitetail in Nov. and Dec.

“Our goal is to give each guest a quality outdoor experience. Because of this, our re-booking rate is very high. We count our wildlife and adjust our booking numbers accordingly.
“Most of our guests are from out of state. When entertaining guests in the outdoors, you become a people manager. You learn each individual’s outdoor abilities and adjust how you teach them more outdoor skills.

“Guests from different states meet each other here for the first time. They become friends who meet here each year to share the outdoors. Guests become friends with guides. In sharing the outdoor experiences they become very close. It is very enjoyable to have guests who express the pleasure they receive from being in our camp.”

Brett Addison  
Rancher in South Central Oklahoma .  We have a cow calf operation along with an intensive wildlife program www.addisonranch.com

Pam Mitchell 
Pam has spent 25 plus year managing horse breeding/training ranches and within the last 5 years turned her attention and love to managing wildlife ranches.

She has worked the last two years managing Northrup Pipe Creek Ranch, a 5000 acre high fenced ranch in the Hill Country 45 minutes west of San Antonio. 

NPCR has 20 hunt club members who stay in a provided hunt camp and a separate corporate group that utilizes the Ranch's Lodge accommodations.  All hunters, Club and Corporate,  adhere to strict management guidelines for the whitetail population.  We work closely with TPWD biologist to determine the harvest every year and adjust to their guidelines.  NPCR has been high fenced since the 70's therefore we have no non native species on the Ranch but we are exploring the possibilities with great care taken on the affect of the native habitat and native species.

NPCR has managed to become sustainable by utilizing the assets readily available to the ranch such as hunting, birding, lodging. We also have been granted a NRCS EQIP Cedar Grant and we are working currently to secure a Grassland Reserve Program Grant and NRCS EQIP Water Infrastructure grant for better distribution of watering area on the Ranch so we can bring on livestock and maintain a rotational grazing system. 

Dale Prochaska 
Dale is a wildlife biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept assigned to the Kerr WMA.  He has worked for TPWD 18 years and is married with 2 sons.  Dale’s primary interests are wildlife habitat responses to application of tools on the landscape.

Dale will outline the goals of the Kerr Area.  An ecosystems approach as it pertains to wildlife, livestock production, and overall land health.