An alliance for the land
The PlanIt
Texas Coalition is committed to seeking solutions to conflict over natural
resources that are based on trust and respect, embrace private property
rights and enhance our natural resources
PlanIt
Texas is an ongoing and highly successful experiment in collaboration
among organized groups with conflicting agendas regarding land use and
natural resources.
Originally
a demonstration of holistic management in creating consensus among opposing
philosophies of such diverse organizations as the Audubon Society, Texas
Sheep & Goat Raisers, Texas Southwestern Cattle Raisers, Texas Dept.
of Agriculture and private landowners, the PlanIt Texas Coalition has
grown from an eight person panel into an organization of 22 members (many
with a history of warring with each other) working together to "seek
a new path for resolving conflict over natural resources that is based
on trust and respect, embraces private property rights and enhances our
natural resources."
In the Beginning
 The group
had realized the significance of their eye-opening experience in the initial
encounter, which included role reversals between landowner, environmental
and government organizations designed to illuminate the dilemma each faces
when assigned a specific goal. With help from Holistic Resource Management
of Texas (HRM of TX) facilitators Peggy Sechrist and Naseem Rakha, the
participants had discovered that, though it seemed their goals were at
opposition with each other, their basic values were the same. There had
to be some common ground in there somewhere. They decided to form the
PlanIt Texas Coalition and explore these new discoveries in the real world.
The Red Corral Project
 On
HRM's suggestion, the coalition developed a three part goal defining the
desired Quality of Life, or the basic values necessary to support achievement,
the Forms of Production needed to process those values into a solid reality,
and a Future Landscape Description, a visualization of the desired result.
PlanIt Texas then began to put the process to work in the management of
the Red Corral Ranch near Blanco.
This
real world application phase of the PlanIt Texas project will be ongoing
for the next few years. Already planners are developing innovative solutions
to a variety of problems from water quality to a need for biodiversity,
realizing they can not only get along but enjoy each other as they plan
economically profitable ways to preserve and enhance the ecology of the
Red Corral Ranch. Representatives from each of the member organizations
are currently working on projects related to the following forms of production:
tourism, using the ranch's lovely old-style buildings for a B&B and
retreat facility; a carefully managed deer herd offered annually as a
deer lease; grazing rights leased to cattle raisers who are HRM practitioners;
and a landscaped area of native plants specifically intended to attract
birds, butterflies and hummingbirds for people to see, photograph and
study in workshops on birds and native plants.
Outreach
The next
phase of the PlanIt Texas project involves sharing insights and information
the coalition has gathered, both in resource management and in fine tuning
the collaborative process. A generous grant from the Meadows Foundation
is facilitating the production and distribution of informational vehicles
such as brochures and videos, an educational manual for land managers,
a series of field days and workshops, as well as a pool of speakers to
educate others, and a Web Site to broaden the access to this information
worldwide.
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