Hello everyone! I hope you have all been taken by the irresistible spring bliss! Time for the HRM New and Notes again. Several upcoming events of interest I would like to notify our members about, along with a few interesting articles of community activity affecting us all.

If you want to read the entire News & Notes at one time, it is available at News & Notes for April 22, 2007.

Gene Sollock retired from teaching vocational agriculture in the public schools after 40 years in 1982, but continues to teach friends and neighbors from his unique outdoor "classroom" just outside Iola in Grimes County. Sollock's intensive grazing system maximizes pasture, capitalizing on the benefits of clovers, various grasses and standing hay—common bermuda, Alicia, coastal bermuda, crabgrass and rye grass. "Efficiency 101," which emphasizes getting the most from an operation with the least amount of inputs, is his favorite course.

Registration Cost is $20, and will begin at 8:00 am with coffee and doughnuts at the Iola Community Center, then move to the Sollock Ranch for field demonstrations. Wintering cows, grass fed beef, electric fences, microbe supported grass production, watering facilities, and establishing ball clovers and other legumes are a few of the topics to be covered.

For more information and directions please see our District web site at http://bedias-walker.tx.nacdnet.org/ or contact Kenda Mahaffey at Kenda.Mahaffey@tx.nacdnet.net (936) 348-2666 x3

Interested in working with children? Join us as we begin an adventure for all participants, students one and all. Develop our future resource base--KIDS! Get your hands dirty! Share Holistic Management with Kids on the Land.

A valuable field experience at the West Ranch Station, in Ozona Texas, Kids on the Land will begin curriculum development and training April 27th 2007. Progressing in phases, participants will create a learning team, dedicated to creating and delivering a Holistic Management field experience to students in Grades 3-6. This effort will lead to the creation and testing of a solid Holistic Management curriculum specifically for children.

Participants will spend a week at the West Ranch, with 3 days preparing the field experience instructional delivery, and 4 fun-filled days with students. Curriculum will include environmental knowledge and skills, scientific concepts, and science processes rooted in Holistic Management and tied to the National Science Standards.

Holistic Resource Management seeks to give children fun, experiential education in supporting ecosystem environments. What better way to encourage sustainability and abundance then to teach the next generation these values and principles! ‘Kids on the land’ is a impact education opportunity providing students with a hands-on approach to land stewardship.

When: Friday, April 27, 2007 - Thursday, May 3, 2007 (every Day) May 11- 17th (every day) for more information please contact Peggy Maddox, Director of Education at the West Ranch at 325-392-2292 or westgift@earthlink.net.

We have arranged for Terry to come to Ozona, Texas June 11-15 to teach a series of classes on grazing planning, land planning, biological planning and monitoring and grazing principles. All but the grazing principles are limited to 20 participants.

For each of these classes you will need the Holistic Management Handbook: Healthy Lands. Healthy Profits. and the HMI Grazing Plan & Control Chart available from the Holistic Management International’s online store http://www.holisticmanagement.org/store/index.html Register at http://www.hrm-texas.org, by calling the HRM office 512-847-3822 or mail your check and contact info to HRM of TX, 5 Limestone Trail, Wimberley, TX 78676

Terry has agreed to teach the full set of Grazing Classes. The classes and are:

• Grazing Planning (2 days)
• Biological Planning (1 day)
• Land Planning (1 day)
• Grazing principles (1 day)

You may register for each individual class or register for the full set and receive a significant price break!

Here are the details:

Grazing Planning
Holistic Management®® Grazing Planning gets your animals to the right place, at the right time, and for the right reasons. It enables you to manage land, animals, and wildlife so that in the growing months the land can produce the maximum amount of high quality forage and in the non-growing months provide for adequate forage for livestock and cover for wildlife. You will enhance animal performance and/or increase animal numbers; minimize overgrazing of plants; and be better prepared for that next drought.

West Ranch and Ozona each day
20 unit limit
Cost $250

Monday, June 11 - 8:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.
Tuesday, June 12 - 8:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.

Objectives:

HRM Executive Director
Long time HRM Executive Director Peggy Cole is longing to focus all her attention on our programs, so we have created a new position of Program Director as we grow and expand. As a result, Holistic Resource Management is offering a career opportunity in the leadership and development of HRM of TX and its endowment Foundation. The position is a collaborative relationship with the Directors and staff to communicate the essence of Holistic Management with the intention of building the organization and the endowment Foundation toward a sustainable future.

Specifically, we desire an experienced Executive Director with an emphasis on fundraising and proven success in both leadership and development. The ED will lead the organization in refining its vision and goal, manage the operations of the organization in accordance with non-profit regulations and create a comprehensive fundraising program that includes membership, planned giving, major gifts and grants. Salary and exact job description for this responsibility is negotiable.

Holistic Resource Management of Texas is a 501c3 not-for-profit organization whose mission is transforming people’s relationship with the land through awareness of its impact on every aspect of their lives. Our current ED is retaining leadership in Programs, primarily education about land management for healthy land and healthy profit. We use the principles of Holistic Management® in the operations of the organization, including our concept of community, financial planning and in the programs we offer our members and the public.

Please learn about HRM of TX via our website (http://www.hrm-texas.org) and about Holistic Management in general through http://www.holisticmanagement.org. If you are interested in the position, please e-mail your cover letter and resume to Peggy Cole at pcole@hrm-texas.org. Applications close June 1, 2007.

Coordinator - Southwest Grassfed Livestock Alliance-SWGLA
Send cover letter and resume to: tlaveta@yahoo.com or to SWGLA, 3900 Paseo del Sol, Santa Fe, NM 87507. Must be received by 5pm April 25, 2007.

Full-time contract position (will consider part-time if right qualifications)
The coordinator position for SWGLA requires a person with some familiarity with ranching and farming issues in the southwest, especially the challenges that livestock producers face when attempting to develop local and regional markets for their products.

This position requires a self-motivated individual who enjoys focused independent work as well as collaborative work with partner organizations. Excellent communication skills are required: written and verbal, for a wide variety of contexts, large and small groups of people with diverse backgrounds. The coordinator should be skilled and comfortable facilitating meetings, giving presentations to an array of audiences, planning public events, advocating for producers at coalition meetings and through media opportunities. Coordinator must have experience with fundraising and grant writing.

SWGLA is a growing 501(c)3 organization that requires a coordinator who is familiar with organizational management and development and project management and development.

Job details continued:

• Coordinate public outreach events aimed at developing local markets for regional grass-based livestock producers.
• Coordinate marketing and/or production workshops for livestock producers interested in direct or direct wholesale marketing.
• Create outreach materials and update website to promote SWGLA producers and the benefits of “buying local meat”
• Advocate to increase producer access to slaughter and processing facilities in New Mexico, AZ, UT and CO in collaboration with agencies and organizations
• Increase SWGLA membership and donor-base
• Grant-writing, grant reporting, and project management of existing grants
• Manage daily correspondence with SWGLA members, SWGLA partners (agencies and organizations), media and public inquiries
• Manage annual budget, membership dues, accounts payable and receivable
• Generate quarterly newsletter to SWGLA membership and potential members
• Regularly update SWGLA board on activities, arrange board and committee meetings as needed

Spend two full days with Dr. Glen Dupree, a homeopathic veterinarian. Dr. Dupree has been practicing veterinary medicine for over 20 years, and has been practicing classical veterinary homeopathy for 10 years.

During the two-day workshop, Dr. Dupree will teach the theory, philosophy and mechanics of classical homeopathy and will show you how to apply them in every day situations on your farm.

Registration and breakfast begins at 7:30AM

Workshop: 8:30AM to 4:30PM

Registration Fee (includes breakfast, lunch, snacks, course materials and reference books): $100 payable by Cash or Check (please make check payable to ‘Animal Compassion Foundation’)

Some of you may have seen the nice article on Betsy Ross in Wednesday's Austin American Statesman http://www.austin360.com/news/content/food_drink/stories/2007/04/0418grassbeef.html. Betsy Ross's beef was the first to hit the store last weekend. Whole Foods is planning a grassfed promotion this Saturday. I encourage you to patronize their store at 525 No. Lamar to support their efforts to bring local healthy foods to the consumer while supporting local farmers. Betsy's beef will be featured for a couple of weeks, then another local producer will be featured.

Why local? Less fossil fuel is used in transporting animals and beef, and shorter transport time is more humane for the animals. Buying local supports our local economy. Grassfed production systems are sustainable and environmentally sound. Vote with your dollars for what you want to exist in your world. When it comes to produce, local is more nutritious. Vine-ripened fruit and vegetables are higher in brix (natural sugars from which your body draws nutrients), than produce picked green and shipped hundreds, even thousands of miles. Is there a difference in quality of local vs. imported foods labeled "grassfed" and "Organic?" You be the judge http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070416/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/imported_food_safety. US Organic production standards are strictly enforced within our borders. Whole Foods has developed their own grassfed animal compassion production standards that that are much more stringent than any proposed Government standards.

I encourage you to inquire at the meat counter about grassfed organ meat and marrowbones. Whole Foods has shied away from offering these products, believing their customer does not want them. Selling the whole animal not only is the ethical thing to do, but also offers the consumer the most nutrition. For those of you following the Weston A. Price diet, you know the value of organ meat and marrow. If enough of you ask for grassfed bones, liver, heart, kidney, ox tail and tongue, they will carry it.

Debbie Davis
Grassfed Livestock Alliance, LLC
dba Bandera Grassland

You can download the 21 page report at http://www.ipcc.ch/

San Antonio's effort to shield its major water source from depletion, partly by controlling future use of Edwards Aquifer areas in Uvalde County, moved closer to reality Thursday. city leaders voted to authorize the purchase of conservation easements over roughly 13,000 acres of land with aquifer recharge zones in Uvalde County. The $8.18 million transaction raises the prospect of intensified debate about the City of San Antonio's push to protect key features of the aquifer, also the primary groundwater source locally.

San Antonio City Council voted 7-0 in favor of buying the easements under a $90 million municipal program, funded by a voter-approved sales tax, to preserve water sources. That will be for conservation easements for water quality protection,‰ said Susan Spegar, who works in the city's Department of Parks and Recreation, after the meeting.

City Council held off on considering a second, 2,600-acre tract in Uvalde County that was originally on the agenda. The city will deal with that this week, Spegar said. Conservation easements do not change ownership of the land, but they place restrictions on usage. In this case the city wants to prevent activities over recharge zones that could harm water quality. Easements are generally for perpetuity.

Asked about the transaction on Thursday, Bo Farr, president of the Uvalde County Underground Water Conservation District, said he can see the city's position. Sixty percent of the Edwards recharge zones are in the county, he said. Farr suggested that local political subdivisions get more involved in the issue.

HERE'S A snapshot of the precarious state of the Chesapeake Bay, circa 2007: The oyster population has been decimated, and crab stocks are at an all-time low. Fish are sick and dying. Oxygen-starved "dead zones," negligible 40 years ago, now cover up to a third of its area.

Better late than never, Maryland has begun getting serious about its commitment to reduce the pollutants that are choking the bay to death. Measures to cut the flow of nitrogen to the bay -- from storm-water-borne fertilizers, pesticides, vehicle exhaust and untreated sewage, among other pollutants -- have moved the state about halfway toward the goal it intends to reach by 2010. Now comes an innovative piece of legislation in Annapolis that would raise $100 million a year and make significant strides toward curbing runoff pollution. The legislation easily passed the House of Delegates last month. But it is bottled up in a state Senate committee, where Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., the Senate president, has apparently decided it will stay. This is folly.

It would tax developers and home-builders according to the amount of runoff-producing surfaces they build -- pavement, sidewalks, roofs and the like. These fees would add hundreds of dollars to the cost of an average new house, up to a maximum of $1,500 for a large one. The developers of office parks, factories and businesses would also be taxed, to their dismay. The potential benefits are far-reaching. Proceeds would be channeled to farmers, local governments and state agencies for programs designed to keep nitrogen and other pollutants out of the bay. The measures include planting cover crops, promoting shoreline improvements and other systems to control storm water, and limiting sprawl by channeling new building toward growth zones. Environmentalists and farmers, often pitted against each other, both support this legislation. Coupled with previous measures taken by the state, it would reduce the annual flow of nitrogen into the bay by an estimated 15 million pounds -- about three-quarters of the goal specified for 2010.

It is true that the state faces a daunting budget crisis. But in just about any scenario to raise revenue, the bay will be a top priority of Maryland's legislators as well as voters. Better, then, to deal with it now, and by creating a dedicated, reliable, recurring funding source. Mr. Miller should stand down.

(AUSTIN, TX) - A report released today by the National Wildlife Federation illustrates the promise of municipal water conservation in the state of Texas. Save Water, Save Rivers, Save Money: The Potential of Municipal Water Conservation in Texas shows how reasonable water conservation could provide over one million acre-feet of water per year statewide. Those savings would roughly equal the amount supplied by all 16 of the new reservoirs recommended in the 2007 State Water Plan. To download a copy of the report, go to http://www.texaswatermatters.org/

"Water conservation is the common-sense solution our cities are looking for. It would be far better to make efficient use of the water that is right under our nose than to spend billions of dollars damming rivers and drowning valuable wildlife habitat," said Dr. Norman Johns, a water resources scientist with the National Wildlife Federation and the lead researcher on the report. Johns added, "Conservation is not just easier on our rivers and streams, it's also easier on ratepayer's wallets."

The recently approved 2007 State Water Plan recommends 613,000 acre-feet of municipal water conservation savings (an acre-foot is roughly 326,000 gallons) by 2060. The new National Wildlife Federation report shows that an additional one million acre-feet of savings-beyond the 613,000-is readily achievable, based on the success of San Antonio and the progress being made in other Texas cities.

According to Johns, "The water conservation recommendations in the State Water Plan are a decent start down a long road. Ultimately though, the Plan could have, and should have, gone much farther. In this analysis, we calculated how conservation technologies and techniques available today could help meet demands over the next 50 years."

Three case studies in the report focus on how municipal water conservation could help to eliminate three controversial and environmentally destructive dams recommended in the 2007 State Water Plan: Marvin Nichols, Fastrill, and the Brownsville Weir.

"We're not saying that water conservation absolutely could replace every single dam in the 2007 State Water Plan," said Myron Hess, Manager of the National Wildlife Federation's Texas Water Program. "We are saying Texans need to take the recommendation to build 16 new reservoirs over the next fifty years with a grain of salt. If we're smart about it, we can have the water we need without unnecessarily sacrificing Texas' natural heritage-and we can save money in the process."

Recent studies on global warming predict Texas will experience severe droughts more often, further illustrating the critical importance of using our water as efficiently as possible.

"Using water efficiently makes sense today and it will make even more sense in a hotter, drier Texas," said Johns. "Dams don't make new water, they only capture what nature provides. With decreased rainfall and increased evaporation, the proposed new reservoirs will yield less than currently estimated. The only question is 'How much less'? Using the water we already have more efficiently will help extend our municipal supplies. That will allow more time to take a close look at the proposed reservoirs to see if they can 'withstand the heat' as affordable and reliable water supply sources."

"Our analysis shows that better water conservation has huge potential for the State of Texas," concluded Johns. "The bottom line is that an increased emphasis on water conservation makes sense financially and environmentally. The savings we have calculated are achievable, we just have to put our minds to it and hold our state and local governments and water planners accountable for making it happen."

The National Wildlife Federation's mission is to inspire Americans to protect wildlife for our children's future.

There's Not Enough
by Steve Satterwhite and Richard Whittaker

As the drought saps rural Texas, lawmakers confront a state that's running out of water

The March rains helped, no question. This time a year ago, 99.1 percent of Texas was officially in drought, classified as anywhere from abnormally to exceptionally dry. By late last month, that figure had fallen to 46 percent. The glass has edged past half full. The red spot on the U.S. Drought Monitor map marking the driest piece of Texas has shrunk to include parts of just eight counties on the border near Del Rio. Hopeful headlines have sprouted in many newspapers, but if the drought has subsided, it certainly is not over. “Drought is not dramatic,” says Bill Hyman, executive director of the Independent Cattlemen’s Association. “It’s like cancer. It’s a slow death.”

Whether the drought officially ends in any given part of the state this month or next, or next year, won’t fix the devastation left behind. It has been brutal on the land, the livestock, the people, and the economy. Last year’s drought-related agricultural losses—crops that didn’t grow, skinny cows sold cheaply and so on—were pegged at $4.1 billion by the Texas A&M Cooperative Extension service. That’s about one-quarter of Texas’ $16 billion agricultural industry. Cotton, the state’s biggest cash row crop, accounted for about $1 billion in losses. Almost a third of the 6.6 million acres planted didn’t make a crop.

Jim Selman... ...
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2463 to Read the full article.

When her two outdoor dogs woke her, barking at 2:30 a.m. a month ago, Katie Darnell wasn’t too concerned.

Katie and her husband, David, live in the country on a 100-acre place on the South Concho River a few miles north of Christoval. “Critters” — everything from raccoons to porcupines to wild turkeys — are regular visitors to their big yard.

But when the dogs continued barking, she got out of bed, flipped on the porch light and opened the door. Her dogs had cornered a 30-pound rabid bobcat on the front porch. “I saw it coming right at me,” Katie said.

The 55-year-old woman tried to shut the door, but the bobcat was too fast. “I slammed the door on the bobcat’s side, in the stomach. The door flew open and I fell on the floor. In the scramble, it jumped on me. I remember its eyes looking right at me. I thought, ‘OK, he’s going to get me,’ and I spun around. I didn’t want him to get my face.”

The bobcat attacked her, “roaring mad.” She said she doesn’t remember how long they struggled on the floor. Half a minute? Two minutes? “Everything seemed to happen in slow motion,” Katie told me Wednesday when we visited. “I thought, ‘This is not happening!’ “ She remembers the pain, but at the time, “the adrenaline was pumping and all I thought about was getting him off of me. “I fought. I fought it. I was scared. I was screaming, kicking, trying to pull him off.”

The 30-pound cat dug in, clawing and biting her back, neck and right arm. “We were on the hardwood floor. It’s pretty slippery, and I was just spinning around,” she said. “When it would dig into me with his claws, I’d try to grab his leg.”

She said she had two thoughts while the attack continued: “I kept thinking, ‘This isn’t real,’ and ‘I hope it doesn’t rip me to shreds.’ “ Katie’s husband David, who had been asleep in the bedroom, rushed to get his 20-gauge shotgun from a closet. “There’s a mountain lion!” she screamed to him.
Later, Katie said she knew it wasn’t a mountain lion, “but it felt like one. It felt like there was a hundred pounds on my back.”

While her husband ran to get the gun, she managed to grab one of the bobcat’s legs and pull the animal off of her.

David met the bobcat in the hallway and clubbed it in the head with the barrel of the shotgun. The bobcat ran into the kitchen and tried to escape. “He started hitting the windows,” Katie remembered. “He was running around, kind of wild and crazy, trying to get out.”

David told Katie to open the doors so the animal could leave the house. Now, a month after the attack, she can laugh at the confusion and their frantic efforts to shoo the bobcat outside. “I was afraid David would shoot it in the house and get blood and guts all over everything — or blow a hole in the wall,” she said, laughing. At the time of the attack, it wasn’t funny.

“It was an ordeal,” Katie said. “I was screaming and screaming. All the lights were on in the middle of the night. I’m sure the neighbors wondered what was going on.”

Finally, the bobcat retreated to the porch, where David killed it with a blast from the shotgun. “That was it,” Katie said.

Her wounds, though painful, weren’t serious enough for stitches or a middle-of-the-night trip to the emergency room. She took a shower to wash off the blood and the smell of the cat — which had apparently tangled with a skunk earlier. Her husband doctored her bites and claw marks with alcohol, Neosporin and peroxide.

“We went to bed about an hour later,” she said, “and then we started laughing about it. How many times are you attacked by a wild animal in your house? It seems crazy. “We decided the moral of the story is never open the door at night when the dogs are barking. “Let them bark.”

The next day, a doctor examined the wounds and gave her a tetanus shot. The bobcat tested positive for rabies, and Katie is taking a series of rabies shots. The last one is scheduled for next week.

Katie had always lived in San Angelo before moving to Christoval five years ago. She said the attack hasn’t changed her love of country living, but it did change her routine. “I used to go out by myself in the evenings and walk around our place,” she said. “Now I don’t.”

Katie and David are animal lovers. They graze everything from longhorns, horses and miniature donkeys to goats and chickens on their land. Watching wildlife, especially deer and wild turkeys, is a favorite pastime, she said, and the attack hasn’t changed her love of animals. I asked her if that included bobcats. “They are pretty animals,” she said. “But not when they are in your living room.”

http://www.briloon.org/watching-wildlife/eagle-cam.php