RAIN!! I hope everyone is receiving this much needed rain!

A large round of applause to Peggy C for this exciting edition of News & Notes! There is a wealth of information in this issue. . . honeybees, solar cycle, permaculture, 2007 Land Steward Awards and a lot more. AND a MUST read - Kids on the Land.

So grab a cup of coffee, tea or milk; sit back and enjoy.

But first, call Debbie and order your HRM shirts! Take a look at all of the beautiful colors (see chart below) and get your order in before May 18th.

“Our goal is to develop a ranch with time and livestock rather than money and machines,” said Alain.

The Galleys have fenced (so far) over 3,000 of their 6,000 acres into 45 80-acre permanent paddocks which are occasionally sub-divided by temporary fences as needed to move their 1,8500 beef cattle and 7,500 hair sheep every couple of days. The area rainfall is 50 inches, but the watering system is set up for irrigation, just in case. Base forage is bermudagrass and ryegrass for a 10 month grazing season with supplemental hay to round out the year. They have 3 contract laborers from Mexico on H2A visas as sheepherders on rotation with 2 months family time in Mexico per year. The Galley brothers divide their time among their 2 ranches in Mexico in addition to the Texas ranch.

Sheep and beef are balanced by weight, so the goal is roughly 10 ewes for every cow. This balance helps prevent parasites and predation on the lambs, reducing coyote problems to minimal, even with no guard dogs, llamas or night penning.

“The only preventive medicine that really works is genetics,” Alain said. “ Consequently, we rarely worm our sheep. We get rid of the animals that have parasite problems. That’s the way you make real genetic progress.”

The cows are Red Angus crossed on Tuli (from Zimbabwe) and Nelore (from Brazil) bulls. That cross is then bred to South Devon bulls for their exceptionally tender meat. The sheep are Dorper, for the heat resistance and great meat, crossed on Barbados.

"Jean and I have been lucky to have had the chance to travel the world and see what works and what doesn't," Alain said. "This ranch is a combination of Swiss capital, Mexican labor, American grass and markets, African and Brazilian livestock genetics and New Zealand fencing technology. We are very thankful to the USA for allowing us the opportunity to put all of this together."

To learn more about the Galleys and their operation, go to http://www.stockmangrassfarmer.net/cgi-bin/page.cgi?id=418 or http://www.countryworldnews.com/Editorial/ETX/2004/et0617brothersranch.htm

Directions to the ranch:
From the north:
Elkhart is located south of Palestine, TX. From Elkhart, take 319 southwest to 117. Continue southwest on 117 to 119. Take 119 south across the Anderson/Houston county line. The road becomes Private Rd. 6245. Follow 6245 as it curves around east and becomes C.R. 2265. From 2265, turn south onto Private Rd. 6220. The Puzzlewood Ranch address is 276 P.R. 6220.

From the south:
Grapeland is located north of Crockett, TX. From Grapeland, take W. Chestnut St./227 west of town to County Rd. 2260. Follow 2260 northwest to the intersection of County Rd. 2265 that follows the county line. Drive east onto 2265 to Private Rd. 6220. turn south on 6220. the entrance to Puzzlewood Ranch is 276.

You asked for it! During the 2007 Annual Meeting, class evaluations revealed an overwhelming consensus to bring back Terry Gompert, Nebraska Certified Educator in Holistic Management, to teach detailed classes in grazing planning to a small class. 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 HRM's Online Store, 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. Classes are $125 per day or $500 for the whole week.

Grazing Planning — Monday & Tuesday, June 11-12, 2007 8am to 6pm, at the West Ranch and Ozona Visitor’s Center each day, 20 unit limit, Cost $250. 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. Objectives: • Complete a Grazing Chart (open-ended plan) • Complete a Grazing Chart (closed plan) • Learn how to calculate standard animal units, animal days per acre available, stocking rate, and stock density • Learn grazing, over grazing, growth rates, and recovery period •Learn how to monitor and control the grazing plan.

Biological Planning and Monitoring — Wednesday, June 13, 2007 - Wednesday- 8am to 6pm at the West Ranch, 20 unit limit, Cost $125. Holistic Management® Biological Monitoring is monitoring to make what you want happen. You will learn how to read your land and assess the functioning of the four ecosystem processes – water cycle, energy flow, community dynamics, and mineral cycle. Objectives: • Complete a Comprehensive Biological Monitoring Data Sheet • Complete a Comprehensive Biological Monitoring Summary Sheet • Complete a Comprehensive Biological Monitoring Analysis • Learn how to biologically monitor.

Land Planning — Thursday, June 14, 2007 8am to 6pm, West Ranch and Ozona Visitor’s Center , 20 people limit, Cost $125. Holistic Management® Land Planning is important because investments in land represent long-term commitments, so this land planning procedure and its gradual implementation on your land are of extreme importance. Your land plan takes you into the future, building infrastructure as your finances permit, and can prevent costly mistakes. Objectives: • Design the ideal layout • Consider fencing and water options • Consider handling facility

Grazing principles — Friday, June 15, 2007 8am to 6pm, West Ranch and Ozona, 50 people limit, Cost $125. When you manage grazing animals you need to make sure their presence enhances all 4 ecosystem processes. The grazing principles’ class will help you become more knowledgeable about the practices and actions that more closely mimic nature and will head you toward improvement of your land, livestock and profit. Objectives: • Learn about ecological principles • Stocking rate and stock density • Production utilization and dry matter intake • Plant diversity • Legumes • Matching forage quality to animal needs • Multi-species grazing • Grass and plant growth • Rest & Recovery • Plant health • Ten Factors of Grazing

Shirt orders may now be placed on the HRM website shopping cart by clicking in the column on the right of the Home Page “Shirts: special offer” There is a chart with color and style options. Long-sleeved men’s chest pocket style shirts are in stock in three colors: faded blue denim, string (khaki) and forest green, for $35 plus $4.05 postage. Sizes larger than 2XL are $38. If you would like to order a color other than one we have in stock, please place your request by the order deadline, and you will not have to pay the additional $4 per shirt special order fee on the website.

The short sleeve shirts will be available after the deadline on the web site.

The following chart shows color and style options:

Return to Index

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.

Discovery was the connecting tissue of the first official gathering of passionate people interested in sharing their love of the natural world with children in the Kids On The Land program at Holistic Management International’s David West Ranch. Six women from diverse fields came together Friday afternoon, April 27 to begin a journey in creating curriculum for informal (out of the classroom) education, outdoors, that can present a day of wonder and discovery for elementary school children.

For the past four years Peggy Maddox has been creating activities to support general themes for the various grades she has invited out from Ozona schools. She began with third grade and added the next grade each year. Word got around and now Eldorado wants to bring those 4 grades (third through sixth) and Ozona wants to bring kindergarten as well as those grades. Peggy and HMI devised this training to get the help she so badly needs for this important mission. To create the curriculum, HMI and the West Ranch are hosting these two seven-day workshops of training and implementing the school field days this spring.

Kelly White from Albuquerque; Dr. Pat Richardson from UT Austin; HRM ED Peggy Cole from Wimberley; Certified Educator, Christina Allday-Bondy from Austin; Kathy Dickson from Maryneal, TX; and Jeanne Rides-Alone from Dulce, New Mexico joined Peggy Maddox in the newly upgraded learning quarters for opening activities. Peggy Maddox uses teaching stories to great advantage and our 3 days of orientation were liberally spiced with great stories and poignant quotes about education and the natural world. We were presented with looseleaf notebooks stuffed with information about how people learn.

Opening with a story about a generous peddler following a dream, it was no surprise that our first group activity was to create a holisticgoal for our week together. We chose to create a fun, energizing, peaceful, restful experience where kids can have an a-ha with some meaningful learning in a participatory, experiential way with stories and connectedness for all. We wanted to produce organization, consistency of content, clarity, practice sessions and a workable schedule that includes rest and some hot tub moments. We want to exhibit passion for what we do, promote a sense of wonder and motivation and to listen to the kids with interest and respect. To sustain this program into the future the people must be perceived as motivated, passionate, knowledgeable and memorable; kids have a sense of connectedness to self and their world. The community is aware, supportive, excited, trusting, committed and involved. The West Ranch land is noticeably different: lush and green with healthy land, livestock, and wildlife, great energy and abundant water with facilities that meet the needs of the educational program.

I needed a name to call these participants—part student, part teacher—in this article and into the future. We settled on LINK (Learning Involving Nature & Kids), because we want to be links—part of the connections in all directions. The Links were up with the sun for yoga on the porch with Kathy Dickson before breakfast and a hike up the hill to the class-roof, an open pavilion for learning. The activity was for each of us to share our favorite outdoor experience as a child. Peggy introduced the book Last Child in the Woods—Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, about the need to reconnect children with nature for healthier, better-adjusted kids who care for our planet.

“The sun shines not on us, but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us”.
—John Muir

Back in the classroom, the story was The Animal School, by George Revis, a hilarious look at the way schools can crush the innate talents of individuals as they struggle to equalize and standardize. We did some discovery activities about how each of us learns in left brain-right brain exercises and the “Multiple Intelligences theory” of Howard Gardner. Some learn best through words, some by logic and math, others by pictures or movement or music. Some are “self-smart” while others are “people-smart.” “Nature-smart” is the newest intelligence identified. The best curriculum might include as many different types of learning as possible so that in a group, each child might find his best approach is available.

So we went off in groups of 3 to try our collective hand at designing a learning activity that would teach the mineral cycle to 7th graders (12-13 years old) in as many ways as we could. Our group of Christina, Pat and Peggy C, opened the HM textbook to the mineral cycle chapter and took our objective from the chapter title, “circulation of the nutrient cycle.” We would start with a teaching story about a dead skunk in the middle of the road, then send students out on the land in pairs to choose anything at all. Each little team would create a story about their object that would include the circulation of the nutrient cycle. The teams return to the group and each presents his story, which the Link uses as an opportunity for positive feedback and for extrapolating examples of the connectedness of all.

The other team wrote a play where kids could act out the mineral cycle. The combination of these activities would allow students to use language, movement, imagination, all the senses, and naturalist intelligences as they discovered for themselves how the nutrient cycle works.

After lunch we became third graders and made kites from paper grocery sacks. This activity put us in touch with the fun of creating as we learned to teach one of the activities for third grade day about the wind. It also provided samples for the children to see when they began their own kite project.

Joe Maddox arrived in the Bad Boy Buggy to take us on a tour of the ranch that included the usual activity of fossil hunting. Fifth graders hunt fossils in the draw near the house and we constantly need to replenish their supply from elsewhere on the ranch. There was private time for a nap or a walk before supper and yoga. The evening learning session was devoted to preparation of activity materials such as kite strings and tails, and soil food web game badges. The hot tub was ready so we sat and soaked awhile before bed. Peggy assigned us to think about the way we best learn and to create for the morning a blessing for the sun, using song or poetry or dance or whatever to communicate.

The sunrise came early and colorful Sunday morning as we did our 7 am yoga on the porch. But by the time we’d climbed to the class-roof, clouds hid the focus of our blessing. Peggy read the delightful story, The Way to Start the Day by Byrd Baylor and we each shared our blessing. Kelly had a gift for each of us—a leather bookmark with the words, Wonder is the beginning of Wisdom.

After breakfast we gathered in the classroom to plan our day—what to prepare in the way of activities and materials for third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade.

Third graders learn about the wind and how it can help people. On their way to the ranch headquarters, they stop at one of the 4 West Ranch windmills. Peggy helps them discover the many ways wind can be used by people. The children have fun thinking of obscure and clever responses. Peggy tells them the parts of the windmill and the function of each part. Joe demonstrates with real windmill parts how the check valves and leathers lift water up from the aquifer. The class divides into three groups of about 20 each, who accompany two LINKS to experience: 1) hand pumping water with the actual windmill parts, 2) climbing up to look into the big water tank where the water went from the windmill, and 3) walking down to the livestock watering troughs to learn about floats and the uses of the water brought up by the windmill.

Back on the bus and ready for apple juice and a cookie on arrival at the learning porch. This covered porch wraps around the row of kitchen, bedrooms and classroom and is no small space. Once they have visited the wonderful new bathrooms and are settled on their carpet squares, Peggy calls their attention with a singing bowl and discusses with them the history of their county and how the invention of the windmill made settlement in their area possible. Now she selects students one by one to come to the stage area (an altitude shift in the concrete porch) and sets up a physical enactment of a windmill in action. The rancher kid turns on the windmill kid up on his ladder tower by releasing the tail and letting the wheel begin to turn. The sucker-rod kid moves up and down with the check-valve kid to pump the water, which the whole chain of kids transfer down the lead pipe by pouring it from one kid’s tin cup to the next and finally into the water bucket for the livestock.

Peggy turns the discussion to wind turbines and shows how an anemometer works to keep the windmills from turning when the wind speed is too great.

Lunch! And careful recycling of food and trash. LINKS stay with their group and help the process. Now for the kites. This is so much fun for the LINKS and even more fun for the kids. They listen, they cut and fold and tape and design a wonderful flying decoration unique to each. Add string and a tail and off they go to run into the wind and delight in the flight of their creation. The sheer joy of running outside is evident in the excited squeals and happy faces.

Finally it is time to settle again with their groups in a circle on the carpet squares for a fun evaluation for the kids, their teachers and the program. A beach ball with questions written on each colored section is tossed to a student who answers the question and tosses the ball to another student, calling a color. That student reads the question on that colored section. The ball asks such things as, “What was your favorite activity today?” or “What is something new you learned today?” or “How do you feel about your day at the West Ranch?” The answers are thrilling to hear as we realize the children are happy and have learned new things.

The small groups merge to hear a final story about “Jack and the North Wind,” dramatically told by Peggy Maddox. All faces are wide with interest as Jack has adventures with the rich gifts of the north wind. A group photograph and they head for the bus, receiving a sticker and a cookie as they go and leaving lots of thank-you’s and big smiles.

Fourth grade is all about plants, so they arrive to a snack of sunflower seeds and apple juice. After welcoming the students and introducing the Links as she does every day, Peggy Maddox shows some special plants and talks about the Englemann daisy being named for the naturalist who first described that species. She builds an admiration for naturalists and their primary tools of curiosity and observation—using all your senses to explore the world around you in detail. She introduces the work of Carl Linnaeus, who created taxonomy. Now she demonstrates the types of classification by having everyone in the 4th grade stand up (45 students stand); then if you have tennis shoes on stay standing (half the class sits down); if you have tennis shoes on and black hair, stay standing (10 remain); if you have tennis shoes, black hair and no undershirt on stay standing (three remain); if you have tennis shoes, black hair, no undershirt and a grey t-shirt stay standing—one single boy—a unique species in this group.

We break into three groups and begin a rotation of activities about an hour long each. Two links take group one on the nature trail up the hill discussing the uses of plants for livestock, wildlife and humans. From the coprolites (8 thousand year old fossilized poop full of prickly pear seeds) found in regional caves to the tasting of agarita, mesquite bean or prickly pear jellies, the kids experience all the local landscape has to offer as they carry their naturalist clipboards and answer questions about what they see. Their answers hold the key to the riddle (all things are connected) that they receive in the class-roof at the end of the walk.

Back at the learning porch they rotate to the plant journal activity. A Link teaches the parts of a plant, how plants work and what plants do for us. She engages the students’ curiosity by taking them into the field with a jeweler’s loupe to look closely at plants and eventually choose one to bring back to the porch and study in detail, with the aid of field guide books. The kids each receive a plant journal where they record their findings, draw and/or describe the parts of the plant, write poetry or a story about it, and attach actual plant parts.

Lunch happens.

The third activity is about the growing of plants from their seeds. The Dandelion Seed story is read. Kinesthetic learning is enjoyed with yoga moves that take the child from a seed through sun and rain and growth to a tall plant being grazed or visited by a variety of animals whose motions have the kids engaged and laughing. They learn to mix compost and clay with wildflower seeds and water to roll into their own collection of seed-balls. There is a plant cycle pinwheel and a bubble blowing game if there is time.

Student materials from each of the activities are sent back with the teachers, along with reference materials so the experience can be remembered and reviewed. Evaluation is again by beach ball and the closing group story is The Story of the Indian Blanket. A group photo is taken. These fourth graders leave with a Wildflowers of Texas poster and a cookie for the long bus ride home.

Fifth grade day is all about water so their arrival snack is water with an apple slice. Peggy uses an apple to demonstrate the small amount of drinkable water available on Earth. There is discussion about the geologic features of the region (ancient sea and limestone formations, regional watershed and water supply. The kids role play the water cycle.

The three smaller groups are formed to:1) watch the groundwater flow model where aquifers, wells, clean and polluted waters can be seen in action, then perhaps build and eat the edible aquifer. 2) learn from the rainfall simulator how rain creates either runoff or groundwater, depending on the soil surface conditions; and make a water cycle wheel; 3) go fossil hunting and hear the story, If I Were a Hunter of Fossils, by Byrd Baylor.

Lunch is between the second and third rotations. Evaluation by beach ball, vocabulary loop or talking stick and the ending story is Woman who Outshone the Sun. The group picture is taken and the students get a comic book called Rio Bravo about the river’s life.

Sixth Grade day is called Healthy Soil – Healthy Land: Soil Critters and more. These kids are learning more and more complex concepts, so the opening large group discussion is on the formation of soil, including its parent materials and the different kinds of rock, components and life of healthy soil, the importance of covered soil and the critters who live beneath the surface.

The Links take each of the three out on the ranch for land monitoring, where students judge percentages of bare ground and different classes of soil cover and take the soil’s temperature in each. They return to the learning porch to make and eat a soil food sundae.

The groups come together in the big barn for Dr. Pat’s unique soil microorganism video—live action video of amazing soil mesofauna. Then break into 3 small groups again to play the soil food web game in which each student wears an identification badge that says which soil critter he is and what he needs to survive. Each finds students who wear the badge of those needs and connect to them by rainbow ribbons. In the end it is obvious to the students that all is connected under the soil surface as it is above.

After lunch the groups hear a story about the buffalo days and go out again on the ranch to experience as grazing animals or predators how herd effect and animal impact changes the soil surface and how the effect has changed with the advent of fencing and the reduction in predators. Leading questions will get the students to discover ways today’s ranchers might imitate the herd effect of old.

Evaluation and review are via the vocabulary loop. Each student gets a card with an answer and a question. When he hears someone read the question that his card answers, he reads that answer and the question that follows it, which prompts another student to answer and so on. We take the group picture, then board the busses with Range of Wonders, a comic book about soil by USDA.

Finally, though, we felt like we had the time for a curriculum discussion. We identified the target audience as K-6th grade (initially, anyway) groups who are interested in out-of-the-classroom, outdoors education with the theme and possible title,
LIFE…on the land
Get the connection
to include understanding how the parts of the natural world work together and possibly add later simple goal setting and decision-making toward that goal. Audience includes public schools, private schools, home schoolers and others. We want to produce sets of activities that help children learn according to all the intelligences and that, where practical, address the state and national testing requirements.

Sunday night saw big storms dancing on our roof. Overnight we had 3 inches of rain in the gauge with a promise of more storms throughout the day. By 7am yoga, Peggy had contacted the sheriff in Eldorado to find the right people who needed to know the draws into the West Ranch were not passable. After all that angst about the school canceling, now we were having to cancel third grade day. We started right back in on the planning for the animal impact activity, but were too excited about the rain to concentrate, so we toured the ranch in the 4-wheel-drive ranch truck, marveling at the clarity of the water coursing through the draws, photographing the waterfalls and marveling at prickly pear standing tuna-deep in flowing water.

After lunch were lulled to sleep by the instructional video that accompanies the groundwater flow model – useless! So we decided to wake up with some candy. We constructed the edible aquifer – a horrible feast of gummy bears and M&M’s as rocks below the aquifer, 7-up as clear water, ice cream as the confining layer of clay, more candies as topsoil and orange soda as pollution. Sampling this creation probably has nixed it from the potential fifth grade activities as it was really pretty gak to consume, but maybe not so for a 6th grader.

The rest of the afternoon and on into the evening was spent practicing and preparing for the teachings to come. Since Ozona Kindergarten coming on such short notice was a longshot and Peggy had not heard from them, she cancelled that invitation and rescheduled Eldorado third grade for Wednesday, since we were well prepared for them.

The delicate vibration of the Tingsha called us to yoga at 7 Tuesday morning. We were excited to finally have students on the way. We made our breakfasts and our lunches as we went over the day’s plan once again. The day unfolded exactly as anticipated. Peggy C had the luxury of being the loose Link to roam among the small groups and photograph the day. Hot and humid with gnats to annoy us, everyone was tired by the time the busses pulled out with waving hands at every window. We debriefed in the kitchen, excited, tired and very satisfied. Kathy treated all who chose it to a back massage with an electric massager and Kelly, not feeling well, headed back to Albuquerque. The following hours found everyone at a computer, downloading brains and cameras and gearing up for the future while Joe Maddox fired up the grill and the hot tub for a cookout and relaxing evening.

Wednesday followed suit, but was cool and misty at the Windmill as third graders began their day. Waiting for their arrival we discovered fossils by the dozens and named the location fossil hill. We worried a little about the kite flying as the forecast was for rain, but by kite flying time, the day was beautiful and breezy enough to loft the kites. We all felt high as well, seeing the fun the third graders had. We were far less tired this day and again hit the computers to keep up to the moment and plan for the next Links workshop and the Ozona school days (May 11-17). Peggy had some closing activities for us to do. Somewhat brain dead and physically tired, we stumbled through the origami lessons to produce a beautiful circle of parts, each of which then received a question, with the answer on a secret sliding section of the whole. The questions explored our beliefs, thoughts and feelings about the past week and on into the future.

Since Thursday had been cancelled by 6th grade, we spent that morning completing our recaps and preparations for the future, since most of these Links will not be returning for the May session. A whole new set of Links will be at the West Ranch with returning Jeanne Rides-Alone and Peggy Maddox to relay to them our brave beginnings and to carry on the curriculum work and the scheduled Ozona school days. We drove home writing this story and re-experiencing all the fun we had in the magical domain of the West Ranch.

The Oklahoma Food Cooperative will host a three day workshop on how to organize and operate a local food cooperative internet-based order and delivery system. Topics to be covered include organizing campaigns, producer issues, financial accounting, computer systems, customer and volunteer issues. The event will be held in conjunction with the May delivery day of the Oklahoma Food Cooperative, and attendees will participate in all aspects of that activity. For complete info: http://www.oklahomafood.coop/2007workshop.php

The call for pre-proposals can be found at the following website: http://www.southernsare.uga.edu/callpage.htm.

Also, the new call for the 2008 Graduate Student Grant Program was released on March 2007 and full proposals are due via online submission by June 01, 2007.

AUSTIN, Texas ˜ For wildlife habitat conservation to happen on a landscape level in Texas, it will have to occur on private property, which makes up the bulk of land holdings in the state. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Sand County Foundation are looking to recognize those who have shown exemplary efforts to manage their property as ambassadors of conservation.

On May 23 at the Omni Southpark Hotel in Austin, TPWD will recognize eight regional land stewards, representing private ranches in various ecological regions, plus three separate categories recognizing achievements for wildlife management associations, special contributions and corporate efforts. Also, the Leopold Conservation Award for Texas will be presented to the 2007 statewide land steward, still to be announced.

The 12th annual Lone Star Land Steward Awards recognize and honor private landowners for their accomplishments in habitat management and wildlife conservation. The program is designed to educate landowners and the public and to encourage participation in habitat conservation. TPWD’s primary partner in the awards is the Sand County Foundation, with sponsors that include Texas Wildlife Association, Alcoa Rockdale Operations, The Nature Conservancy of Texas, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and Texas Farm Bureau.

“Each year we see a diverse group of dedicated landowners managing their wildlife and natural resources in innovative ways,” said Linda Campbell, TPWD Private Lands Program director. “They are models for others to emulate in today’s changing Texas.”

Lone Star Land Steward Awards program objectives are to recognize private landowners for excellence in habitat management and wildlife conservation on their lands, publicize the best examples of sound natural resource management practices, encourage youth education and participation in promoting responsible habitat management and improved ecosystem health, promote long-term conservation of unique natural and cultural resources, promote ecosystem awareness and acknowledge the best conservation practices in the state’s 10 ecological regions, enhance relationships between private landowners and Texas natural resource agencies, and illustrate the important role of private landowners in the future of Texas natural resources.

For the third year, the Lone Star Land Steward Awards are benefiting from an association with Sand County Foundation, an international non-profit organization devoted to private landowner conservation. Each ecoregion award recipient and the wildlife management association recipient will receive $1,000 from the Foundation, while the Leopold Conservation Award recipient will receive $10,000 and the Leopold crystal award.

“We are once again proud to participate in the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Lone Star Land Steward Awards program,” said David Allen, Sand County Foundation Vice-President. “Texas has a great tradition of private landowners who practice sustainable conservation. The Leopold Conservation Award is an opportunity for us to honor their work.”

The Leopold Conservation Award honors the legacy of Aldo Leopold (1887-1948), who is considered the father of wildlife ecology. His collection of essays, “A Sand County Almanac,” remains one of the world’s best-selling natural history books. Leopold’s godson, Reed Coleman, formed Sand County Foundation in 1965 to protect the Leopold farm from encroaching lot development along the Wisconsin River.

For TPWD, the Leopold Conservation Award is the highest honor bestowed for conservation and responsible stewardship as part of the Lone Star Land Steward program. For Sand County Foundation, the Texas award is one of six Leopold Conservation Awards planned for private landowners in various states across the U.S this year.

This year’s recipients characterize the unique cultural and natural heritage of Texas. Landowners restoring degraded habitats while conserving flora and fauna are a common thread. For the first time, the awards recognize a residential conservation development in the special category. Following are summaries of stewardship highlights for each of the ecoregion and category recipients.

Coastal Prairies and Marshes ˜ McFaddin Enterprises
The McFaddin Ranch was established in Victoria County in 1877 by James Alfred McFaddin. A century later, the property was divided among heirs and Bob McCan continued the family land management tradition on his share of the ranch. The family ranch holdings and a 55,000-acre lease ranch in Refugio and Bee counties are operated as one management unit under the family name of McFaddin Enterprises.

The McFaddin Enterprise ranches include three divisions covering more than 75,000 acres managed holistically for both livestock and native habitat and populations of wildlife. Rotational grazing and a systematic approach to applying brush management techniques to the landscape to compound each technique has improved diversity and production. Land management practices on the McFaddin ranches focus on an ecosystem management approach including preservation of the soil, improved water availability and increased vegetative diversity and range production.

All Divisions participate in studies on systematic brush management through the Grazing Land Cooperative Initiative grants, quail management, research on invasive fire ant management and affects of native flora and fauna, prescribed burning workshops and high school habitat judging Competitions. Riparian vegetation and water quality studies have also been conducted on these ranches.

McFaddin Enterprises has also utilized many conservation agencies in order to maximize potential income while fostering good land stewardship by partnering with many governmental and private entities.

Cross Timbers and Prairies ˜ Litteken Ranch
The Litteken Ranch in Clay County is owned and operated by Arthur Litteken, who began putting the property together in the early 1990s and has increased the size since then by purchasing additional adjoining tracts as they became available. During that time he has implemented numerous improvements to the 2,950-acre ranch and has operated under a TPWD-approved Wildlife Management Plan for 11 years

Income for the ranch is generated primarily from its livestock operation and is supplemented through lease hunting and fishing. The ranch is divided into 19 pastures. A 180 acre old field was replanted to a mixture of native grasses and forbs and an additional 225 acres are maintained in coastal bermuda grass. These 405 acres of restored field and improved grass pastures, representing less than 15 percent of the ranch acreage, are used to sustain the ranch’s cow-calf cattle herd for six months during the growing season while the remainder of the ranch’s native grass pastures receive complete deferment.

The density and distribution of invasive brush species, primarily mesquite, are controlled mechanically (grubbing and raking) and chemically through participation in USDA NRCS cost-share programs. Herbicides are aerially-applied in alternating strips annually to maintain vertical woody structure and to minimize “forb shock.” Sites that are disturbed as the result of mechanical brush control are reseeded with a mixture of native grasses and forbs.

Outreach activities hosted by the Litteken Ranch include bi-annual tours for area county extension agents, several field days in conjunction with the Cooperative Extension Service and the NRCS, a Quail Appreciation Day, “Hello Neighbor” tours for local landowners, an annual pre-season educational program for the ranch’s hunters, and Boy Scout outings.

The crossroads of the Marcy Trail (an Arkansas to California trail used during the Gold Rush) and the old mail route between Decatur and Archer City occurs on the ranch. Old sandstone markers designating the intersection of these trails were recovered and permanently displayed by Litteken.

Edwards Plateau ˜ Llano Springs Ranch
Situated in northeastern Edwards County, Llano Springs Ranch includes 5,100 acres of rocky hills and draws typical of the western Edwards Plateau. Operating as a family limited partnership, Llano Springs Ranch Ltd. targets holistic management of native populations and habitats as its primary focus. Ranch income is derived from a combination of commercial lease hunting activities for big-game species (including white-tailed deer, exotics, and turkey) and fly-fishing along the South Llano River. This income is supplemented with revenue from non-consumptive hiking, biking, jeep tours, birdwatching, and photography. Success is measured in habitat improvement and providing a quality outdoor experience.

The centerpiece of Llano Springs Ranch includes 3.5 miles of the spring-fed South Llano River. Notable increases in water quality and spring flow have resulted from a substantial brush management program initiated shortly after the ranch was purchased in 1994. There are 5 major springs on the tract, (including Llano Springs—headwaters of the Llano River) and numerous unnamed springs. Additional springs have begun to flow as a result of the tremendous cedar clearing effort.

Land management practices at Llano Springs focus on an ecosystem management approach including preservation of the soil, improved water availability, and increased vegetative diversity. Invading Ashe juniper regrowth is actively controlled through an aggressive brush management program utilizing heavy equipment and hand cutting on appropriate range sites. Much of this work has been accomplished through cost-share programs of the Natural Resource Conservation Service. Emphasis is placed on removal of cedar in mosaic patterns while sculpting the remaining woody overstory to provide excellent travel and escape cover for wildlife. Ranch owners have worked with TPWD since 1995 on implementation of their wildlife management program.

Dense mesquite thickets along the Llano River have also been manipulated in selected areas, while prescribed burns are utilized when range and weather conditions allow. To date, over 2/3 of the total land area at Llano Springs Ranch (in excess of 2,700 acres) has been manipulated through the brush management program. The majority of this clearing effort has been personally conducted by Tom Vandivier.

Llano Springs Ranch continues to provide significant educational outreach, particularly to youth. The ranch has hosted various conservation-based field trips for university students and offered hunts for the Texas Youth Hunting Program. The Vandivier family takes a hands-on approach to management with all members contributing to the hunting operation as well as other recreational income-generating activities. Likewise, the family continues to participate in cooperative research efforts with TPWD.

Pineywoods ˜ White Rock Pasture
White Rock Pasture near Trinity has integrated habitat management initiatives such as prescribed burning into their forest management to benefit wildlife and reduce the risks of wild fire. They use a saw timber management strategy on the 11,700-acre property to improve habitat for turkeys, quail and other species that benefit from mature pine timber stands.

Under previous ownership, the property was managed primarily for pulpwood production and leased for hunting. Since 2002, the property, managed according to a TPWD-approved wildlife management plan, has been active in the Managed Lands Deer Program.

White Rock Pasture is also actively involved in managing for species of concern. They participate with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in a Habitat Conservation Plan for endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers as well as a Candidate Conservation Agreement for the Neches River rose mallow.

Post Oak Savannah ˜ Spring Branch Ranch
From 1950-1999, livestock grazing was the primary business activity on the Spring Branch Ranch in Bastrop County, currently 426 acres in size. This century, the ranch switched to coastal hay production, including organic hay, and wildlife management. The result is a property with more abundant and diverse plant and animal species, lush native habitat and cleaner water for people and wildlife.

Owners Melissa Cole and Mike Reusing have re-established native grasslands through brush control, removing more than 1,000 eastern red cedar trees annually in the past two years.

They have also focused on wetland restoration and improvement, using the cut cedar to build water control structures across previously dry creeks to catch and hold supplemental water for wildlife. They also removed reeds around parts of their lake to provide access for wading waterbirds and songbirds.

The owners have planted 1,000 native trees and shrubs on the land in the past five years. The result is greatly improved cover and native forage for white-tailed deer, birds and a variety of other species.

Recognizing the value of separately owned land holdings working together for regional benefits, they re-established travel corridors for wildlife to travel from the Army National Guard’s nearby Camp Swift through hay pastures. This was done by planting trees and allowing native brush, forbs and grasses to grow in strips within the pastures.

Two years ago, they became the first producer of organic hay in Bastrop County, conducting extensive experiments with compost tea and organic fertilizers, and offering advice based on their learning to numerous other ranchers.

They participate in the Lower Colorado River Authority’s voluntary River Watch program, conducting regular water quality sampling under LCRA supervision of the ranch‚s 6-acre, spring-fed lake, the headwaters of Dogwood Creek, which flows into the Colorado River.

All these practices have caused a surge in wildlife diversity and abundance. For example, wild turkeys were common three decades ago on the ranch but had not been seen since, partly due to overgrazing by previous owners, and now turkeys are common throughout the ranch.

The owners have been gracious about sharing their knowledge, and the ranch has become a substantial demonstration facility for other ranchers and property owners for the past seven years.

Rolling Plains ˜ Merrick Davis Ranch
The 13,622-acre Merrick Davis Ranch in Shackelford County was purchased in the 1950s from the Merrick Davis Estate and has been operated by Rick Hanson and the John Matthews Family for more than one half century. Historically, the ranch was used primarily for livestock grazing until 1997 when a wildlife management program was created to complement the livestock enterprise.

The Merrick Davis Ranch places emphasis on the production of native grasses and forbs as forage for livestock and habitat for wildlife. Grazing and brush management in the last 10 years has significantly improved the quantity and quality of native grasses and forbs and stabilized the soils from erosion. The Merrick Davis “system” uses rotational grazing, prescribed burning, and brush management to enhance and maintain the habitat. All herbaceous and woody plants on hillsides and riparian areas are protected from mechanical manipulation to maintain wildlife corridors, reduce erosion, and provide escape, thermal, roosting, and screening cover for deer, upland game birds, and non-game animals.

Lake McCarty, the water source for the city of Albany, borders the ranch on the southeast. A significant portion of the watershed for the lake lies within the Merrick Davis Ranch. The land stewardship practices on the Merrick Davis have improved the water quality and reduced soil erosion into Lake McCarty.

Aeration is used on deep soil sites to promote water infiltration, stimulate annual weeds, enhance plant diversity, and increase herbaceous ground cover for future prescribed burns. Other wildlife management practices on the ranch include the construction of spreader dams to capture water, half cutting mesquites in areas where quail cover is limiting, and re-seeding old farmland with native grass mixtures.

The Merrick Davis Ranch is home to healthy populations of white-tailed deer, bobwhite quail, turkey, birds of prey, Texas horned lizard, non-game mammals, dove, and grassland birds.

South Texas ˜ Temple Ranch
The Temple Ranch is a living showcase of the benefits of hard work, proper wildlife management, and good land stewardship has on previously degraded rangeland.

Most of the habitat on the ranch was chained more than 25 years ago to remove woody cover and increase grass growth for cattle grazing. Prior to 1992, when the Temple family purchased the ranch, the property suffered from severe overgrazing, erosion, and heavy hunting pressure. Grass and herbaceous cover were virtually non-existent. The Temple family has since instituted many beneficial management practices to increase the habitat quality for both game and non-game wildlife populations on the ranch.

These management practices are applied in various designs in order to increase plant diversity and "edge" while still maintaining cover requirements for both game and non-game wildlife. Protecting the proper amount of habitat is very important to the goals of the Temple Ranch. Different management practices are applied based on soil type and habitat, and include many different mechanical treatments, judicious use of cattle grazing, selective ground application of herbicide in monocultures, and reseeding of native grasses. Prescribed fire is used extensively in areas with adequate fuel loads and as a follow up treatment after mechanical manipulation.

All riparian areas are left intact, with at least a 75- to 100-yard buffer from brush manipulation. Areas with suitable habitat and soil types have been improved to provide more feeding and nesting areas for turkeys. Natural roosting sites for turkeys are protected, and artificial roost sites have also been erected. What was once poor to marginal turkey habitat has been transformed into good habitat, and the turkey population has responded favorably.

Water sources are very important to wildlife in the semi-arid South Texas region. The Temple Ranch has increased water distribution across the landscape, establishing a water source every half mile. Approximately 10 miles of water line supplies water continuously to wildlife water sources on the Ranch.

Trans-Pecos ˜ Catto-Gage Ranch
The Catto-Gage Ranch near Marathon in Brewster County covers 172,609 acres and its owners are descendants of Alfred S. Gage, who began his cattle business in the late 1880s.

Goals of the ranch include, the proper management of the various habitat types that will encourage healthy game and non-game wildlife populations, including pronghorn antelope, mule deer, elk and scaled quail, while continuing to develop a cattle grazing strategy that will be commercially viable. The ranch’s diversity includes habitats ranging from the desert shrub/ grasslands and rolling foothills, to higher elevation pinion pine-juniper.

The ranch is currently participating in the Managed Lands Deer Program for mule deer and continues to seek management approaches that benefit both wildlife and cattle operations.

Prior to 1950, cattle, sheep and goats were part of the livestock operation. Today the focus is on feeder cattle (stocker operation) to provide more flexibility in grazing management. Since 2002, about 50 miles of new water line have been constructed, 50 new troughs added, 11 storage tanks and 4 wells have been drilled. The ranch is experimenting with solar powered pumps and new storage tanks with lids or covers.

In 2003, 6 locations totaling approximately 1,086 acres were enrolled into NRCS Riparian Buffer Program. An additional 4,000 acres were also included to these projects based on fencing needs and habitat enhancement projects. Habitat projects include spring restoration through the use of horizontal drilling, dirt tank construction, contour ripping with native grass seeding and prescribed burning.

Cooperative research projects with Sul Ross State University and Texas A&M include prescribed fire, archeology and the development of an “early warning” drought system for landowners using satellite imagery, weather data and forage inventories.

Wildlife Management Association ˜ Cherry Spring WMA
For 17 years, the Cherry Spring WMA in Gillespie County has strived to integrate sound wildlife management practices with passing along the state‚s hunting heritage to the next generation. The association is spread across 21,000 acres in three rural communities.

Members are actively involved in various habitat enhancement efforts, including rotational grazing, prescribed burning, brush control and development of food plots. These activities have resulted in higher Rio Grande turkey populations and a healthier deer population. They annually conduct deer spotlight census counts to evaluate association management goals and to set deer harvest recommendations with assistance from TPWD wildlife biologists.

The association is intensively involved in providing youth hunting opportunities on member properties through the Texas Youth Hunting Program.

Corporate ˜ Lower Colorado River Authority
LCRA was established in 1934 as a conservation and reclamation district. LCRA is involved in many conservation, restoration and enhancement projects throughout its statutory district (Bastrop, Blanco, Burnet, Colorado, Fayette, Llano, Matagorda, San Saba, Travis and Wharton counties). It also is involved in the education of youth, teachers and landowners, and it provides outreach activities to help meet the needs of the citizens of the district. LCRA‚s ability to partner with state and federal agencies with conservation responsibilities allows it to leverage resources, both monetary and human, to provide a variety of on-site demonstrations and educational opportunities for diverse participation.

LCRA manages more than 16,000 acres of public lands properly for the citizens of Texas. The lands serve not only as islands of wildlife habitat in an ever-changing landscape but also as a means for individuals to learn more about and to connect with nature. In 1996, LCRA dedicated some 2,585 acres of land to the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve to protect the golden-cheeked warbler and black-capped vireo habitats. LCRA is also active in other conservation efforts involving threatened species, including a cooperative partnership to develop a habitat conservation plan to help preserve the limited remaining habitat of the Houston toad.

LCRA is also involved in private lands management initiatives, beginning in 1993 with the North Central Fayette County Wildlife Management Cooperative. Through these efforts during the past 14 years, seven wildlife cooperatives have been created in Fayette County, and more than 125,000 acres of private and public lands are being managed for wildlife. This cooperative approach to natural resource conservation has proven to be an effective tool in helping minimize the effects of land fragmentation on wildlife resources. LCRA has partnered with TPWD on a quail relocation project in Fayette County, employing disking and prescribed burning to enhance quail habitat on about 500 acres of native grass plots.

In an effort to improve water quality and enhance aquatic habitat, LCRA developed a comprehensive plan to manage aquatic vegetation at Lake Bastrop to control excessive growth of hydrilla, worked with local residents and TPWD to add a variety of native plants to Lake LBJ. LCRA offers several water conservation programs for municipal and agricultural water customers. Municipal water conservation programs at LCRA focus on providing education, technical assistance and customer service to retail and wholesale customers.

In the mid-1980s LCRA began developing its system of natural science laboratories and centers. More than 3,380 acres in the LCRA parks and open space system are in natural science centers. Cooper Farm was the original, with an emphasis on educating landowners on providing for wildlife habitat in a traditionally agricultural area. The newer centers focus on educating youth and adults about the environment. Visitation to these centers was over 25,335 people in 2005.

Special Recognition for Conservation Development ˜ The Woodson Place
For the first time, the Lone Star Land Steward program is recognizing the efforts of a residential developer/builder. The Woodson Place is a model conservation development integrating native plant wildscaping practices with residential building. It is a unique neighborhood of 38 half-acre home sites on 66 acres in Rains County, with 39 acres set aside as open space with hiking trails, meadows, woodlands and a small lake.

The development goal is to reduce the neighborhood’s ecological footprint by clustering groups of homes to preserve significant, contiguous open spaces, enhancing sustainability through water conservation and energy efficient practices. The project’s model home earned a top, 5-star rating from the City of Austin Green Building Program.

Habitat enhancement regimes include water development, fire ant control, erosion control, bird nesting structures, tree snag preservation and wildflower planting. When the project was initiated in 1999, the property had been severely overgrazed. A native prairie restoration effort consisting of wildflower seed plantings, as well as the first controlled burn in 2007, has helped the land recover dramatically. Each lot buyer gets six hours of free consulting with a landscape architect who specializes in native plant wildscaping.

By demonstrating how residential development and conservation can co-exist, The Woodson Place is part of an important emerging trend in the state to shape new thinking and approaches at a time when suburban sprawl and rural land fragmentation are causing an escalating loss of open space.

Abstracts are currently being accepted through May 11, 2007 for the 12th Annual Texas SER Conference to be held on June 8-10, 2007 in Lubbock, at Texas Tech University. Presentations will be on Saturday and Sunday (if needed). Optional field trips to private ranches are scheduled for Friday and Sunday. Conference registration includes a Friday night social and dinner with plenary speaker, Loren M. Smith, Ph.D., Kleberg Professor of Wildlife Ecology with the Department of Natural Resource Management at Texas Tech University. Smith’s research is focused on various aspects of wetland ecology and principles of biodiversity while his personal research is focused on biogeography of playa wetlands and biotic diversity in Great Plains ecosystems.

Presentation topics are open to all areas of ecological restoration. Texas Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) welcomes relevant abstracts from all disciplines, backgrounds and experience levels. Founded in 1995, the Texas SER is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing connectivity between individuals engaged in ecologically sensitive repair and management of ecosystems. Texas SER is one of 14 chapters worldwide of the Society for Ecological Restoration International, and is made up of researchers, practitioners, growers, land managers and teachers from across the state who have joined together to ensure the long-term survival of native and endemic ecotypes, and promote a sustainable human culture which can involve itself intelligently and productively with these systems. Due to the diverse audience expected at this conference, presentations should include a brief background on the topic. Presenters should be prepared for a 15-minute talk with an additional 5 minutes for questions and answers. Longer talks (20 to 30 minutes) may be accepted if space permits. Please note on your abstract submittal if you are requesting a longer talk.

Begin each abstract or proposal with a title followed by the name and organizational affiliation of each author with the presenting author’s name underlined. Complete contact information for the corresponding author is needed and should include mailing address, daytime phone number, and email address. Abstracts and proposals should not exceed 300 words. Questions regarding presentations/abstracts can be directed to Kay Jenkins by e-mail kay.jenkins@tpwd.state.tx.us or by telephone at 361-790-0325. Conference updates and additional information about Texas SER may be found at the Texas SER web site: www.ser.org/txser. Conference sponsors include: Texas Tech University – Department of Natural Resource Management and the Beach Family Ranch. Texas SER has blocked hotel rooms for the conference at Hawthorn Suites in Lubbock (800-527-1133 or 806-765-8900).

Friday, May 11, 7-9 pm
Introduction to Alexander Family Farm and Pastured Broilers including The Polyface Farm Video by Joel Salatin

Saturday, May 12, 8 am -12 noon
On-farm training at Alexander Family Farm with “how-to” lessons on Brooder House Operations, Successful Production Practices, Feed Rations, and Equipment Construction and Maintenance, plus an introduction to on-farm processing; lunch will be provided by the Alexander family

Saturday, May 19, 8 am – 2 pm
Kim Alexander provides detailed on-farm broiler processing experience, from live bird to packaged product (8 – 9:30), followed by a trip to the nearby Austin Farmers' Market for a behind the scenes tour and marketing tips from market managers Andrew W. Smiley and Suzanne Santos (10 – 12:30, with lunch on your own at the market), then return to Alexander Farm to get tips on direct marketing at the farm (1-2)

The Program
The training sessions will offer detailed, practical information developed by the Alexander family through their years of operating a sustainable farm in Central Texas, and will be presented in a “how-to” style with hands-on learning opportunities throughout the program. Attendees will also receive a take-home reference binder of resources and reference materials that will include specific production recommendations from the farmer. The depth of this comprehensive information will benefit new and beginning farmers, as well as current farmers who intend to refine or expand their operations.

Registration Info
Pre-registration is required since space will be limited. The cost for the Pastured Broiler training is $85 per person or $135 per couple. Full and partial fee waivers are available for limited-resource farmers and students Click here for Registration and Fee Waiver Application Form

Permaculture Basics Weekend
Saturday June 2-Sunday June 3, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.
This class covers the same material as the first two days of the full PDC course.
Tuition: $120 ($20 deposit; $100 on first day of class)

Bioregions and Land Restoration
Instructor: Kirby Fry
Saturday June 16, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
A permaculture approach to land restoration. Cell grazing as a means of ecosystem restoration and income earning, and an alternative to prescribed fire. Includes brief intro to permaculture; overview of Texas bioregions. Hands-on project; field trip.
Tuition: $50 ($10 deposit; $40 on day of class)

Field Trip to Betsy Ross Ranch (Granger, TX)
Saturday September 15
Healthy soil --> healthy plants --> healthy cattle and healthy people! This award-winning practical intensive grazing operation is an outstanding example of land resource management.
Tuition: $60 ($10 deposit; $50 on day of class)

Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) Course
Selected Weekend Days Saturday September 22 - Saturday November 17, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.. Includes classroom training, field trips, and hands-on projects. Graduates earn a Permaculture Design Certificate, recognized worldwide.
Tuition: $500 ($100 deposit; $400 on first day of class)

Organic Gardening Class
Instructor: Dick Pierce
Class meets four times: two Saturday mornings and two Monday evenings. Dates/times: Morning workshops 9:00-12:30 (prep at 8:30) Saturday Aug. 25 and Sept. 8; Evening sessions 7:00-8:30 pm Monday Aug. 27 and Sept. 10 Tuition: $100 ($20 deposit; $80 on first day of class)
INFO/REGISTRATION 512-619-5363 / austinperm@permie.us

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’)

i) Send check and registration form to: Animal Compassion Foundation c/o Whole Foods Market Global Offices, 550 Bowie Street, Austin, TX 78703 Attn: Homeopathy for Farm Animals
ii) Visit http://www.animalcompassionfoundation.org for registration form and fax the completed form to: (512) 482-7640 Or e-mail to mail@animalcompassionfoundation.org

Register early, spaces are limited!
For questions, call Anne Malleau, Executive Director, Animal Compassion Foundation (A Whole Foods Market Foundation) at (512) 542-0640

The camp, to be held at the Texas 4-H Center at Lake Brownwood, is open to third- through fifth-grade children of military personnel residing in Texas with a deployment date between May 2006 to September 2008.

"Operation Purple camps give children of military families the opportunity to meet and speak with other kids dealing with the stresses and problems of a having a deployed parent or parents," said Marilyn Prause, Texas Cooperative Extension program specialist for military 4-H. "During a parent's deployment, kids have to deal with a lot of issues, such as separation, loneliness and anxiety. The camp gives these kids a way to address these issues, but also a chance to have fun and just be kids."

This is one of several camps being offered to children of military families from around the world, Prause said.

"Operation Purple camp is a joint effort of the Texas National Guard, Army Reserves and the Texas 4-H program," she said. "It was developed by the National Military Family Association, and the color purple chosen as a way to represent that it is open to all branches of the military."

Activities include camping, canoeing, fishing, swimming, a challenge course, archery and other athletic endeavors. Attendees also participate in interpersonal and team-building activities.

"There are also workshops and discussions about deployment issues at camp," Prause said. "But there are also opportunities for the kids to get involved in community service projects and participate in fun and educational activities. There’s a lot of good-natured competition among the kids."

This camp is sponsored by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, TriWest Healthcare Alliance and Sierra Club. The Texas 4-H Center at Lake Brownwood is accredited by the American Camping Association. Participants are housed in modern dormitories and provided with three meals a day and snacks. Applications will be accepted until May 15. For more information and to register, go to http://www.nmfa.org/ or call Prause at 254-774-6024.

Senate Bill 1341 may not provide the perfect regulation of the Edwards Aquifer that fully satisfies all stakeholders.

But the legislation carried by state Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, balances and at least partially satisfies a wide array of needs from the parts of the state that rely on the aquifer and on the Guadalupe River for their only or their primary water supplies.

Given the importance of water in this area, we are pleased that Hegar - like his predecessor, former state Sen. Ken Armbrister, D-Victoria - is working hard on this critical issue. Jerry James, the city of Victoria's director of environmental services, also is playing a major role in these discussions, making sure that this city's legitimate needs are not overlooked.

A 1993 law created an inherent conflict by limiting the amount of water that could be pumped from the aquifer that is San Antonio's sole source of the precious liquid, while also creating conditions that allowed the Edwards Aquifer Authority to grant pumping permits for amounts that would considerably exceed that limit.

"The issue also pits the interests of the state's second-largest city and agricultural interests west of San Antonio against the San Marcos area, with its natural springs, and agricultural interests east of San Antonio that rely on the Guadalupe River fed by those springs," the Austin American-Statesman reported.

Further complicating the issue, "those springs are also home to federally protected species," the Austin newspaper continued.

Hegar's bill would increase the amount of water the Alamo City could pump from the aquifer when water is plentiful while also putting "into law a series of water-level measurements that would trigger pumping restrictions during times of drought," the American-Statesman explained.

Whatever the Texas Legislature does to refine regulation of the Edwards ultimately will be subject to scrutiny by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has responsibility for protecting endangered and threatened species and their critical habitats. So lawmakers cannot afford not to address those needs if they intend to pass legislation that will work for the long term.

All stakeholders in the aquifer will have to share the pain in times of drought, the more so as the water shortage becomes more severe. But pumping limits that are too restrictive when water is plentiful make no sense. Hegar's bill would bring about a sensible balance.

By Thaddeus Herrick, The Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2007
In 2001, Kentucky native Brad Kelley sold his cigarette manufacturing company Commonwealth Brands Inc. for some $1 billion and promptly went on a shopping spree. He didn't go to Rodeo Drive or Fifth Avenue—he set his sights on the range.

Mr. Kelley bought hundreds of thousands of acres of West Texas ranchland. In Florida, he snapped up some 60,000 acres near Sarasota, where he breeds animals such as antelope and anoa, a miniature water buffalo native to Indonesia. Today he is the seventh-largest landowner in the U.S., according to the debut issue of The Land Report, a publication that bills itself as the magazine of the American landowner.

The rich are accumulating open spaces across the U.S. much as they have with vacation homes, automobiles and paintings in the past. As urban areas have grown, some well-off city dwellers have purchased spreads in remote places, thousands of miles from the typical playgrounds of the wealthy.

"It's like rare art," says Jim Taylor, president of Hall & Hall, a Billings, Mont., real-estate firm, that has worked with CNN founder Ted Turner, among other land buyers.

In West Texas, for example, Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos has acquired several ranches in recent years totaling about 300,000 acres, making him No. 23 on The Land Report's list of the nation's top 100 landowners (Mr. Bezos declined comment for this story).

The push to amass acreage among the rich is part of a broader boom in which Americans outside the agricultural sector have been pouring money into land, pushing up prices. Farm real estate rose 15% in 2006 from 2005 to $1,900 per acre, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The wealth accumulated in the last decade by aging baby boomers has left them looking for places to put their money. At the same time, in the agricultural stretches of America, the population is aging and the economy is in many cases unable to sustain ranches and farms.

A study published in the journal Society and Natural Resources said between 1990 and 2001 only about a quarter of those who bought parcels of 400 acres or larger in 10 Montana and Wyoming counties were traditional ranchers.

More recently, real-estate brokers say, buyers have been scouring the Great Plains for spreads that offer hunting and fishing, wooed by brokerage outfits spearheaded by retailers such as Orvis Co. and Cabela's Inc.

While the typical land buyer these days is looking for a remote piece of wilderness or ranchland for outdoor sporting activities, or simply to admire the beauty of the landscape, the top landowners tend to be driven by more varied interests.

Mr. Bezos, for example, used his parched land in the far reaches of West Texas last year to test a developmental vehicle for his space-flight company, Blue Origin LLC, while Roxanne Quimby, co-founder of cosmetics and candle company Burt's Bees, has acquired acreage in the northwoods of Maine for conservation.

To be sure, the nation's rich have long owned large tracts of land. But population growth and urban development have made far-flung property more desirable, while advances in transportation and communication have made it more accessible. That, combined with the sort of wealth made by Mr. Bezos of Amazon.com ($4.3 billion, according to Forbes Magazine's 2006 estimate) and the woes of the agricultural economy, has sustained the land boom for the very wealthy.

The owners of the Dallas-based Land Report LLC, publisher of the magazine, believe the phenomenon merits monthly coverage. With a circulation of 40,000, The Land Report is distributed free to 30,000 of the nation's largest landowners and to some 10,000 industry professionals, such as real-estate brokers.

"There is an enormous niche that was completely underserved," says Eric O'Keefe, the magazine's editor.

But the concentration of land in the hands of a privileged few could yield a backlash. Ms. Quimby, who sold Burt's Bees in 2002 to private equity firm AEA Investors LLC for $177 million (she retained 20% ownership in the company), wants to assemble about 100,000 acres to help realize a decade-old dream among Maine conservationists to create a national park. She says she has amassed 80,000 acres so far.

But some locals in the town of Millinocket were outraged when Ms. Quimby proclaimed that her land would be off-limits to logging, hunting and motorized vehicles, including snowmobiles. Now they sport "Ban Roxanne" T-shirts. "Our way of life is being threatened," says Jimmy Busque, a member of the Millinocket town council and a steam plant operator at the local paper mill.

No. 100 on The Land Report list, Ms. Quimby agreed to allow a year of hunting and motorized access on her latest purchase, the 25,000-acre Sand Stream Sanctuary, which came last September. But she is unapologetic about her plans for her newly acquired property, much of which she has purchased from logging companies. "I don't have to argue the environmental merits of anything," says Ms. Quimby. "I own it."

The nation's largest private landowner is Ted Turner, whose portfolio includes 15 ranches in seven Western states and a total of about two million acres. Long intrigued by bison and how close the animal came to extinction, Mr. Turner acquired his land over the past 30 years in large part to raise livestock. Today his herd of about 45,000 bison allows most of his ranches to pay for themselves in part through sales of steaks and burgers around the country and Mr. Turner's restaurant chain, Ted's Montana Grill.

Mr. Turner's latest acquisition came in 2005 in Nebraska, where he bought almost 65,000 acres for about $19 million. Russ Miller, general manager of Turner Enterprises Inc., which manages Mr. Turner's land, says the profound economic and demographic change under way in the Great Plains have enabled Mr. Turner to assemble such a large swath. Why so much? "It's the only thing that lasts," says Mr. Miller. It's a declaration Mr. Turner has made in the past, echoing the famous line from "Gone With the Wind."

Mr. Kelley, who was raised on a farm, says he amassed about half of his landholdings before selling his cigarette manufacturing company. (The Land Report says he has 789,851 acres, but he puts the total at about 1.2 million acres.) Since 2001 he has redoubled his efforts to build a ranching empire, acquiring cattle operations across the country and breeding hoofstock in conjunction with zoos.

One place of particular interest for Mr. Kelley has been the Big Bend region of Texas, a vast expanse in the state's western corner. In Brewster County, the size of Rhode Island and Connecticut combined, Mr. Kelley owns a total of 429,366 acres, according to the county appraisal office.

"I have an appreciation for land," says Mr. Kelley. "That's sort of where my heart's at."

But Mr. Kelley dismisses the notion that he is a land collector, albeit No. 7 on the list of the nation's top 100. "It's not a hobby," he says. "If you're a hedge fund you buy stocks. If you're a rancher, you buy land."

Write to Thaddeus Herrick at thaddeus.herrick@wsj.com

It's easy to understand what lured Lorenz F. Bading back to work the rolling pastures northeast of New Braunfels that have been in his family since 1852.

It's in his voice as he gently prods one of his Red Limousin cattle out from in front of his range vehicle or quietly recalls the days long ago when he helped make sorghum cane into molasses on a mule-driven press, parts of which still stand near the home where he was born in 1916.

"It's a matter of your heritage," said Bading, a former home builder and World War II veteran. "I just love the land and growing things, you know? You're out here and nobody bothers you much."

Carl Wood, on the other hand, has been a state trooper and has worked for Merrill Lynch and, more recently, Wal-Mart in Austin. So he's probably less interested in maintaining the ranch that his family has kept in agriculture since 1854, right?

Wrong.

"It's always kind of been a place of refuge," said Wood, who would like to buy more acreage northeast of Seguin rather than sell any property he acquired from his father. "I plan to retire there like my dad did.

"The family identity, a lot of it is tied up in the land. We know the history of folks who came before us. It's part of who you are."

Bading, Wood and their families are part of a group of 81 families recognized by the Texas Department of Agriculture for keeping Texas land in farming or ranching for at least 150 years.

Another 4,100 Texas farmers and ranchers have been honored in the state's Family Land Heritage Program since it began in 1974 for keeping land in agricultural production for at least 100 years.

And five families, all in Jim Hogg or Starr counties of the Rio Grande Valley, have stayed active in agriculture for 200 years or more, going back to the Spanish land grants of the 18th century.

Ag department officials call them exceptional families who have withstood the cruelties of nature, the fickle nature of the marketplace and the changing face of American culture to produce food and fiber for the world.

"It's recognition of 'stick-to-it-iveness,'" Agriculture Department spokeswoman Beverly Boyd said. "These stories show the tenacity of Texas farmers and ranchers. We may well have more of it (than other states)."

But even in Texas, which is the nation's top livestock producer and regularly flaunts its agricultural roots, the farming and ranching landscape is under siege.

Texas had about 230,000 farms and ranches in last year's count by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That's more than twice the number of farms and ranches in Missouri — 105,000 — which was second in the national tally.

While the number of farms has not been declining like it has nationally, the number of acres devoted to farms and ranches in the state has shrunk. >From 2000 to 2006, Texas farm and ranch acreage dropped by more than 1 million acres to 129.7 million, according to USDA surveys.

Jeff Geider, director of Texas Christian University's Institute of Ranch Management, said increasing urbanization, escalating rural land values, punishing tax schemes and spiraling production costs are key reasons agricultural land has been parceled off or lost in Texas.

"Families who can hold it together for generations, they deserve a lot of credit," Geider said. "It takes a lot of work."

Families with generational ties to the land say they aren't frightened by the work.

Patricia Walsh Small, whose family owned a Bexar County ranch that remained in agriculture for more than 200 years before it was sold four years ago as part of the Toyota truck plant, said hard work is so much a part of agriculture that ranch families consider it routine.

Small's family bought other ranch property with the Toyota proceeds and is still putting in the hours needed.

"You stay busy and stay energized and you stay happy," she said.

At 62, Terry Fischer, whose family still manages about 373 acres of a tract his great-grandfather acquired in 1854 in northern Comal County, agrees. Fischer, who had a career with the Houston Environmental Health Department before returning to the ranch 10 years ago, goes to the property several days a week to cut cedar trees or to do other chores. He considers it exercise.

"I think you've just got to be born into it," he said. "If I don't do it, I can't sleep. I get restless."

But they do worry about the encroachment of urban areas, and the increased costs and regulations it brings, or about rising farming and ranching costs generally. Even with the higher crop and livestock prices, operating costs have made it difficult to make big profits, particularly for smaller operations like the historic farms and ranches.

Bading said fertilizer costs alone have doubled in two years, reaching close to $50 an acre.

"It'll kill you. I don't care what you grow," he said.

B.C. "Billy" Cheshire has been ranching off and on for more than 30 years on acreage east of Seguin that includes property his great-grandfather purchased in 1854. Last year, the drought got so bad and hay prices climbed so high, he figured he was making about 50 cents a day off cattle.

He sold the livestock early in the year rather than pour more money into hay and has turned to wildlife management, which brings in money from hunters. If it keeps raining and his pastures return, Cheshire could buy more cattle, but he's not counting on getting rich.

"I really didn't make any money out of it. It kept me occupied," Cheshire said. "Small ranchers have to depend on something else."

That often means deer leases and wildlife management, which have become popular in South Texas, or oil and gas leases when possible. Fischer said his family has made money off a cell tower lease.

Many of the owners of historic farms and ranches have retirement income or bring in a salary from a job outside of agriculture to make sure bills are paid.

Ray Joy Pfannstiel draws retirement from 28 years in the Air Force and his wife is a teacher. Without that, Pfannstiel said, he would have had a difficult time surviving off the farm near Cibolo that includes a tract his family has worked for six generations.

Pfannstiel hopes his children will want to maintain the farm and ranch after he and his father no longer can, but he, like other farmers and ranchers of historic properties, knows that's not automatic.

The children may not be as interested in agriculture or be able to perform the work needed. Inheritance taxes, which are scheduled to go up again in 2011, could force children to sell some or all of the land. Or the land prices offered by developers and people seeking weekend retreats could reach levels that make them unwise to ignore.

Pfannstiel said he already has heard of developers offering $15,000 an acre and more for rural property that may have been bought for a tenth of that amount. "

It would take care of a lot of debts," he said of a property offer like that.

Pfannstiel said he has received inquiries from investors interested in acquiring his property. He recognizes there may be a price he can't resist, particularly as the boundaries of neighboring towns inch closer. But so far, he has not found a price equal to the land's heritage.

wpack@express-news.net

"The soil is the one indestructible, immutable asset that the nation possesses. It is the one resource that cannot be exhausted." — Federal Bureau of Soils, 1878

Seventy-five years ago, America's southern plains were learning otherwise. Today, amid warnings of environmental apocalypse, it is well to recall the real thing. It is a story about the unintended consequences of technological progress and of government policies. Above all, it is an epic of human endurance.

Who knew that when the Turks closed the Dardanelles during World War I, it would contribute to stripping the topsoil off vast portions of Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Kansas? The closing cut Europe off from Russian grain. That increased demand for U.S. wheat. When America entered the conflict, Washington exhorted farmers to produce even more wheat and guaranteed a price of $2 a bushel, more than double the 1910 price. A wheat bubble was born. It would burst with calamitous consequences recounted in Timothy Egan's astonishing and moving book "The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl."

After the war, the price plunged, and farmers, increasingly equipped with tractors, responded by breaking up more prairie, plowing under ever more grassland in desperate attempts to compensate for falling wheat prices with increased volume. That, however, put additional downward pressure on the price, which was 40 cents a bushel by 1930.

The late 1920s had been wet years, and people assumed that the climate had changed permanently for the better. In that decade, an additional 5.2 million acres -- greater than two Yellowstone Parks -- were added to the 20 million acres in cultivation. Before the rains stopped, 50,000 acres a day were being stripped of grasses that held the soil when the winds came sweeping down the plain.

In 1931, the national harvest was 250 million bushels, perhaps the greatest agricultural accomplishment in history. But Egan notes that it was accomplished by removing prairie grass, "a web of perennial species evolved over 20,000 years or more." Americans were about to see how an inch of topsoil produced over millennia could be blown away in an hour.

On Jan. 21, 1932, a cloud extending 10,000 feet from ground to top -- a black blizzard with, Egan writes, "an edge like steel wool" -- looked like "a range of mountains on the move" as it grazed Amarillo, Tex., heading toward Oklahoma. At the end of 1931, a survey found that of the 16 million acres cultivated in Oklahoma, 13 million were seriously eroded.

On May 10, 1934, a collection of dust storms moved over the Midwest carrying, Egan says, "three tons of dust for every American alive." It dumped 6,000 tons on Chicago that night. By morning, the storm was 1,800 miles wide -- "a great rectangle of dust" weighing 350 million tons -- and was depositing the surface of the Great Plains on New York City, where commerce stopped in the semi-darkness.

On the southern plains, dust particles, one-fifth the size of the period at the end of this sentence and high in silica content, penetrated lungs, jeopardizing newborns and causing "dust pneumonia" in others. Houses were so porous that the only white part of a pillow in the morning was the profile of the sleeper. Storms in March and April 1935 dumped 4.7 tons of dust per acre on western Kansas, denting the tops of cars. During one storm, the wind blew at least 40 mph for 100 hours. Egan reports that it would have required a line of trucks 96 miles long, hauling 10 loads a day for a year -- 46 million truckloads -- to transport the dirt that had blown from western to eastern Kansas.

In Washington, in a Senate hearing room, a man was testifying to bored legislators about the need for federal aid for the southern plains. A senator suddenly exclaimed, "It's getting dark outside." The sun vanished, and the air turned copper-color, thanks to red dust that the weather bureau said came from the western end of Oklahoma's panhandle. The aid was approved the next day.

The southern plains got what Egan calls frenzied skies of grasshoppers -- sometimes 14 million per square mile -- because the insects' natural predators were gone. Eventually, however, rain fell on the convulsed land and on the tenacious people who never left it, and the government devised soil conservation measures. The earth turned out to be more durable, and the people who wrested their livings from it more resilient, than had been thought.

(1) Neither the Sierra Club nor Environmental Defense or the National Wildlife Federation support the raising of the cap or this so-called compromise. The Sierra Club testified against Rep. Puente's bill in the House Natural Resources Committee and against Sen. Wentworth's bill and Sen. Hegar's "compromise" committee substitute in the Senate Natural Resources Committee.

(2) None of the environmental groups were invited to participate in the negotiations that resulted in this "compromise" legislation. In fact I'm told that some of the groups participating in the negotiations tried to get us invited and were rebuffed in those attempts (that is admittedly "hearsay" but I trust the source of that information).

(3) I'm also told that some of the participants in the negotiations were heavily pressured into reaching a "compromise" (again "hearsay" but again I trust the source).

(4) Many local governments in the western part of the Aquifer are opposed to the provisions of the bill that give bonding authority to the EAA to build recharge structures (they have adopted resolutions to that effect, which were presented at the Senate Natural Resources Committee on Thursday of last week).

(5) The City of San Marcos, which was involved in the negotiations, still has problems with the bill - as of late last week at least.

(6) From 1997 through 2005, inclusive - since the EAA got into full swing and SAWS expanded its conservation activities, among other activities - annual pumping from the Edwards has ranged from has a low of 317,000 AF to a high of 453,000 AF, and that high was in 1998. I don't think final figures are available yet for 2006, although I believe the pumping will be above 400,000 for 2006. Once the cap is raised, however, you can expect that pumping will increase over time to meet the cap.

(7) Raising the cap is likely to put the Edwards Aquifer region into critical period management more often and for longer periods of time as the regular pumping increases to the cap over time with population growth and increased demands for water. The reason for this likelihood is that aquifer levels will be generally lower than they would have been with a more restrictive cap, and thus in periods of low rainfall and recharge there will already be lower aquifer levels than otherwise would have been the case.

(8) By raising the cap a great deal of trust is being put into the critical period management program, which would be put into statute. However, there are no guarantees that the program will work effectively and expeditiously enough to forestall problems at the springs. EAA doesn't even know until months after the close of a year what the annual pumping for that year was. Therefore, it is difficult to see how they are going to be able to assure that pumping cutbacks are made in a timely fashion for all pumpers at various critical stages.

(9) The potential value of the RIP process is that ALL stakeholders who wish to participate are able to do so, that science is brought into the process on an objective basis to determine what changes can or should be made in Edwards Aquifer management, that any changes in the EAA enabling legislation could be made on the basis of a true consensus and not a forced negotiation, and that federal funds could become available for any number of activities, including perhaps a buydown of some rights and/or longterm leasing of rights above the 400,000 AF to 450,000 AF caps.

(10) The Sierra Club (and some other stakeholders) said early on that we would agree to a postponement of the deadline to ratchet pumping down to 400,000 AF/Y in order to allow the RIP process to go forward and develop a consensus on the appropriate management system for the Aquifer, and we have said consistently that any decision to raise the cap needs to be based on scientific evidence that doing so would not harm springflows and the species dependent upon those springflows. Those views have been ignored.

What we have in the new "compromise" SB 1341 is a rush to judgment based on political pressure and fears of buydown costs, not a true consensus that seeks to protect springflows and balance the interests of ALL stakeholders in the Edwards region.

Please feel free to share this with your distribution list, so they have the benefit of a second opinion and not just the one-sided view presented in the San Antonio Express-News article.

Thanks,
Ken Kramer

Earth sits between two worlds that have been devastated by climate catastrophes. In the effort to combat global warming, our neighbors can provide valuable insights into the way climate catastrophes affect planets.

The contrast of Venus, Earth and Mars. Credits: USSR Venera 13 Camera II, ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

Modelling Earth's climate to predict its future has assumed tremendous importance in the light of mankind's influence on the atmosphere. The climate of our two neighbours is in stark contrast to that of our home planet, making data from ESA's Venus Express and Mars Express invaluable to climate scientists.

Venus is a cloudy inferno whilst Mars is a frigid desert. As current concerns about global warming have now achieved widespread acceptance, pressure has increased on scientists to propose solutions.

The key weapon in a climate scientist's arsenal is the climate model, a computer programme that uses the equations of physics to investigate the way in which Earth's atmosphere works. The programme helps predict how the atmosphere might change in the future.

"To members of the public it must seem like climate models are crystal balls, but they are actually just complex equations" says David Grinspoon, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and one of Venus Express's interdisciplinary scientists.

The more scientists look at those equations, the more they realise just how complicated Earth's climate system is. Grinspoon puts the predicament like this: "In fifty or a hundred years, we will know whether today's climate models were right but if they are wrong, by then it will be too late."

To help increase confidence in the computer models, Grinspoon believes that scientists should look at our neighbouring planets. "It seems that both Mars and Venus started out much more like Earth and then changed. They both hold priceless climate information for Earth," says Grinspoon.

The atmosphere of Venus is much thicker than Earth's. Nevertheless, current climate models can reproduce its present temperature structure well. Now planetary scientists want to turn the clock back to understand why and how Venus changed from its former Earth-like conditions into the inferno of today.

They believe that the planet experienced a runaway greenhouse effect as the Sun gradually heated up. Astronomers believe that the young Sun was dimmer than the present-day Sun by 30 percent. Over the last 4 thousand million years, it has gradually brightened. During this increase, Venus's surface water evaporated and entered the atmosphere.

"Water vapour is a powerful greenhouse gas and it caused the planet to heat-up even more. This is turn caused more water to evaporate and led to a powerful positive feedback response known as the runaway greenhouse effect," says Grinspoon.

As Earth warms in response to manmade pollution, it risks the same fate. Reconstructing the climate of the past on Venus can give scientists a better understanding of how close our planet is to such a catastrophe. However, determining when Venus passed the point of no return is not easy. That's where ESA's Venus Express comes in.

The spacecraft is in orbit around Venus collecting data that will help unlock the planet's past. Venus is losing gas from its atmosphere, so Venus Express is measuring the rate of this loss and the composition of the gas being lost. It also watches the movement of clouds in the planet's atmosphere. This reveals the way Venus responds to the absorption of sunlight, because the energy from the Sun provides the power that allows the atmosphere to move.

In addition, Venus Express is charting the amount and location of sulphur dioxide in the planet's atmosphere. Sulphur dioxide is a greenhouse gas and is released by volcanoes on Venus.

"Understanding all of this will help us pin down when Venus lost its water," says Grinspoon. That knowledge can feed into the interpretation of climate models on the Earth because although both planets seem very different now, the same laws of physics govern both worlds.

Understanding Mars' past is equally important. ESA's Mars Express is currently investigating the fate of the Red Planet. Smaller than the Earth, Mars is thought to have lost its atmosphere to space. When Martian volcanoes became extinct, so did the planet's means of replenishing its atmosphere turning it into an almost-airless desert.

"What happened on these two worlds is very different but either would be equally disastrous for Earth. We are banking on our ability to accurately predict Earth's future climate," says Grinspoon. Anything that can shed light on our own future is valuable. That is why the study of our neighbouring worlds is vital.

So, when planetary scientists talk of exploring other worlds, they are also increasing their ability to understand our own planet.

The next 11-year cycle of solar storms will most likely start next March and peak in late 2011 or mid-2012 - up to a year later than expected - according to a forecast issued by the NOAA Space Environment Center in coordination with an international panel of solar experts. The NOAA Space Environment Center led the prediction panel and issued the forecast at its annual Space Weather Workshop in Boulder, Colo. NASA sponsored the panel.

The solar cycle. Credit: NOAA

During an active solar period, violent eruptions occur more often on the sun. Solar flares and vast explosions, known as coronal mass ejections, shoot energetic photons and highly charged matter toward Earth, jolting the planet's ionosphere and geomagnetic field, potentially affecting power grids, critical military and airline communications, satellites, Global Positioning System (GPS) signals, and even threatening astronauts with harmful radiation. These same storms illuminate night skies with brilliant sheets of red and green known as auroras, or the northern or southern lights. Solar cycle intensity is measured in maximum number of sunspots-dark blotches on the sun that mark areas of heightened magnetic activity. The more sunspots there are, the more likely it is that major solar storms will occur. In the cycle forecast issued Wednesday, half of the panel predicts a moderately strong cycle of 140 sunspots, plus or minus 20, expected to peak in October 2011. The other half predicts a moderately weak cycle of 90 sunspots, plus or minus 10, peaking in August 2012. An average solar cycle ranges from 75 to 155 sunspots. The late decline of Cycle 23 has helped shift the panel away from its earlier leaning toward a strong Cycle 24. Now the group is evenly split between strong and weak. The first year after solar minimum, marking the end of Cycle 23, will provide the information scientists need to arrive at a consensus. NOAA and the panel decided to issue their best estimate now and update the forecast as the cycle progresses, since NOAA Space Environment Center customers have been requesting a forecast for more than a year. "By giving a long-term outlook, we're advancing a new field-space climate-that's still in its infancy," said retired Air Force Brig. Gen. David L. Johnson, director of the NOAA National Weather Service. "Issuing a cycle prediction of the onset this far in advance lies on the very edge of what we know about the sun." Scientists have issued cycle predictions only twice before. In 1989, a panel met to predict Cycle 22, which peaked that same year. Scientists met again in September of 1996 to predict Cycle 23-six months after the cycle had begun. Both groups did better at predicting timing than intensity, according to NOAA Space Environment Center scientist Douglas Biesecker, who chairs the current panel. He describes the group's confidence level as "high" for its estimate of a March 2008 onset and "moderate" overall for the two estimates of peak sunspot number and when those peaks would occur. One disagreement among the current panel members centers on the importance of magnetic fields around the sun's poles as the previous cycle decays. End-cycle polar fields are the bedrock of the approach predicting a weak Cycle 24. The strong-cycle forecasters place more importance on other precursors extending over a several-cycle history. Another clue will be whether Cycle 24 sunspots appear by mid 2008. If not, the strong-cycle group might change its forecast. "The panelists in each camp have clear views on why they believe in their prediction, why they might be wrong, and what it would take to change their minds," said Biesecker. "We're on the verge of understanding and agreeing on which precursors are most important in predicting future solar activity." The NOAA Space Environment Center is the nation's first alert of solar activity and its affects on Earth. Just as NOAA's hurricane experts predict the upcoming season of Atlantic storms and forecast individual hurricanes, the agency's space weather experts issue outlooks for the next 11-year solar cycle and warn of storms occurring on the sun that could impact Earth. Both the NOAA National Hurricane Center and NOAA Space Environment Center are among nine NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction, part of the NOAA National Weather Service. The NOAA Space Environment Center also is the world warning agency of the International Space Environment Service, a consortium of 11 member nations. NOAA, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, is celebrating 200 years of science and service to the nation. From the establishment of the Survey of the Coast in 1807 by Thomas Jefferson to the formation of the Weather Bureau and the Commission of Fish and Fisheries in the 1870s, much of America's scientific heritage is rooted in NOAA. NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of the nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 60 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.

Reid A. Bryson holds the 30th PhD in Meteorology granted in the history of American education. Emeritus Professor and founding chairman of the University of Wisconsin Department of Meteorology-now the Department of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences-in the 1970s he became the first director of what's now the UW's Gaylord Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies. He's a member of the United Nations Global 500 Roll of Honor-created, the U.N. says, to recognize "outstanding achievements in the protection and improvement of the environment." He has authored five books and more than 230 other publications and was identified by the British Institute of Geographers as the most frequently cited climatologist in the world.

Long ago in the Army Air Corps, Bryson and a colleague prepared the aviation weather forecast that predicted discovery of the jet stream by a group of B-29s flying to and from Tokyo. Their warning to expect westerly winds at 168 knots earned Bryson and his friend a chewing out from a general-and the general's apology the next day when he learned they were right. Bryson flew into a couple of typhoons in 1944, three years before the Weather Service officially did such things, and he prepared the forecast for the homeward flight of the Enola Gay. Back in Wisconsin, he built a program at the UW that's trained some of the nation's leading climatologists.

How Little We Know
Bryson is a believer in climate change, in that he's as quick as anyone to acknowledge that Earth's climate has done nothing but change throughout the planet's existence. In fact, he took that knowledge a big step further, earlier than probably anyone else. Almost 40 years ago, Bryson stood before the American Association for the Advancement of Science and presented a paper saying human activity could alter climate.

"I was laughed off the platform for saying that," he told Wisconsin Energy Cooperative News.

In the 1960s, Bryson's idea was widely considered a radical proposition. But nowadays things have turned almost in the opposite direction: Hardly a day passes without some authority figure claiming that whatever the climate happens to be doing, human activity must be part of the explanation. And once again, Bryson is challenging the conventional wisdom.

"Climate's always been changing and it's been changing rapidly at various times, and so something was making it change in the past," he told us in an interview this past winter. "Before there were enough people to make any difference at all, two million years ago, nobody was changing the climate, yet the climate was changing, okay?"

"All this argument is the temperature going up or not, it's absurd," Bryson continues. "Of course it's going up. It has gone up since the early 1800s, before the Industrial Revolution, because we're coming out of the Little Ice Age, not because we're putting more carbon dioxide into the air." Little Ice Age?
That's what chased the Vikings out of Greenland after they'd farmed there for a few hundred years during the Mediaeval Warm Period, an earlier run of a few centuries when the planet was very likely warmer than it is now, without any help from industrial activity in making it that way. What's called "proxy evidence"-assorted clues extrapolated from marine sediment cores, pollen specimens, and tree-ring data-helps reconstruct the climate in those times before instrumental temperature records existed. We ask about that evidence, but Bryson says it's second-tier stuff. "Don't talk about proxies," he says. "We have written evidence, eyeball evidence. When Eric the Red went to Greenland, how did he get there? It's all written down."

Bryson describes the navigational instructions provided for Norse mariners making their way from Europe to their settlements in Greenland. The place was named for a reason: The Norse farmed there from the 10th century to the 13th, a somewhat longer period than the United States has existed. But around 1200 the mariners' instructions changed in a big way. Ice became a major navigational reference. Today, old Viking farmsteads are covered by glaciers.

Bryson mentions the retreat of Alpine glaciers, common grist for current headlines. "What do they find when the ice sheets retreat, in the Alps?"

We recall the two-year-old report saying a mature forest and agricultural water-management structures had been discovered emerging from the ice, seeing sunlight for the first time in thousands of years. Bryson interrupts excitedly.

"A silver mine! The guys had stacked up their tools because they were going to be back the next spring to mine more silver, only the snow never went," he says. "There used to be less ice than now. It's just getting back to normal."

What Leads, What Follows?
What is normal? Maybe continuous change is the only thing that qualifies. There's been warming over the past 150 years and even though it's less than one degree, Celsius, something had to cause it. The usual suspect is the "greenhouse effect," various atmospheric gases trapping solar energy, preventing it being reflected back into space.

We ask Bryson what could be making the key difference:
Q: Could you rank the things that have the most significant impact and where would you put carbon dioxide on the list?
A: Well let me give you one fact first. In the first 30 feet of the atmosphere, on the average, outward radiation from the Earth, which is what CO2 is supposed to affect, how much [of the reflected energy] is absorbed by water vapor? In the first 30 feet, 80 percent, okay?

Q: Eighty percent of the heat radiated back from the surface is absorbed in the first 30 feet by water vapor…
A: And how much is absorbed by carbon dioxide? Eight hundredths of one percent. One one-thousandth as important as water vapor. You can go outside and spit and have the same effect as doubling carbon dioxide.

This begs questions about the widely publicized mathematical models researchers run through supercomputers to generate climate scenarios 50 or 100 years in the future. Bryson says the data fed into the computers overemphasizes carbon dioxide and accounts poorly for the effects of clouds-water vapor. Asked to evaluate the models' long-range predictive ability, he answers with another question: "Do you believe a five-day forecast?"

Bryson says he looks in the opposite direction, at past climate conditions, for clues to future climate behavior. Trying that approach in the weeks following our interview, Wisconsin Energy Cooperative News soon found six separate papers about Antarctic ice core studies, published in peer-reviewed scientific journals between 1999 and 2006. The ice core data allowed researchers to examine multiple climate changes reaching back over the past 650,000 years. All six studies found atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations tracking closely with temperatures, but with CO2 lagging behind changes in temperature, rather than leading them. The time lag between temperatures moving up-or down-and carbon dioxide following ranged from a few hundred to a few thousand years.

Renaissance Man, Marathon Man
When others were laughing at the concept, Reid Bryson was laying the ground floor for scientific investigation of human impacts on climate. We asked UW Professor Ed Hopkins, the assistant state climatologist, about the significance of Bryson's work in advanc