“The 2020 analysis found that fences affect ecosystems on every scale, from decreasing insect abundance, because they give spiders ample places to build their webs, to impeding the long-distance migration of everything from wildebeests to mule deer. By concentrating animals more closely together than they might be in the wild, fences could increase disease transmission, […]
“That’s what the bison did,” Mr. Isaacs, a cow-calf rancher said. “They’d come in a million at a time, stomp it all down and move on to fresh pasture. And they wouldn’t come back until it was time to graze again.” ~ Henry Fountain Farming has always been about managing the soil, keeping it […]
It’s noticeable lots of places, but I am most sensitive to it when on a road trip. For example, on the Interstate across southern Idaho that follows the Salmon River through sage plains and various agricultural enterprises scattered around the small towns — I notice it. I also used to notice it when driving across […]
A weed is a flower growing in the wrong place. ~ George Washington Carver The crew was clearing the Texas ranch of mesquite trees, using a bulldozer and drag chain. Then the small group of “illegals” would pile up the small trees and brush for burning. It was dirty work, and between the heavy equipment, […]
“How ya gonna keep ’em down on the farm (after they’ve seen Paree?)” ~Walter Donaldson, Joe Young and Sam M. Lewis In my mind’s eye, I see a comfy two story white house with a wrap-around porch, shaded by tall cottonwood trees. An old wooden red barn sits in back next to a corral with […]
“Nature is not always benign.” Mark Tercek and Johnathan Adams, Nature’s Fortune When she went to pick up the pile of laundry, she discovered a rattlesnake hidden underneath. Slowly, she dropped the laundry back in place. Married to a rancher and living on a ranch for years, things like that didn’t worry her too much. […]
The spiritual sons of the mountain men were the men of the next wave – the skin-and-scoot market hunters, the cut and get out lumbermen, the cattle barons whose herds grazed the plains bare. Stuart Udall, The Quiet Crisis As a boy growing up in Texas, I was constantly confronted by the collision of the […]
Writes of Nature 