Holistic Management: Partnering with Nature

for a Resilient Landscape

With Holistic Management

• Understand Nature & partner with it to improve function of the four ecosystem processes (covered soil is the key)

• Water Cycle (water infiltration & retention)• Mineral Cycle (the carbon cycle)• Energy Flow (the photosynthetic process)• Community Dynamics (biodiversity &

symbiotic relationships)

With Holistic Management

• Know what tools are available• Understand how those tools affect the

environment around us (ecosystem function)• An adaptive management tool• Decision-making tool focuses on a whole

system approach for more effective management of natural resources (Soil, Habitat Improvement, Water Infiltration, CO2 sequestration)

Results

• 300% increase in plant species• 100% increase in soil carbon• 400% increase in stocking rate• 40% decrease in labor• 50% decrease in bare ground• 800% increase in soil permeability • 300% increase in profitability (some as high as 1400%)• 500% increase in riparian bird population• 900% increase in rooting depth of plants

Reported Results

Note: These results are compiled from multiple research sources (some on farm by the producers themselves). Not everyone who practices Holistic Management has achieved these results

Hollister Hills, CA - 1999

Hollister Hills, CA - 2000

Building Topsoil

Dark area below is topsoil built with increased organic matter

Soil plugs taken from different sides of fence that separated land with livestock from land with no livestock

Australia Fireproof Land

Land on left holistically managed. Fire stops at fence line due to green growing grass and no fuel load

Cockatoo Creek - 1992

Cockatoo Creek - 1999

Area is now green year-round

Beaver Creek in Lander, WY

Planned Grazing Conventional Grazing

Chapa de Mota Land Reclamation Project

Chapa De Mota - 1999

Chapa de Mota - 2000

Sonneileten Farm - 1983

Sonneileten Farm - 1984

Bowes Ranch, NM - 1984

11% Snakeweed

Bowes Ranch, NM - 1991

1% Snakeweed

Dawley Ranch - 1988

“With Holistic Management planned grazing, our 100-yard-wide gravelly creek beds are becoming riparian jungles – thickets of cottonwoods, willows, vines, and grasses. Our local Fish and Game biologist estimates that no fewer than two dozen species of vertebrates are utilizing the gravel bed, and over 160 the riparian jungle. Now the creek flows until September and never becomes completely dry. A near term goal is to have trout in it again; a long term goal is for salmon to spawn in it.“—Frank Dawley

Dawley Ranch - 1992

New South Wales after Rainstorm

Water coming off Holistically Managed

land

Water coming on to Holistically

Managed land

The next slide shows why!

Upstream from holistically managed property

Downstream from holistically managed property

Cleaning Power of 500 Acres

Brussels Farm, South Africa

On Brussels Farm near Vryburg, South Africa, Dick & Judy Richardson had a fire that burned a large portion of their ranch in August 2002.

Brussels Farm, South Africa

But after two years of planned

grazing, their land had

recovered with good

regrowth and ground cover.

This photo taken of Brussels (right side) in April 2004 demonstrates how the Brussels’ property compares to their neighbors’ (on left) also burned by the fire.

The Richardsons used high animal impact (500 head of cattle strip-grazed on this 100-acre section) to jump start the land's healing process.

Brussels Farm, South Africa

Montana Rangeland RestorationWayne Burleson has worked with rancher Don Schaules in Montana to reclaim bare rangeland. In the right hand, Don holds a plant dug from a pasture one year after animals have been used to improve the health of the land. In the left hand, he holds the same species, Western Wheatgrass, dug on the same day from an area that had not been grazed for three years. The plants grew 30 feet apart from each other, but the unhealthy, dying specimen in Don's left hand has not had the invigorating effect of planned grazing.

Montana Rangeland Restoration

This photo was taken in 1986 on some bare rangeland Don wanted to improve.

Montana Rangeland Restoration

Here's the same area in May 1989 after Don used 600 cow-calf pairsto revitalize the landscape and provide a healthy habitat for a perennial

grass species, Western Wheatgrass, to grow.

Nevada Mine Reclamation Success

Played out mine lands before treatment

In 1990, on a Nevada mine settling pond's bare slopes, team members fed 30 tons of mixed hay to 600 head of cattle on 10 acres of the dam wall. They also seeded a 'native' mix of

grasses, forbs, and brush. One year later after a 6-inch rainfall they grew 6,800 pounds per acre of dry matter. The treatment cost $300/acre compared to the usual $3,000-5,000/acre

cost for reclamation work. See the results on the next page.

Nevada Mine Reclamation Success

Nevada Mine Reclamation Success

Montana in a Serious Drought Year

Few animals wandering year-round

700 head cattle once a year

 Less Less resilienceresilience

 Ineffective Ineffective water cycle water cycle

 Greater Greater resilienceresilience

 Effective water Effective water cycle cycle

Simulating Nature Using Cattle – Babbitt Ranches in Arizona

400 cattle bunched on 400 cattle bunched on two acres for few two acres for few hourshours

 Same place after plant Same place after plant recovery periodrecovery period

 Same gateSame gate

Land Regeneration with Livestock

• Animal impact : – breaks hard soil surfaces by chipping to allow water in– buries seed and compacts soil to give good seed/soil contact– lays dead plant material on soil as cover and mulch

• Grazing: – Turns old plants into dung & urine (fertilizer)– Pruning the plants, results in root die back which feeds soil life.

• Makes sense to any person who gardens

Resilient Landscapes

Green area is holistically managed land. It is not irrigated.