Soil agroecologist Nicole Masters, daughter Melanie and I were standing on the windswept shoulder of a peak high up on our Hat Creek grazing ranges that a precipitous and narrow jeep trail meandered over. Before and just below us was the sweep of Bear Basin, an unbroken 15 square mile bowl of …
The Echo of Bison
Dear Friends and Partners You could feel them with your back against the black prairie earth before you saw them, and even before you heard them. All else was silent, except for the occasional song of a prairie warbler. A stunning dome of cloudless blue azure sky filled your vision beyond the …
Secret in the Soil
"Take the hotwire fence around that area of tall grass," I told Darrin and Steff. They would be in charge of the 550 head of finish beeves in two days when the cattle were herded from the north side of the ranch. They would be brought on hoof, herded again by riders on horseback, trailing in a long …
A Beaver’s Tale
Dear Friends and Partners As we made our way through the switchbacks cut into the rock pasted against the cliffy bluffs, the crystal clarity of the Salmon River rolled lazily by below. An orange sun worked its way down to the horizon. Like us, I think the sun may be getting tired of forest fire …
On Making Horse Sense
The forest-fire-smoke-induced-orange ball of sun broke the jagged 10,000 foot spine of the Continental Divide as I braked my truck and trailer to a gentle stop. I had the big gooseneck with 8 horses on board, and I chose the open grassy spot next to a massive crack willow trunk. The spreading …
A Tale of Two Ranches
August 17: three of us, standing over a six-inch diameter pipe sticking out of the ground, in the middle of the broad field, staring at the 1 inch of water in the bottom of it in a windstorm. Boiling, threatening clouds of green, brown and gray rise up in the west. We all cast furtive glances to the …