#091, In Practice, Sept/Oct 2003

“Children have never been very good at

listening to their elders, but they have never

failed to imitate them.”—James Baldwin

The other day a couple came to visit with

their one-year-old daughter. As the

husband looked around at the house we

had built, he said, “I don’t know how you got all

this work done. I can’t even complete a simple

household repair.” I looked at him, holding his

daughter in his arms, and noticed the budding

relationship they were developing with each

other. The reason for my ability to complete

household projects with what he perceived as

alacrity was pretty obvious to me, and I replied,

“We don’t have a young child in the house.”

Raising children takes a huge investment in

time. Perhaps I should repeat that again, just in

case you had a small appendage stuck in your

ear while you read that sentence, or your sleep-

deprived brain couldn’t quite capture the

enormity of that sentence, or you were distracted

as you watched one of your adolescent children

stand in front of an open refrigerator for half

an hour trying to decide what to eat.

I don’t mean to imply that you have to keep

your eyes on them all the time or be at their

beck and call, although they seem to like that

idea, particularly during the “royal two’s.” I’m

talking about the amount of “head” space they

can take up as you explore what kind of parent

(adult) you thought you were, what kind you

want to be, and what kind of relationship you

want to have with your children.

A Mirror

This realization was brought home this year

when I was supporting my son, Ben, through

his first year of high school. One thing that

disturbed me in his approach to high school

was what I saw as a lack of internal motivation

to do well in school. While he was taking

honors and gifted classes, he wasn’t pushing

himself to do as well as he could. I knew he

could get A’s if he applied himself, but he kept

saying, “B’s are good enough.”

At first I spent some time seeing if there

was some way to spark his internal motivation

to do a better job. That didn’t lead to any

progress. I got different points of view from

various people I interrogated on the subject. One

of the suggestions was to offer some monetary

reward for good grades (a concept I had

immediately refused when someone brought it

up earlier in the year).

My initial gut decision was that I didn’t get

paid for good grades, and that wasn’t a form of

internal motivation. But somehow, when I heard

it a second time, I realized how much privilege

I was putting on internal motivation and how

much judgment I had about external motivation.

If I pulled back from the situation, the larger

picture was that I wanted him to experience

success, to see he could get good grades if he

applied himself. Suddenly I realized I was the

hold up, not him.

That decision demonstrated to me why it’s so

important to have a holistic goal that pushes you

to test decisions toward it, moving you beyond

gut responses to situations or events. Through the

testing process, you may find that you make not

only better decisions, but also better understand

the situation that led to you making the decision.

I was pretty sure this child-rearing thing

was about sacrifice. I found out it was more

about creativity, humor, patience, and endless

opportunity for discovery. Holistic Management

has enriched that journey for me by encouraging

me to explore the possibilities, see the challenges

as opportunities, rediscover my own youth and

playfulness as part of the “parenting” process,

and to continue to look for the big picture rather

than getting mired in the repetition of, “If I’ve

told you once…”

Ben’s personality is different from mine. He

might always require more external motivation. I

just hope that if I keep looking at the big picture,

responding to life’s challenges creatively, and

making decisions thoughtfully, that he’ll integrate

those habits in his own inimitable style.

A New Path—Teaching Children

about Holistic Management

Peggy Maddox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Discovering Our Youth

Sandra Matheson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Who’s in Control?

Judi Earl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

LAND & LIVESTOCK—A specialsection of IN PRACTICE

New Insights into the Grazing Debate

Jim Howell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

On Becoming Native

Jim Howell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Savory Center Annual Report . . . . . .14

Savory Center Bulletin Board . . . . . . .15

Certified Educators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

The Gift of Yo u t hby Ann Adams

SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2003 NUMBER 91

HOLISTICMANAGEMENT IN PRACTIC EP r oviding the link between a healthy environment and a sound economy

in t h is I s su e

With Holistic Management, we have the

opportunity through goal setting, testing

decisions, planning, and monitoring, to

engage with our children more fully. The

writers in this issue share with us what

they have learned about life, education,

families, and more through incorporating

Holistic Management in their parenting

and teaching.

2 HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE #91

There are countless reasons why it is

important for children to learn about

Holistic Management, but I’m only going

to mention three. First, children will take control

of their lives and their learning. Second, they

will learn to think beyond the present and

instant gratification. Third, realizing they are

connected to the ecosystem processes, they

better understand how their decisions impact

those processes.

Having A Say

In my 17 years in the public schools, I

found that my greatest successes came

when the students had a

say in what they wanted

to learn. As a family

practicing Holistic

Management, I know that

when Joe, my husband,

made a decision to take

me and our son, Dalton, to

our first Holistic

Management course, he

set the foundation that

enabled us to make all the

changes we needed in

order to continue ranching

as a family .

Later when Dalton

and his wife, Gretchen,

had children we had another opportunity to

involve our grandchildren at a young age to

learn the Holistic Management® decision-

making process. The children realized that when

we had a team meeting, something important

was going on and there was opportunity for

them to have a say. So Morgan, the oldest

daughter, began to come with ideas to discuss

at the meetings.

In general, we have found that if the

children are asked, they want to be involved. In

being part of the discussion, they saw that the

family was creating something together, that

things were not just happening. Likewise, their

level of understanding Holistic Management

and how families function increased, and

everyone seemed to make a bigger effort to

meet everyone’s needs. Everyone benefited

The Allan Savory

Center for Holistic Management

The ALLAN SAVORY CENTER FOR

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT is a 501(c) (3)

non-profit organization. The center works

to restore the vitality of communities and

the natural resources on which they

depend by advancing the practice of

Holistic Management and coordinating

its development worldwide.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Rio de la Vista, Chair

Allan Savory, Vice-Chair

Leslie Christian, Secretary

Gary Rodgers, Treasurer

Richard Smith

Manuel Casas

ADVISORY COUNCIL

Robert Anderson, Chair, Corrales, NM

Sam Brown, Austin, TX

Leslie Christian, Portland, OR

Gretel Ehrlich, Gaviota, CA

Cynthia & Leo Harris, Albuquerque, NM

Trudy Healy, Taos, NM

Clint Josey, Dallas, TX

Krystyna Jurzykowski, Glen Rose, TX

Dianne Law, Laveta, CO

Doug McDaniel, Lostine, OR

Guillermo Osuna, Coahuila, Mexico

Jim Parker, Montrose, CO

Dean William Rudoy, Cedar Crest, NM

York Schueller, El Segundo, CA

Jim Shelton, Vinita, OK

Richard Smith, Houston, TX

FOUNDERS

Allan Savory

Jody Butterfield

STAFF

Tim LaSalle, Executive Director; Shannon

Horst, Senior Director, Strategic Projects Kate Bradshaw, Director of Finance andAdministration; Kelly Pasztor, Director of Educational Services; Constance Neely,

International Training Programs Director; Lee Dueringer, Director of Development;Ann Adams, Managing Editor, IN PRACTICEand Director of Publications and Outreach;Craig Leggett, Special Projects Manager;Jessica Stolz, Finance Coordinator.

Africa Centre for Holistic Management

Private Bag 5950, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwetel: (263) (11) 213529; email:[email protected] Matanga, Director; Roger Parry,

Manager, Regional Training Centre; Elias

Ncube, Hwange Project Manager/TrainingCoordinator

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE (ISSN:

1098-8157) is published six times a year by The

Allan Savory Center for Holistic Management,

1010 Tijeras NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102, 505/842-

5252, fax: 505/843-7900; email:

[email protected].;

website: www.holisticmanagement.org

Copyright © 2003.

Ad definitumfinem

from their involvement.

As a Certified Educator trainee, I am working

with four families who serve as my learning

community. My earlier observations of our

family seem to be borne out in these families

and their children’s involvement in family

meetings and training. At one session with these

four families, I had developed a scenario for

them to use in a first attempt at testing a

question. I created the Johnson family whose

holistic goal included a stable income, time

together, a comfortable place to live, and good

family communication.

The question to test was whether the father

should take a higher

paying job, which would

require him to travel

five days a week. Each

family group tested the

question and all decided

Mr. Johnson would not

take the job. I’m not

sure that would have

happened in real life,

but when you look at a

decision as a family and

test it, the whole picture

is clear for all to see.

Think about a family

sitting down and talking

about this question

together. If the dad did

take the job and was not able to attend a school

function, the child knows it isn’t because Dad

doesn’t care because everyone in the family had

helped make the decision about a job that

would have taken Dad away from home. Or,

Dad doesn’t take the job, and together the family

looks creatively at other ways to get the life

they have described in their holistic goal. The

holistic goal, having been created as a family,

helps all understand the give and take involved

in achieving it.

Participation is Key

When I was teaching public school students,

I encouraged my students to look beyond the

present and pressed them to become life-long

learners and develop their capacity to wonder.

A New Path—Teaching Children

about Holistic Managementby Peggy Maddox

“Holistic Management

is revolutionary in a lot

of ways, but first and

foremost because it asks

us, invites us, to examine

our role, past, present,

and future, as a ‘citizen’

of the communiy of life.”

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE • SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2003 3

The best way to accomplish this objective is to

give the students opportunities for hands-on

experiences. As they have experiences where

learning is fun and provides meaning to their

lives, then they will want to continue to

replicate those experiences later in life.

New brain research has also shown that real-

world lessons such as discovery through nature

trails and tending a native garden can enhance a

student’s overall achievement because the high-

involvement lessons tie actions and emotions to

facts and formulas. In my teaching experience, I

have also found this to be true.

One group of my students began a project

to turn a vacant lot into a native plant garden.

It grew into a school-wide outdoor

classroom. They learned all about the

place where they lived, how it had

been a prairie. They came to value

their place. I found that all my

students loved being in this outdoor

classroom. Discipline problems

disappeared and creativity abounded.

Interdisciplinary curriculum and

hands-on activities, which come

easily outdoors, enhanced their

learning.

The students whose idea it was

to create this garden, knew they had

made a difference although they

graduated from high school before

it was completed. Now, when they

return from college, they always go

by and check out what is happening in Philip

Nolan Park because they have a sense of place

there, a bond. Through that connection, they

better understood the importance of being

involved in things that feel right or places

you care about, even if you don’t receive

immediate gratification.

The Human Pump

Recently The David West Station for Holistic

Management hosted the Ozona, Texas third

grade. I had developed a day of activities about

the wind and how it helps us. Some of the

activities were about windmills, and how they

pump water from underground. To reinforce

the concepts and the terminology I had them

role-play being the various parts of a windmill.

I used a ladder for the tower. One child

stood at the top to be the tail and wheel. Two

students stood inside the ladder and simulated

the pumping sucker rod. Another student

poured water into a cup that was then poured

into a series of cups held by five children.

They became the pipe taking the water to a

trough, which was a girl holding a bucket. The

that Holistic Management is the basis for an

environmental education curriculum that

demonstrates the connection between humans

and Nature.

“Holistic Management is revolutionary in a

lot of ways, but first and foremost because it

asks us, invites us, to examine our role, past,

present, and future, as a ‘citizen’ of the

community of life. A Holistic Management

environmental curriculum puts ‘people’ on

the diagrammatic food chain, and it gives us

the tools we need to examine how we fit

into the ‘web of life.’”

Responsibility & Participation

Finally, when we began training in

Holistic Management, Joe and I had to

learn to think for ourselves again, learn

to be creative, and learn that we,

ourselves, were responsible for where

our lives were going. As we consider

the role the West Station could play

in developing an environmental

curriculum, we have the specific

place to study. We can provide the

discovery/inquiry learning that engages

children by asking how is

this place different from others? And

Holistic Management can give the

framework for their active participation

in building a more sustainable world.

We are just beginning the process

of developing that environmental

curriculum, but just imagine children hearing

the story of how this Holistic Management

movement started with one man’s quest to stop

desertification, and how Allan Savory began

the work of developing this new decision-

making framework. Just imagine children

taking responsibility for their lives and learning

and understanding their role in Nature.

There are many unknowns about how to

do this, but we have many people who see the

necessity, who have the expertise, and who

have the passion for this endeavor. I do know

and believe that it will be more than a

curriculum. It will be teaching a path that we

must walk in order to achieve a better world.

David West’s gift of the West Ranch to The

Savory Center is our first opportunity to begin

the process.

Peggy Maddox is the Director of

Public Relations and Education for The

Savory Center’s David West Station for

Holistic Management in Ozona, Texas.

She can reached at 915/392-2292

or [email protected].

rest of the students were the wind, and as they

blew, the tail opened, the wheel turned, the

sucker rod pumped and water appeared. It was

a human Rube Goldberg contraption in action.

It was fun, and they understood the theory

and mechanics of windmills well enough that

when I quizzed them later in the day, in a

“Jeopardy”-like format, most were eager to

answer the questions.

Children & Nature

Nature is a great resource for experiential

learning, and children love outdoor activities.

We need to help them understand how Nature

functions and how their decisions impact the

ecosystem processes to lay a foundation for a

more sustainable future. Peter Sauer, associate

editor of Orion Magazine , made a visit to the

West Station recently in his exploration of how

Holistic Management could be incorporated

into a new environmental education for

children that empowers them.

He said, “There are two important reasons

why Holistic Management provides a valuable

context for environmental education. It

provides an opportunity for interactive

learning about human interactions with

Nature, and Holistic Management involves, by

necessity, the examination of a specific place.

If there is one thing that U.S. children most

need to learn about this land, it is that their

participation is essential to maintaining and

restoring its health and that of the nation,

and by extension, the planet.”

He went on to say that he had been

searching for a model to teach about the

environment. Everywhere he looked, the

places were teaching a human-less, hands-off

“Nature.” They were denying the human

history that had shaped their land. He believes

Peggy Maddox with the Ozona third-grade class (a.k.a. the human

pump) learning about windmills.


Our youth are our most precious

resource. They are an integral part of

our future resource base. Ironically,

as a society we often spend much of our time

and energy protecting them, and then we

ignore and exclude them. But, youth have a

great deal to contribute and teach us, if we

would only listen and include them.

Youth is described in the dictionary as the

“state of being young” and “the early stage of

anything.” It is also a time of adventure and

daring, growing and changing, and learning

and yearning. It is a significant and shaping

phase of all human lives. I use the word

youth in this article because it more fully

encompasses the developmental stages of

childhood and adolescence.

I, like many adults, had forgotten much

about what it was like to be young. Being a

parent of two daughters, now teenagers, has

provided me some excellent reminders and

a great deal of insight. These are a few of

my observations.

The Characteristics of Yo u t h

Young people have some wonderful

characteristics, which seem to get repressed

as we become adults. Children have almost

limitless energy. They see it and say it like

it is. They recognize and appreciate the

smallest details and simple wonders of nature,

and their imagination is active and limitless.

They have no formal time constraints, and

they question almost everything and insist

upon answers. They keep it simple and are

open to change, exploring new paradigms

instead of being crippled by them. They also

have the ability to make mistakes, learn from

them, and move on and have a great capacity

for love. These are huge resources tucked

inside of small bodies. If nurtured, mentored,

and encouraged early on, these traits may

continue throughout the school years and

beyond.

Sadly, the opposite situation occurs when

the home environment, school,

or society represses these youthful

characteristics. I’ve witnessed a father scream at

his son and tell him how stupid he is. I’ve

heard a middle-school boy cry because he

couldn’t figure out a problem on his

filled with more and more information. I‘m

certain that some of that overflow must

pollute the creative pools in my brain! If I ever

want some new ideas, I ask a child. There are

no bounds to the imagination, nor limits to

the possibilities.

Likewise, young people have boundless

energy, and it is up to us to find and develop

avenues through which they can contribute to

their communities. Many young people have

the desire and the time to volunteer and

work for something they believe is important.

My youngest daughter and I are the co-

superintendents for the Whatcom County

Youth Fair’s performing arts division. Molly

designs, organizes, and teaches workshops

during the fair as well as makes the

arrangements to bring in other instructors. She

is excellent with kids of all ages and is very

creative. She’s good at monitoring the students

and their needs. The Youth Fair experience is

better for all because of her contributions.

Young people have so much to contribute

and teach us, but often adult power and pride

get in the way. Hierarchy is the way of life

for many species. Humans are no exception.

Those at the top have all the power; those

at the bottom have none. Being older and

more worldly, it would only make sense that

adults should have power over the young.

This is especially true when we are trying

to guide and protect them.

However, in a more holistic approach,

better results and relationships may be

achieved if some of that power is shared.

In addition, we have worked hard and

learned a great deal during the course of our

lives. It’s understandable that we should be

proud of that. The danger lies in thinking we

have already learned it all. By acknowledging

our pride and desire for power, we can move

on to using a more holistic approach in our

relationship with youth.

Listen and Include

How can we begin to tap and, more

importantly, nurture this precious resource, the

young people in our lives? It requires both

listening and including. How often do we

really take the time and effort to listen to our

children? As a parent of two teenagers, I have

been known to assume that certain phrases in

a sweet tone of voice will be followed by a

request for money. I have also been known

to say “no” or ask “how much?” before I have

heard the request. Often I am correct, but

many times I am not.

Sometimes, they try to talk to me while I

D i s c overing Our Yo u t hby Sandra Matheson

homework and was afraid to turn it in that

way. I’ve seen a mother give her little daughter

a long lecture, heavily embedded with guilt

and shame, about the evils of getting dirt in

the car from her shoes.

One of the most heartbreaking things I

saw was when I attended a graduation

recently. I will never forget the look on the

graduate’s face when he realized that none of

his family was there to share in this special

event. Instead of flourishing, children may

become insecure, angry, withdrawn, or fearful

of either achieving or failing.

The Contributions of Yo u t h

Young people offer many contributions

to the world. They ask the hard questions

that we often don’t think of or want to ask

ourselves. I, like many other adults, sometimes

get caught in the rut of doing things the

way I, or my parents, always did them. My

daughters are not afraid to ask questions like

“why” or “why not,” whether it is a simple

task or a deep, sensitive issue. My oldest

daughter, Megan, is especially good at asking

questions. If there is a root cause, she will

find it!

For example, one day Megan asked me

“Why do you want me to do this? Is it for me

or for you?” after I arranged for her to do

something. That question stung, but I believe

it is better to hurt now than slowly bleed to

death down the road! Her questions help

me assess whether I’m basing my

decision/thinking truly on our holistic goal,

or simply on tradition, personal needs,

and/or control.

Youth are imaginative and a source of

fresh ideas. As I get older, my mind gets

“What if we changed

‘Mom and Dad know best.’

to ‘Mom and Dad would

know more if they asked

their children for input? ’ ”


meeting in a circle of chairs so everyone is

equal and no one has anything to hide behind.

Chadwick’s consensus building begins with

“grounding,” where everyone has a chance to

speak in turn and in a safe environment

without interruption. Verbal territory is

established early, making it much easier to

speak later on in the meeting. This is a

valuable and effective process for working

with both small and large groups of people

and is especially helpful when creating a

holistic goal. I use consensus building in our

home, whether conducting family meetings

or simply evaluating how the day has gone.

Listening is good, but is not of much

value if the information is ignored or not

used. Inclusion is the next step. The parents

in a family traditionally make most of the

decisions. This stems from the paradigm

they mean. Listening also means discovering

what the underlying subtext or message is.

Children sometimes say what they think we

want to hear just to please us. It only takes a

moment to stop and truly listen to what the

young person is saying.

Some adults have the attitude that

children/youth don’t have anything important

to say, but our youth offer us a fresh,

“unadulterated” perspective that deserves to

be listened to. Many schools and businesses

already have students serving as advisors with

positive results. And if young people are not

listened to, they will find other ways to get the

attention they demand. Some of these methods

may have serious consequences.

Many young people are either shy or so

used to being put down by adults, that they

are reluctant to express their opinion. This is

where Bob Chadwick’s consensus building

process is helpful. The process involves

am focused on something I’m reading, doing,

or listening to, and I don’t hear what they are

trying to tell me. How hard would it be to just

stop and listen? As much as I try to avoid this

pitfall, sometimes I get hung up in the

urgency and triviality of everyday life.

The Holistic Management® decision-

making process has taught me to plan.

Planning minimizes the crisis management and

unnecessary busy work that I used to wallow

in so I have more time for listening. I have

also learned how important it is to listen with

respect instead of focusing on my needs and

responses. Fortunately, my children are not

afraid to remind me about the importance of

listening when I do falter.

True listening is not just hearing. It means

listening to understand what the other person

is really trying to say. This requires repeating

back and confirming what that person said.

Often, what people say is not necessarily what

Who’s in Control?

Afew weeks ago I had the pleasure and challenge of speaking

with a group of local high school students nearing the

completion of their studies. The program for the day was

intended as a preparatory session for life after school. The task was

pleasurable because this community of mine is so small (total

population is about 2,000), and I knew many of the students or, at

least, I was familiar with the faces. The challenge came in the lack of

experience I have dealing with teenagers on a regular basis. I found

out that teenagers have many of the same concerns adults do.

B eyond Outside Influences

I started the session with the question “What are you planning

to do next year?” which was simply a rephrasing of the perennial

question for young people—“What are you going to do when you

grow up?” Responses ranged from a few very confident individuals

who knew exactly where they’d be to those who were very unsure.

Most had some thoughts but felt the outcome would be determined

by exam results or some other external event. I think this lack of

feeling in control that the majority of students felt is endemic in

our society.

After two sessions as a participant in the Savory Center’s North

Central Certified Educator Training Program, one outcome I have

noticed is that I am seeing the world with a new set of senses. I

have been struck by the difference in attitude and approach of

Holistic Management practitioners, which is so positive in

comparison to the level of apathy, discontent, and lack of control

so many in the community feel.

This is not to say that happiness is the sole domain of Holistic

Management practitioners, but rather their approach to life is in

contrast to the people with whom I tend to have a relatively

greater degree of day-to-day contact. The current drought we are

experiencing across Australia is one of the primary factors for the

feelings of despair evident throughout rural communities and is

an example of how outcomes are primarily determined by

outside influences.

Even as adults our attitudes, beliefs and behavior are so strongly

influenced by peer pressure or other externalities. While our

priorities may change with age, the fact is that most of us remain in

the same situation facing that group of teenagers—we don’t know

what the future holds and are constantly in crisis management

reacting to situations as they arise.

The practice of Holistic Management, establishing a holistic

goal, and making decisions towards achieving what you desire is

so empowering! It provides the mechanism for individuals or

businesses to step outside of the conventional, take control, and

move forward regardless of popular opinion. Working through the

decision-making process compels us to look at the longer-term

effects of our proposed actions on our finances, the environment,

and our relationships. By effectively planning, we are prepared for

most circumstances that are likely to arise and can take action to

correct the course and remedy any situation, usually with a

minimum of fuss.

At 41, I was still pondering the question of what I was going

to be when I grow up. At 42, I’m still not sure about when I will

actually reach this “grown up” milestone. But after a few short

months with a much improved understanding of Holistic

Management and having a more consolidated, albeit still very

temporary, holistic goal, I am far more clear about where I want

to be, how I want to be, and the methods I am going to use to get

there. For that reason, the “what” doesn’t really enter the equation

any more.

—Judi Earl, Guyra, New South Wales, Australia

continued on page 6


“Mom and Dad know best.” What if we

changed that to “Mom and Dad would know

more if they asked their children for input?”

Introducing Holistic Management

The family holistic goal is one place to

start engaging more fully with your children.

Is it really a “family” holistic goal if the

children have not participated in its

creation? Young people have dreams, and

they know what’s important to them.

I have had the pleasure of working with

elementary school students in teaching

them how to develop a holistic goal. I

experimented with my daughter who was

six at the time. I gave her an abbreviated

lesson and asked her the questions from the

worksheet I had developed. I helped her

with the spelling, but the responses were

hers. She even drew a picture of what she

wanted the world to look like. It was

simple, but beautiful, and from the heart. It

was her holistic goal. I knew that if a six-

year-old could do it, anyone could.

I approach the concept of the whole and

the holistic goal from the idea that “Life is a

journey.” I show students a large map of a

hypothetical journey of life, complete with

detours, barricades, road signs, steep grades,

construction, and so on. Next, I hold up large

poster board road signs and talk about how

each of them applies to us in our journey of

life. These include Stop, Slow, Yield, Wrong

Way, Rough Road Ahead, and many more.

Before beginning a journey, we need a

starting point. That is how we “define the

whole.” The questions I ask are:

Who am I?

Who is there to help me on my journey?

What (resources) do I have to help me out?

How much money do I have saved?

(Older students: What other sources of

money will be available?)

Every trip must have a destination. This is

their “quality of life.” What point would there

be to get in the car and go if you don’t know

where you are headed? A great deal of time,

gas, and resources are wasted along the way

using that approach. The question I ask during

this section is: “How do I want my life to be?”

I do not ask the popular question: “What

do you want to be?” People are too often

each child. What a wonderful thing it is to see

the hopes and dreams of children articulated

through written words and drawings.

Our young people have a great deal to offer

us. I encourage parents to include their children

in forming a holistic goal, planning, monitoring,

control, and working at home and in the family

business. Brainstorming sessions are bound to be

more productive with young imaginations

present. Give them meaningful responsibility

and they will live up to it. By giving them

responsibility, we empower them; we give them

the skills to be tomorrow’s leaders. For that

reason, I challenge adults to include youth on

their boards and in their businesses. They have

so much to contribute! But whoever you are, no

matter your station, please take the opportunity

to serve as a positive role model and mentor to

young people. We have so much to learn from

each other.

D i s c overing our Own Yo u t h

I quoted a definition earlier that “youth

is the early stage of anything.” As Holistic

Management practitioners, we’ve been

fortunate to have a second chance at

discovering our own youth. We can see things

with a different perspective and recognize

and appreciate the smallest details and simple

wonders of nature. Our imagination is once

again active and limitless. We are not so

ruled by the clock, but have learned to

enjoy the present and the endless possibilities

of exploration.

We begin to question almost everything

and insist upon finding the root cause. We

are open to change and new ideas instead

of being crippled by old paradigms. We are

learning to keep it simple and realize we

could be wrong. We have the ability to make

mistakes, learn from them, and move on. We

also have a greater capacity for love in our

relationships. We appreciate, listen to, and

include our children. We possess the belief

that “it is possible” and, there are no limits to

those possibilities!

I’ve learned that it’s not reaching the

destination in life that is important. It is the

journey we choose to take and how we go

about getting there that makes all the

difference! Ah, to be young again!

Sandy Matheson is a Certified Educator

who lives in Bellingham, Washington.

She can be reached at: 360/398-7866 or

[email protected]. For more information

about consensus building, go to:

http://managingwholes.com/__consensus.htm.

defined by others as their role or position,

rather than who they are as an individual.

Although planning for the future is critical,

life is more than a job or title.

Direction and planning are needed to

reach a destination or we may get lost. This is

my equivalent to “forms of production.” The

question I ask here is: “What must I do

(produce) to make this happen?”

Finally, if we don’t maintain the car, it will

eventually run out of gas or stop working.

This is our “future resource base.” If we don’t

maintain our world, we will gradually destroy

it. If we don’t maintain our relationships, they

will deteriorate as well. The questions I ask

here to help the students reflect on this are:

What do I want my world to look like?

What kind of person do I want others to

see me as?

Some of the questions are simplified for

the age of the children. It is critical that if

someone else records the child’s responses,

they need to write the child’s original exact

words—not a paraphrase of those words—so

that the child has ownership in his/her

holistic goal.

I follow these holistic goal development

exercises with an exercise showing how

multiple goals pull us in conflicting directions,

while a holistic goal takes us in one direction—

the one we truly want!

Then each student writes his/her response

on the worksheet. They finish by drawing a

picture of what they want the world to look

like. The result is a beautiful holistic goal from

Sandy Matheson has learned a lot about youth

from her daughters, Molly (left) and Megan (right).

D i s c overing Our Yo u t h

continued from page 5

IN PRACTICE • SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2003 LAND & LIVESTOCK 7

Those of us managing livestock within or west of the Rocky

Mountains of North America have spent an awful lot of

time over the past 15 years or so trying to justify our chosen

method of making a living. That’s especially so for those of us

with public lands grazing permits. Well-meaning people in the

environmental movement have used a variety of methods, most of

them confrontational and costly, to thwart our efforts to responsibly

steward our resources. To the credit of these environmentalists,

many public lands ranchers do need some motivation to break out

of damaging management habits, but I just can’t believe energy-

sapping lawsuits are an effective means of bringing about

holistically sound change.

The root of the environmentalist argument is that there aren’t

supposed to be any large herbivores out here in this dry country.

They acknowledge that there were a few scattered bands of mule

deer, pronghorn, and bighorn sheep, but they were few and far

between and exerted little pressure on the plant community. The

grasses in the West, they claim, didn’t co-evolve with grazing.

They look over the mountains to the prairie provinces, and

note that the predominant grass species in that country spread

asexually by rhizomes or stolons (which also serve as major

energy storehouses) and have prostrate growth habits which

permit enough leaf material to escape the animal’s muzzle to

enable the plant to survive. Over there, where we know there

were lots of bison and pronghorn, the grasses are designed to be

grazed. West of the Rockies, the grasses are primarily bunch grasses

that don’t possess these adaptations to grazing. That’s the basic

argument, anyway.

Cattle-Free Consequences

For me, when I wander into a place like Canyonlands National

Park, in southeastern Utah, which has been grazing-free (with the

exception of the odd mule deer) for about 30 years, it’s tough to

understand how bunch grasses are benefited by a lack of grazing.

The park’s high plateau, called “The Island in the Sky,” rises up

between the Green and Colorado Rivers. Incredibly rough, rocky,

steep, gnarled terrain lies between the plateau’s edge and the river

bottoms. It’s a fantastic place. On top, there is a lot of grass. Driving

into the park, the casual visitor is greeted by broad swaths of grass

waving in the breeze. It’s easy to understand how someone driving

by would see it as the picture of health. But upon more detailed

inspection (slow walking, lots of kneeling, no fast driving), a totally

different story is revealed. The grass stems waving in the breeze

are the final living remnants of a dying landscape.

And that, to me, is no exaggeration. As one drives further into

the park, stopping and walking isn’t even necessary, because over

huge areas, the living grass stems are no more. Instead, there is

nothing but dead grass plants—gray, oxidizing, totally dead plants. It

is nasty stuff. I should clarify that there is more there than just dead

grass plants. There is a lot of Mormon tea, a distinctive-looking

shrub with jointed branches, intermediate between the pine family

and the higher flowering plants, and lots of cryptogamic crust.

These crusts garner a lot of positive publicity. They fix atmospheric

nitrogen, protect the soil from erosion, provide germination sites, etc.

But, there in Canyonlands at least, most of the grass is dead.

What good does plant-available nitrogen do for dead plants? What

good does a seed germination site do if there is no viable seed being

produced to fall into it? If I’m a deer, bighorn sheep, pronghorn, or

elk—or even if I’m a grasshopper, chipmunk, or kangaroo rat—I can’t

make much of a living on cryptogamic crust. However, I understand

there are intrinsic values to all living forms and that crytogamic

crust plays a role. But looking at the limited biological diversity

LAND L I V E S TO C K& A Special Section ofIN PRACTICE

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2003 #91

Bighorn sheep may once have played a major role in cycling carbon

and keeping grass plants alive and healthy in the highly brittle

American West.

N ew Insights into the

Grazing Debateby Jim Howell

continued on page 8

8 LAND & LIVESTOCK IN PRACTICE #91

that can be sustained when a landscape is dominated by cryptogamic

crust, I have a hard time believing nature intended it to be as

widespread as it is in Canyonlands.

If the landscape has been “removed from the disturbances of man

or livestock,” and if the grass is all dying, many would argue that

that’s what nature intended. It’s the drought, one could surmise, or a

lack of fire for too many years. But hold on a minute. What’s on the

other side of the park fence? The really interesting thing about this

area is its compare-and-contrast potential. Luckily, there is a huge

expanse of topographically identical country just to the north of

the park boundary. It’s still part of the island in the sky, only it’s

somebody’s grazing permit outside the park. This patch of country

isn’t the Garden of Eden by any means. Lots of bare ground and a

lack of prostrate litter (lying on the ground) are the norm (as it was

inside the park), and the Mormon tea is doing pretty well in most

places too. The big, overwhelming, spectacular difference is that the

grass plants aren’t dead. On the contrary, they are vigorous, living

plants that had responded well to this spring’s rains. I couldn’t even

find one that was starting to look a little overrested. I couldn’t find

any cryptogamic crust either. Something was getting in there and

grazing those plants, probably in the winter, and providing enough

disturbance to keep the crust from forming. Even if there were

unnatural infusions of cattle, I have to insist that living and vigorous

is better than dead and dying.

A New Look at an Old Herbivo r e

It seems like that example up there on the top of Canyonlands

should bring a little clarity to the effects of nearly total rest in low

rainfall, brittle environments. I gave a talk in Moab, Utah, the gateway

to Canyonlands and a couple of other nearby parks last December.

I presented all this stuff about brittle environments, the role of

herbivores in keeping the carbon cycling, etc., and I tried my best

to be convincing. A committed environmentalist approached me

afterward, and he said: “That’s great, Jim, but there were never any

big herbivores here.” Even if the evidence seems incredibly clear that

periodic grazing on brittle environment bunch grasses is a good

thing, it seems like we have to address this issue of “native herbivores

in the West” in a scientifically credible manner. I’m not sure how

we’re going to do that.

For a variety of reasons too complex to delve into here, the fact

that the megafauna (mammoths, horses, camels, etc.) was here

9,000-10,000 years ago, and had coevolved with the same soils and

plants we still have today, doesn’t hold much weight with most

environmentalists. It’s even hard to go back in time and surmise how

things used to be 200 or more years ago. We know there were animals

in the arid, brittle West—bighorn sheep, pronghorn, and mule deer

mainly—we’re just unclear on how many there were. Conventional

wisdom, again, is that there weren’t many.

But I recently had the good fortune to meet a guy who has one

heck of an interesting theory. He’s about the most well-rounded

scientist I’ve ever met. He knows geology, soils, and has an amazing

grasp of botany—and not just a theoretical grasp. This guy (his

name’s John) didn’t buy groceries for years, living as a modern day

hunter/gatherer. What better way to bring a practical twist to the

discipline of botany than to eat the plants you collect. His real

specialty, though, is sheep and goats, and his primary research focus

is Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep. He’s piecing together the puzzle

of why bighorn populations are so susceptible to disease and die-off.

They’re like the canaries of the large herbivore world. He’s made

some amazing discoveries, but explaining them would take another

article, so I’ll get back to this interesting, and potentially

groundbreaking, theory of his mentioned above.

Its explanation begins with humans. It’s now accepted across the

board that Native American populations suffered huge epidemic die-

offs soon after their first contact with Europeans. In 1539, Hernando

de Soto, along with 600 soldiers, 200 horses, and 300 pigs, began a

four-year adventure traveling through what’s now the southeastern

United States. He described incredible numbers of people, towns, and

agricultural communities. It wasn’t until 1682, over a hundred years

later, when the next Europeans, this time Frenchmen in canoes, came

through, and only remnants of these former populations remained.

The same happened all over North America. European germs, to

which the natives had no previous exposure and, thus, no natural

immunity, were the culprits.

John hypothesizes that the same happened to the bighorn sheep.

The Spaniards brought domestic sheep accompanied by all the normal

Old World sheep diseases. Domestic sheep are very closely related

to bighorn sheep, and many domestic sheep diseases are highly

contagious to bighorns. None of the other domestic livestock brought

by the Europeans (cattle, goats, pigs, horses) has near the same degree

of genetic overlap with native American wildlife as does the domestic

N ew Insights into the Grazing Debate


Perennial grasses in Canyonlands National Park (Utah) that hav e

been left ungrazed and undisturbed for so long they have died

from overrest.


rituals tied to their hunting activities that still survive, but only just. To

me, the most intriguing of these is how the O’odham handled the

horns. It seems the O’odham had strict prohibitions against bringing

the sheep horns into their villages. Tradition dictated that the horns

had to be deposited in special places out away from areas of human

habitation “in order that they might exert no evil influence upon the

winds or rains,” according to O’odham chief Antonio Azul, in an

interview at the turn of the 20th century. These special places

eventually transformed into massive mounds of horns.

Three hundred years ago, Captain Juan Mateo Manje made a visit

to the Akimel O’odham living along the Gila River, in southern

Arizona. In his journal, he states there were sufficient bighorns within

walking distance of the village that the entire human population was

out hunting them. The village itself was called Cesoin Mo’o, which

means “bighorn sheep heads,” and Manje had heard reports that a hill

of bighorn heads existed nearby that towered high above the roofs

of the O’odham houses. Manje describes this hill as consisting of

more than 100,000 bighorn sheep horns!

Nabhan states: “that number is astonishing, for it exceeds by an

order of magnitude [i.e., 10 times as many] the highest estimate of

sheep living in Arizona in any given year. Although some scholars

doubt Manje’s estimate, his journals show him to be a consistently

accurate measurer of mileage and village population sizes. Even if one

assumes that the pile had accumulated over decades or even centuries,

the sight of so many horns of an elusive animal, all concentrated in

one place, would still be awesome.”

And this pile was not an isolated event. In 1774, Juan Batista de

Anza made similar discoveries of massive horn piles, one of which

persisted until 1960, when it was vandalized and burned by a white

man. Cowboys throughout southern Arizona occasionally stumbled

upon piles throughout the first half of the 20th century. Up until

1960, new discoveries of bighorn sheep mounds were still being

made by scientists studying bighorn and bighorn hunting on the

Tohono O’odham reservation.

It seems there were wild sheep in the West, and lots of them,

right up to the edge of modern times. If not for the havoc wrought

by Europeans and their diseases, they should still be here.

Despite ample evidence, it took scientists a long time to accept that

native American human populations were once far more numerous,

and far more ecologically important, than originally thought. The old

paradigm of an American wilderness sparsely populated by a few

roaming bands of ecologically insignificant Indians persisted in history

books clear through the 1980s. The same paradigm will probably

continue prevailing regarding bighorn sheep populations (and all

other western ungulate populations) for a long time to come.

But eventually, when even the dead bunch grass tufts in

Canyonlands have weathered away and nothing is left but bare

ground and cryptogamic crust, people will have to look across the

fence at where the cows are and admit, “Maybe this country does

need the periodic herd passing through.” Hopefully we won’t

have to wait that long to come to our senses. But under present

circumstances, with so much negative pressure, those of us managing

livestock in the West must persist in our efforts to heal our rangelands

and create examples of ecological abundance and economic

prosperity. These practical case studies will contain critical lessons

needed by the next generations of humans entrusted to steward

our western rangeland resource.

sheep with the bighorn sheep. Today we realize this, and it’s about

nigh impossible to get the green light to take domestic sheep up

where the bighorns live, or even where they might live, because the

wildlife guys don’t want any disease spreading going on.

So, if the first European human diseases began their spread upon

Columbus’ arrival in the New World, it stands to reason that the sheep

diseases did the same. It’s estimated that 95 percent of the North and

South American native human populations were tragically decimated

by the time Europeans reached most interior regions of the two

continents. Europeans didn’t get into most of the western United

States until 200-250 years after the first sheep ran loose—much more

than enough time for the domestic sheep diseases to have wiped out

expansive populations of bighorns. John hypothesizes that the wild

sheep at one time were creatures of the lowland, rolling, and flat

country, and not just inhabitants of high rocky peaks, as they

generally are today. The lowland populations were the most

contiguous, and, thus, the most susceptible to the spread of disease.

The sheep that survived were remnant populations that were

geographically isolated at the tops of mountain ranges. They were the

only ones left by the time Europeans came on the scene. And John

isn’t making this argument because he’s a rancher trying to justify

turning his cows out. He’s just an original-thinking scientist that

really likes wild sheep.

With periodic removal of their abo ve-ground parts and some soil

disturbance, these plants are alive and vigorous, in stark contrast

to the plants inside the Park.

Where’s the Evidence?

After thinking a lot about this potential chain of events, it’s now

hard for me to conceptualize that it didn’t happen. But how can it be

proved? Again, I don’t know that it can, but there might be some clues

still lurking providing support of formerly large bighorn populations.

One line of evidence lies with Native American hunting traditions and

archeological sites. Evidence of bighorns being used as a staple food

source are abundant across the West. In some places—places that today

barely support a desert bighorn—the evidence of former wild sheep

presence is overwhelming. Gary Nabhan, in Cultures of Habitat ,

devotes a chapter to the hunting rituals and relationships between the

O’odham and Hohokam Indians of southern Arizona and northern

Sonora, Mexico. It seems both tribes revered the bighorns, and had

During the past three years as editor/writer for Land and

Livestock, I’ve written several articles focusing on my

family’s place here in southwestern Colorado. They’ve

mostly been technical stories, delving into the practical details of

grazing planning in our cold, high altitude environment. One story,

that came out about a year ago, skimmed a little of my family’s

history and our

emotional connection

to this part of the

world. It was titled “A

Sense of Place,” and I

briefly stated my belief

that to truly steward

our resource, we have

to grow to know it in

intimate detail. Simply

put, I believe that we

have to become native

to our landscapes.

Over the past year

and a half, my family

(my wife, Daniela, and

daughter, Savanna) has

been immersed in the

construction of a small

log home on our lower

place, which ranges

from 7,200 feet to 8,400

feet (2,200 to 2,560 m)

in elevation. At that

elevation in this part

of Colorado, we’re in

the oak brush, big

sagebrush vegetation

belt. The aspen and

spruce begin to appear

just above our highest

boundary, and the

pinyon pines and

junipers take over

below. This band of country in western Colorado is typically

blessed with about 14 inches (350 mm) of annual precipitation,

about half of which comes in the form of snow in the winter.

Because of the cold temperatures, the snow doesn’t melt off

until April, so for roughly five months, our landscape is a

winter wonderland.

Very few early European settlers were tough enough to live in

this country year round. Many of those who tried it eventually

gave up. Most ranchers made their permanent bases in the nearby

Uncompahgre Valley, about 20 miles (32 km) and 2,000-3,000 feet

(610 -915 m) lower. A migratory pattern of life developed, with

ranchers herding their sheep and cattle from the winter country

of the valley bottoms, up into the foothills and eventually to the

tops of the mountains by mid-summer, some of which climb above

14,000 feet (4,270 m).

Most of this spring, summer, and fall country was (and is) only

periodically visited by

its owners during the

snow-free months. This

includes my family’s

country. My dad and

granddad would come

and check their cows

once a week or so,

spending a night or

two in a small

homestead cabin, then

would return to their

irrigated fields of

barley, wheat, potatoes,

and alfalfa. They

worked incredibly

hard. They had a

huge list of tasks to

accomplish daily, and

never took much time

to stop and smell the

roses. They were

pioneers in this

country—the first

non-native inhabitants

to enter this land

since the first

American pioneers

arrived via Siberia,

10,000 to 15,000 years

ago. I’ll get back to

my family’s story,

our new house, this

land that we live

on, and how this is all related to the theme of becoming native,

but first a little broader history to lay the context.

P i o n e e r s

Throughout history, and extending to all habitable corners of the

globe, pioneer experiences share some remarkable features. First, in

every instance that I’m aware of, the first people to enter a new

environment saw their new resource base as inexhaustible. This was

true for the first Americans, who walked into a continent filled with

mammoths, native horses and camels, giant long-horned bison, amid


On Becoming Nativeby Jim Howell

Jim and Tosha returning home after an evening cattle mo ve.


many others. It was true for the first Australians, who found a virgin

land occupied by giant, rhino-sized marsupials. It was true for the first

New Zealanders, who were greeted by over a dozen species of giant

flightless relatives of the ostrich, the moas. To these first pioneers, it

was likely inconceivable that their efforts to make a living within

their newly adopted habitats could possibly extinguish these

incredibly rich resources.

But, due in large part to human beings, exactly like us, simply

striving to make a living and survive, this fantastic resource did

largely disappear. That’s the second commonality to all pioneering

peoples. Whenever we discover a new resource, we use it to its

breaking point. As a consequence, conditions of scarcity develop, and

people are eventually forced to adapt to the less abundant resource

base with which they are left. Gradually, cultures of environmental

responsibility, of ecological intimacy, develop and

advance. Rituals and traditions evolve that

ensure a population’s sources of sustenance

won’t be depleted, and that their clans will

survive. Human populations cease to be

pioneers. They become true natives (for detailed

accounts of this topic, read Tim Flannery’s The

Future Eaters and The Eternal Frontier , Jared

Diamond’s Guns , Germs, and Steel , and Brian

Fagan’s The Great Journey).

Things really haven’t changed much. Modern

day pioneers haven’t been the first humans on

the scene, but they arrived at most corners of

the globe equipped with technologies and

cultures developed in Europe, Asia, and in parts of Africa—

technologies that allowed for a much deeper degree of

exploitation of natural resources than was being achieved by the

natives. The domesticated horse, the plow, the wheel, gunpowder,

domestic livestock, steam power—these things, among many others,

gave the newcomers tremendous advantages. Imagine how these

pioneers, among them my great-granddad, granddad, and dad,

looked at their newfound resources. The millions of acres of deep,

fertile prairie soils, the never-ending forests and grasslands, the

incredible fisheries, the abundant water, the massive herds of

bison, pronghorn, elk, and deer—it all must have seemed endless,

inexhaustible, eternal. My recent ancestors, with their livestock and

farm implements, must have looked upon these resources the same

as the first immigrants from Siberia, with their spears and atlatls,

looked at the wooly mammoths, long-horned bison, horses, and

camels of their new world.

Enlightened Pioneers

Like every creature on the earth, humans are programmed to

survive and propagate their lineage. If we see an opportunity to

advance our family’s state in the world, it is only natural to take it.

When my ancestors first gazed upon the abundant river water that

could be diverted for irrigation, the lush mountain grasses, and the

towering spruce and fir trees, that’s what they saw—a seemingly

endless, untapped resource offering the opportunity to grow,

expand, and propagate.

Now, just as the first Americans eventually discovered, we’re

coming to grips with the reality that all these natural resources—the

resources that sustain all human endeavor—are not endless. We’ve

been aware of this for a long time, but old habits—established

cultures—die hard. With our technological prowess, we continue with

the pioneer mentality, pushing the limits of our resources with ever

more sophisticated levels of extraction. Now, for example, we’re to

the point of directly manipulating strands of DNA to create plant

hybrids capable of surviving broad scale biocides that destroy every

potential competitor. This isn’t bad; it’s simply human nature. We

have to continue to make decisions that are in line with our own self

interest. Holistic Management® decision-making stresses this reality.

But (and I think this is one of the most important points of

emphasis of Holistic Management), holistic decisions are made not

just in our own self interest, but in our own “enlightened” self

interest. What’s good for me financially is not truly good in the

long run if it makes my life miserable and/or contributes to the

depletion of our natural resource base.

Pioneers don’t think like that. The pioneer

mentality typically doesn’t actively consider

the effect of a decision on quality of life or

family relationships, nor does it consciously

examine the potential ecological consequences

of decisions. I grew up with romantic notions

of my granddad’s and dad’s lives during the

first half of the 20th century—farming with

horses and mules, running sheep and cattle in

the high country during the summer, feeding

hay in the snow. I spent all my school years

in the metropolis of southern California, only

getting to the Colorado high country for a

couple months during summer vacation. I longed all year to be in

Colorado. I remember speaking to my granddad about his life one

day, talking about all the old ways of ranching and farming. I was a

teenager, and he was in his early 80s. I remember making the

statement to my granddad, “You must have had a really satisfying

life.” He glanced down, thought for a moment, then simply said, “I

worked awful hard, Jimmy.”

My dad couldn’t wait to get away from the farm and ranch as

soon as he was old enough to make his own decisions. The way they

lived was surely meaningful and productive, but they didn’t fully love

their lives on the land, and the natural abundance of their resource

base gradually eroded through the decades. In the early ‘60s, when it

was apparent my dad wasn’t planning to build his life on the land,

my granddad sold his livestock and the lower elevation cropping

ground, but held onto his high summer country to generate some

income from livestock grazing and hunting leases and occasional

timber harvest. If I wouldn’t have come along and expressed a

deep love for this place, it all would have been sold and passed from

our family a long time ago. Now, my family, making decisions in our

own enlightened self interest, is poised to begin the transition from

pioneer to native.

Tr a n s i t i o n i n g

And this brings us back to this house Daniela and I just finished

building. As I write this, we’ve been living here about two months

now. Thanks to Holistic Management, Daniela and I, at early ages,

were motivated to become very clear on how we wanted our lives to

continued on page 12

My dad couldn’t wait

to get away from

the farm and ranch as

soon as he was old

enough to make his

own decisions.

be. That’s what brought us back to Colorado in 1997, and we’re into

our seventh year now of stewarding this land. But my family never

had a home here. It was always “the summer country.” Daniela and I

have had our home base in town for the past six years, so this place

wasn’t home to us either; it was where we made our living. The

decision to locate our permanent home here—a home that we would

design and help build from materials harvested from our land—passed

toward our holistic goal in many respects. I won’t go into those

details, but it has greatly enhanced our quality of life and the

effectiveness of our lives.

Since waking up here every morning, I have also been

experiencing some personal epiphanies. Recently, it dawned on me

that we’re the first human beings to be living here, on this specific

place, since the Ute Indians were removed in 1881. As I said above, the

European immigrants into this country passed through with their

livestock, utilizing the abundant forage with a pioneering mentality,

never stopping to genuinely, deeply, know their new surroundings.

They never truly lived in this place. I’m sure many of these pioneers

appreciated the beauty of their new surroundings, but stories of

beauty, of interacting and living with nature, didn’t become part of

their culture. That wasn’t—that isn’t—the pioneer way. As my good

buddy and holistic manager, Tony Malmberg, says, “As ranchers, we

were taught to work hard, to be tough, and to endure.”

My dad has told me numerous times, the most recent being just

a few days ago, that he never appreciated the beauty of this place

when he was growing up. Did my granddad? I don’t know. He never

said he did. My family, like most pioneering families I know, has no

deep cultural traditions or rituals tied to changes in seasons, as the

native Utes did. We barely recognize the majority of the plants

growing on our land, let alone know their names. We are light years

from deeply knowing the ancient natural patterns of interaction

between our plants, mammals, insects, birds, and reptiles, not to

mention the billions of critters that escape our immediate sensory

perception. We do know all the things we brought from Europe—our

fences, our roads, our mechanical equipment. Until recently, I also

thought I knew the land, but this spring, living here

every day, I’ve realized that we don’t know this place.

We are not native.

But there is no way we could be. We just haven’t

been here long enough. The Ute Indians, and their more

archaic predecessors, lived here for thousands of years,

passing down intimate knowledge of natural patterns

through tradition, song, ritual, and story through scores

of generations. We are the first family since that long

line of humans to begin anew on this place, and if we

are to survive here, if we are to reverse the degradation

wrought by the first few generations of pioneers, we

have to start to develop a new culture that honors the

same natural rhythms and patterns that shaped the lives

of the Utes.

N a t i ve Relationships

In heightening our awareness of how the natural

world functions, Holistic Management has played a

major role in initiating this shift in culture. Now we

look at the land, and describe its health, in terms of

ecosystem function. Is the ground covered with litter

and vigorous living plants? How is the litter distributed

and how is it decomposing? Can a raindrop soak into

the soil, or is it likely to run off? Does the diversity of

plants permit optimum sunlight harvest, the cycling of

nutrients from a deep profile of soil strata, and habitat niches for an

abundant community of wild animals? How are my actions on the

land, the movements of my livestock, the harvesting of grass and

shrubs and trees and forbs, my mere presence amidst the elk and

deer and bears, affecting these ecosystem processes? Is my perception

keen enough to recognize what’s happening? Holistic Management

insists that we assume we’re wrong when making decisions affecting

the land. That is so critical, because as Allan Savory emphasizes, the

ecosystem is not only more complex than we understand, it is more

complex than we can ever understand.

But I think there’s a difference between understanding and

knowing. I may not understand my wife, but I know her intimately.

The same applies to nature. We can’t understand her. Scientists

perform incredibly elaborate controlled research in an attempt to do

so, and they might figure out a few pieces of the puzzle, but do these


On Becoming Native


Jim and Savanna examining the anatomy of a grasshopper. “I believe the only way

we will keep succeeding generations on the land is to nurture a lo ve of nature’s

intricacies within our children.”


pieces fit when added back into the whole? Another of Allan’s

favorite lines concerns oxygen and hydrogen. We can study each in

isolation, and learn absolutely everything there is to know about

them, but such study would teach us nothing about water. I’m not

discrediting scientists by any means, but I am saying that it is only

the people who live on the land, deriving their sustenance directly

from it, who are going to ever know it. Science can help clarify or

solve some of the riddles, but it will be the native folks that will

meld the scientific insights into the natural whole.

Native cultures don’t necessarily understand their habitats from a

scientific paradigm, but they know them in detail. Gary Nabhan, in

Cultures of Habitat , eloquently describes many of the fantastically

intricate relationships that indigenous peoples had (in some cases still

have) with the plants and animals of their native habitats. In many

cases, these relationships were essential to the maintenance and

propagation of the diversity and ecological integrity of the

environment, just as pollinators are critical to the reproductive success

of many flowering plants. Many of these relationships have been lost

to native cultures. Nabhan stresses that, to preserve biodiversity, these

relationships are just as critical as the plant and animal species

themselves, and their extinctions just as tragic.

As the most recent family in the new line of humans relating to

this landscape, I feel it is our solemn duty to rediscover, to re-evolve,

these relationships. If the world’s land base continues to turn over to

new “owners” every 10 or 15 years, or if the people on the land are

ephemeral employees merely carrying out the orders of their

corporate bosses living in far off, detached cities, these relationships

will never develop. Nabhan cites an incredible pattern highlighting

the importance of a long connection to place. He describes two

maps of the United States, one displaying the relative duration of

residency within each county, the other documenting the counties

having the most threatened and endangered species on the federal

government’s lists. The correlation, says Nabhan, “is undeniable.”

Where human populations are the least mobile and have the longest

history of residence, fewer plants and animals have become

endangered species.

One beautiful evening about three weeks ago, I rode my mare

(actually my daughter’s mare), Tosha, up to the top of our place to

clean out a pasture. Along the way, I was struck by the number of

plants I didn’t recognize. Have these plants always been here and

I never noticed them? Do I just not remember them? Has our

management caused them to appear? Did last year’s drought have

something to do with it? Or is their appearance a result of the

climatic conditions that prevailed this spring? If so, I have no idea

what those specific climatic conditions could possibly have been.

See what I mean? I’m not native. But I hope I’m at least an

“enlightened” pioneer.

That was the evening that I realized I’m a long ways from being

a Ute Indian. But I made a holistic decision that night. Most of the

time when I go up to irrigate or move cows, I ride up a Honda

Foreman 400 all terrain vehicle—4-wheeler for short. Once or twice

a week I go horseback, like I did that evening, if my job is more

easily achieved the equine way. But, being of the pioneer mindset,

I’ve always assumed that I had to be as efficient as possible. By the

time I get my horse caught and saddled, I can be a long ways off

on the 4-wheeler. If the horse isn’t essential to the task at hand,

I reasoned, it can stay home. But I’ve never wanted to be an

expert 4-wheeler driver, and have always striven to be a skilled

horseman. That was one strike against the 4-wheeler. If I’m horseback,

I’m developing a relationship with another of nature’s beings, much

more in tune with natural processes than I am. My horse might

actually teach me something if I can learn to listen. I can’t say that for

the 4-wheeler. On the 4-wheeler, I am locked into taking the same

road every day. On my horse, I can elect to take a different path every

time if I want, and I can see many spots on the ranch that I seldom

see otherwise. If I’m horseback, I’m seeing the land, and interacting

with my habitat, like a Ute Indian.

So, based on all those factors, I basically parked the 4-wheeler

three weeks ago. I still

use it if I need to

haul a load of salt or

mineral, or if I really

am in a desperate

hurry, but I’ve pretty

much switched my

mode of transport to

man’s best working

friend, the horse. I’m

not sure why, but my

morning routine is

only taking about a

half hour longer, if

that, and the

positives have been

tremendous. I’ve been

observing things this

spring that I can’t

explain, some really

good, some a little

concerning, but I never would have noticed those patterns if I’d been

going like a bat out of hell up the same road every morning. I’ve

found the hangouts of about five outstanding bucks. Never would

have figured that out on the 4-wheeler. If I ever need some really

straight, large diameter oak brush posts (an exceedingly rare

phenotype), I found a thicket of oak brush with dozens of them—

again, way off the 4-wheeler track. I could go on and on with

examples of little things I’ve noticed and am learning. There are

probably lots of things that are being recorded in my subconscious

that I’m not really aware of that are contributing to my transition

from pioneer to native. Horseback, I think native relationships have

a better chance of re-evolving.

But I’ll probably never be truly native to this place. My daughter

Savanna might. Her descendents have a better chance. Hopefully,

I can find a mentor who can help raise my awareness and accelerate

my family’s native transition. In the meantime, we’ll do the best we

can to see our land, to rediscover the unique natural relationships of

our habitat, and to glean all the insights we can from science. Most

importantly, we’ll continue to carefully plan our actions, monitor

them closely, adapt accordingly, and gradually evolve a new culture

of living within our landscape. Eventually, maybe several generations

down the road, humans will once again become naturally adapted,

native elements of this place.

In heightening our

awareness of how the

natural world functions,

Holistic Management has

played a major role in

initiating this shift in

culture. Now we look at

the land, and describe its

health, in terms of

ecosystem function.


S a vory Center Annual Report2002 Ac c o m p l i s h m e n t s

The year 2002 was a dynamic one for the Savory Center. To make the

most of the opportunities at hand, we focused intensively on developing

our Training Programs and Implementation Projects both in the U.S. and

in Africa and enhancing our organization’s development capacity.

Education & Training Programs

Thanks to a grant from the USDA’s Sustainable Agriculture,

Research, and Education (SARE) program, we had a very full North

Central Certified Educator Training Program in 2002. Our Ranch and

Rangeland Manager Training Program also ran for its second year

offering land managers in-depth training and hands-on experience at

exceptional ranching locations. To strengthen our international training

programs, we were pleased to add Dr. Constance Neely to our staff as

International Training Programs Director. She will assist with our

Certified Educator Training Programs in Africa, Mexico and elsewhere

and with planning and growth for the Dimbangombe College of

Wildlife, Agriculture, and Conservation Management at the Africa

Training Centre.

U.S. Implementation Projects

Our U.S. Implementation Projects focused on our two new learning

sites: The La Semilla Cooperative Field Station in Albuquerque, New

Mexico and The David West Station for Holistic Management near

Ozona, Texas. In December, 2002, we signed a 75-year lease with the

New Mexico State Land Office for 1,667 acres on the edge of the city.

The Savory Center will manage and restore the land while developing a

Cooperative Field Station for agricultural education, research and hands-

on experience in range rehabilitation, ranching, dry land farming, native

tree/grass/vegetation cultivation, wildlife habitat enhancement, and

sustainable building/living practices. We look forward to building a

state of the art “green building” to serve as both an educational center

and as our new international headquarters on this property.

We have also increased our activities at the David West Station for

Holistic Management in Texas. While awaiting final distribution of the

estate, the Savory Center has been retained to manage the ranch, to

initiate educational programs for the local community, and to

collaborate with researchers who wish to conduct studies on the

property. We have begun substantial improvements to the ranch’s

infrastructure and building with the services of Peggy Maddox as

Director of Public Relations and Education and Joe Maddox as the

Ranch Manager.

Africa Implementation Projects

In 2002, we launched the Dimbangombe College of Wildlife,

Agriculture and Conservation Management at our Africa Centre near

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. One of our first courses offered hands-on

training for game scouts, and we are offering internships for area

villagers seeking jobs in the ecotourism industry. These programs

will grow under the guidance of our new director for the college,

Zimababwean Alan Sparrow, who has broad experience throughout

the region and extensive connections with international and African

wildlife agencies and organizations.

Through our years of steadfast work in the area, we were able to

bring an additional 13,000 acres under the management of the Africa

Centre and available for the Dimbangombe College. Settlers on these

new lands have agreed to combine their herds with the Africa Centre’s

herd (comprised of owned cattle and cattle provided by drought-

stricken villagers) to create one large herd of 1,000 animals. We have

enhanced the infrastructure (water points and lion-proof kraals)

sufficiently to launch two grazing management pilot projects to achieve

better results on the land and for the health of the stock.

Through the enthusiastic volunteer help of Jeff Fadiman, a faculty

member from San Jose State University (California), we began an

internship program for marketing students who provide their skills

to the Africa Centre. Lastly, our Village Banking Project expanded to

include 10 new banks, bringing the total to 20 banks with a sustained

loan repayment rate of 100 percent. This program offers significant

opportunities for women in the region along with Holistic Management

training that benefits both their business enterprises and communities.

D eve l o p m e n t

In our Development Department, we expanded our Advisory

Council with a number of dedicated and supportive individuals who

are actively assisting the work of the Savory Center in a wide range of

projects and outreach efforts. We implemented many of the excellent

recommendations of development consultant, Durkin and Associates,

whose services were made available to us through a generous donation

from Leo and Cynthia Haris. This led to the hiring of development

director, Lee Dueringer, who is taking our program to the best

performance levels in the organization’s nearly 20-year history.

R e s e a r c h

In a new initiative to further document the success and learnings

of Holistic Management in practice, we launched a case study program

through participants in the Savory Center’s North Central Certified

Educator Training program. This will complement the similar work

started in 2001 by participants in the Northeast program. And at our

training center in Zimbabwe, we are collaborating with researchers

from Tufts University on a “community-based ecosystem” monitoring

program at Dimbangombe and in the neighboring villages where the

Africa Centre is active.

N ew Opportunities in 2003

This is a time of tremendous opportunity for the Savory Center,

which coincides with tremendous challenges for the world we share.

We feel privileged to be part of such a dedicated and creative network

of Holistic Management practitioners and educators from around the

world, who are working to be “part of the solution” in so many

diverse and inspired ways.

As Tim LaSalle moves into his role as Executive Director, and

works with Rio de la Vista and the entire Board of Directors, Advisory

Council, and Staff, we are seeking ways to focus the work of the Savory

Center towards its unique and exceptional contributions. We are also

seeking ways to support all of you in your own practice, to learn from

that, and to share it widely in the most effective means possible. We

hope you will help us and hold us to that standard in the time ahead!

We’re entering the Savory Center’s 20th year in 2004 and will be


celebrating that accomplishment throughout the year and in the

planning to build our new headquarters and an exciting agro-ecology

learning center at the La Semilla site in Albuquerque. We are extremely

grateful to have the leadership and talent of Shannon Horst in moving

that effort forward! As she has passed over the reins of Executive

Director to Tim and taken on the role of Senior Director of Strategic

Projects, we know that her exceptional strengths and dedication will

serve the organization well. Words seem inadequate to thank her for

the 12 years of leadership and service that she gave the Center as our

Executive Director, and we are indeed blessed to have her continuing

with us into the exciting future ahead.

With Allan Savory receiving the Banksia International

Environmental Award in Australia in June, with the generous gift

of David West and all the new opportunities for work in Texas that

affords us, with the chance to “walk our talk” on the La Semilla land

here in Albuquerque and to house the organization in an exceptional

new home, with the opportunity to build programs of profound

significance for the land and people in Africa, with the growth of

our educational programs worldwide, and most especially, with the

generous support of many of you, we look towards the future with

hope and encouragement and with hearts full of appreciation.

Rio de la Vista, Tim LaSalle,

Chair, Board of Directors Executive Director

A f r i c a

C e n t r e

N ew s

We’re

pleased

to announce

that the

Africa Centre

for Holistic

Management

now has a

Director of

Education,

Alan Sparrow, who will also serve as Director

of the Dimbangombe College of Wildlife,

Agriculture and Conservation Management.

Born into a farming family in Zimbabwe,

Alan spent his early career as a professional

forester, managing the 80,000-acre forest

adjacent to the Africa Centre’s headquarters

at Dimbangombe, and later serving as an

international forestry consultant. In 1987 he

came to the United States as one of several

Zimbabweans sponsored by the Ford

Foundation to receive in-depth training

in Holistic Management.

On his return to Zimbabwe, he kept in

touch with us as he undertook a number

of projects in community-based forestry and

conservation working for the United Nations,

the International Union for the Conservation

of Nature, and a number of international

development agencies. In 1992, Alan and two

colleagues launched the Biodiversity

Foundation for Africa, for which he has

worked up until the present, most recently in

helping to establish wildlife conservancies in

southern Africa and some of the trans-border

national parks being formed in the region.

Since joining us in June, Alan has worked

tirelessly to establish the networks, create

the partnerships, and raise the funds needed

to support the training programs currently

offered by the Africa Centre through

Dimbangombe College, launched late in 2002,

and for new programs set to begin in 2004.

We are indeed fortunate to have such a

talented and committed individual as part

of our Africa Centre team.

Alan is excited by the opportunities his

new position affords. “I see this as a great

opportunity to get Holistic Management

into conservation and land management

throughout southern Africa. If I can build

Holistic Management into the conservation

initiatives that I have been involved with in

past years, then I will feel that projects such as

trans-border parks and large wildlife

conservancies have a long-term future.”

Workshop in Kenya

In late April, the Savory Center provided

a workshop, sponsored by World

Vision/Australia, for World Vision staff in

Kenya and the Maasai pastoralists they work

with. Allan Savory, Savory Center International

Training Programs Director Constance Neely,

Africa Centre Community Programs Director

Elias Ncube, and Certified Educator Chris Jost

(Tufts University) led the 5-day introductory

workshop, which has since spurred a number

of follow-up conversations. Allan was asked to

make a presentation at World Vision/Australia

S a vory Center Bulletin Board

Alan Sparro w

Miscellaneous

Publications & Materials

Development

Marketing &Communications

Education & TrainingPrograms

US ImplementationProjects

UnrestrictedPhilanthropy

RestrictedPhilanthropy—Africa

RestrictedPhilanthropy—TrainingPrograms

USImplementationProjects

Marketing &Communications

Publications & MaterialsDevelopment

Education& TrainingPrograms

FundDevelopment

Research

AdministrationInternationalImplementation Projects

Audited Figures for Fiscal Year 2002

Revenue $1,209,949 Expenditures $1,298,926

continued on page 16

headquarters in Melbourne, which he did in

June. Some World Vision staff hope to enroll

in our Africa Certified Educator Training

Program, and to raise funds to sponsor several

members from the Maasai community. That

would enable them to move forward in a

meaningful way to provide training for the

larger Maasai community.

The Maasai are a pastoralist people who

have kept their culture alive through many

changes in Kenya, but their culture is greatly

threatened by policies that are forcing them

to remove their families and cattle herds

from wildlife parks and lands that are being

encroached upon by urban development,

and settling them on small “ranches” where

they can enter the “cash economy.”

Our thanks to Tony Rinaudo of

World Vision/Australia for working

to make the workshop happen.

Santa Fe Reception

On June 15, Savory Center staff,

board members and

supporters gathered at the Gerald

Peters Gallery in Santa Fe

(New Mexico) to introduce a

group of over 50 invited guests to

new Executive Director Tim LaSalle

and to tell them about the La

Semilla Cooperative Field Station

in Albuquerque, which will

house our new international

headquarters.

Our thanks to Gerald and Katie

Peters for hosting the event, and

about monitoring and Holistic Decision-

Making to their Summer Academy in July.

The presentation generated a lot of interest

among area high school teachers who have

been looking for a place where their students

can have hands-on field experience, and

where their work can be put into a long-

term context.

West Station Field Day

The second David West Station for

Holistic Management Field Day co-

sponsored with HRM of Texas on June 14

was a big hit. Burr Williams (of the Sibley

Nature Center in Midland, Texas) focused on

human uses of the plants found on site, while

Steve Nelle (of the NRCS in San Angelo)

concentrated more on the ranching and

wildlife uses and identification cues. After

lunch, Bud Williams explained how to design

animal facilities that take advantage of the

natural movement patterns of livestock.

Thanks to HRM of Texas and Joe and

Peggy Maddox for making this a great

learning opportunity.

Photo Contest Reminder

Don’t forget to submit your photos

for the Savory Center photo contest.

You can submit photos until September 30,

2003. Photos will be published in the

January 2004 IN PRACTICE as part of our

20th anniversary celebration. For more

information about this contest,

contact Ann Adams at 505/842-5252

or [email protected].

Volunteer Thanks

This issue we would like to

thank Certified Educator

Christina Allday-Bondy for all her

volunteer work at the David West

Station for Holistic Management in

Ozona, Texas and for her support

work with our Educational Services

department. Christina has helped us

with creating database information,

gathering data, analyzing survey

responses, and other tasks too

numerous to mention.

Thanks also to Terence Dodge

who came down from Portland,

Oregon and took soil samples at La

Semilla to begin the study and

research of the soil foodweb in the

drastically disturbed areas of the

revegetation project.

to all those who attended for making it

such a success.

La Semilla Ac t i v i t i e s

The Savory Center has begun land

reclamation work at the La Semilla

Cooperative Field Station in Albuquerque,

New Mexico, in connection with Land

Renewal, Inc.’s revegetation contract on

200 acres of the 1,667-acre field station.

Additionally, the Savory Center obtained a

grazing lease for an adjacent 9,000 acres,

which opened the way for a collaborative

arrangement with long-time Holistic

Management practitioner George Whitten and

his wife, Julie Sullivan. In June they brought

down 125 cow/calf pairs from their herd in

the San Luis Valley, Colorado, and we’ve been

busy working with them on both sites.

A group of mid-school students from the

New Mexico Museum of Natural History’s

summer program set up long-term biological

monitoring transects and trapped arthropods

on an old prairie dog colony at La Semilla in

early July. The program introduced students

to monitoring and scientific study of various

ecosystems. Special Projects Manager Craig

Leggett gave a brief overview of La Semilla

Field Station and Holistic Management to the

students before going to the site and setting

up the permanent transects and insect traps.

The Museum plans to bring their summer

program students up each year and monitor

the same site.

Lastly, the Waste Management Educational

Research Consortium (WERC), a consortium

for environmental education and technology

development, invited CraigLeggett to talk

Allan Savory discussing ecosystem processes

with participants at the Kenya workshop.

Shannon Horst with Savory Center Executive Director, Tim LaSalle,

and his wife, Judelon, at the Santa Fe reception. Shannon has been the

driving force behind the La Semilla project, first winning our bid for

the land and now leading development of the programs and

infrastructure that will make it a world-class learning site.

Bulletin Boardcontinued from page 15



ARIZONA

Kitty Boice

P.O. Box 745, Sonoita, AZ 85637

520/907-5574; [email protected]

ARKANSAS

Preston Sullivan

P.O. Box 4483, Fayetteville, AR 72702

479/443-0609; 479/442-9824 (w)

[email protected]

CALIFORNIA

Monte Bell

325 Meadowood Dr., Orland, CA 95963


Julie Bohannon

652 Milo Terrace, Los Angeles, CA 90042

323/257-1915

[email protected]

Bill Burrows

12250 Colyear Springs Rd.

Red Bluff, CA 96080


Jeff Goebel

P.O. Box 1252, Willows, CA 95988

530/321-9855; 530/934-4601 x101 (w)

[email protected]

Richard King

1675 Adobe Rd., Petaluma, CA 94954

707/769-1490; 707/794-8692 (w)

[email protected]

Christopher Peck

P.O. Box 2286, Sebastopol, CA 95472

707/758-0171

[email protected]

COLORADO

Cindy Dvergsten

17702 County Rd. 23, Dolores, CO 81323

970/882-4222

[email protected]

Rio de la Vista

P.O. Box 777, Monte Vista, CO 81144


Daniela Howell

P.O. Box 67, Cimarron, CO 81220-0067

970/249-0353

[email protected]

Tim McGaffic

P.O. Box 476, Ignacio, CO 81137


Roland Kroos

4926 Itana Circle

Bozeman, MT 59715


❖ Cliff Montagne

Montana State University Department of Land

Resources & Environmental Science

Bozeman, MT 59717


NEW MEXICO

❖ Ann Adams

The Savory Center

1010 Tijeras NW

Albuquerque, NM 87102

505/842-5252

[email protected]

Amy Driggs

1131 Los Tomases NW


505/242-2787

[email protected]

Kirk Gadzia

P.O. Box 1100

Bernalillo, NM 87004

505/867-4685; fax: 505/867-0262

[email protected]

Ken Jacobson

12101 Menaul Blvd. NE, Ste AAlbuquerque, NM 87112505/[email protected]

❖ Kelly Pasztor

The Savory Center

1010 Tijeras NW,


505/842-5252

[email protected]

Sue Probart

P.O. Box 81827


505/265-4554

[email protected]

Vicki Turpen

03 El Nido Amado SW



Arne Vanderburg

P.O. Box 904

Cedar Crest, NM 87008

505/286-6133

[email protected]

NORTH CAROLINA

Sam Bingham

394 Vanderbilt Rd.

A s h eville, NC 28803

8 2 8 / 2 7 4 - 1 3 0 9

s b i n g h a m @ i g c . o r g

NORTH DAKOTA

❖ Wayne Berry

University of North Dakota—Williston

P.O. Box 1326

Williston, ND 58802

701/774-4269 or 701/774-4200

[email protected]

Chadwick McKellar

16775 Southwood Dr.

Colorado Springs, CO 80908


Chandler McLay

P.O. Box 262, Dolores, CO 81323

970/882-8802

[email protected]

Byron Shelton

33900 Surrey Lane, Buena Vista, CO 81211

719/395-8157

[email protected]

GEORGIA

Constance Neely

1160 Twelve Oaks Circle; Watkinsville, GA 30677

706/310-0678

[email protected]

IOWA

Bill Casey

1800 Grand Ave.; Keokuk, IA 52632-2944


KENTUCKY

Joel Benson

1180 Fords Mill Rd.; Versailles, KY 40383


LOUISIANA

Tina Pilione

P.O. 923, Eunice, LA 70535

phone/fax: 337/580-0068

[email protected]

MASSACHUSETTS

❖ Christine Jost

Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine

200 Westboro Road; North Grafton, MA 01536


MINNESOTA

Terri Goodfellow-Heyer

4660 Cottonwood Lane N; Plymouth, MN 55442


Larry Johnson

RR 1, Box 93A, Winona, MN 55987-9738

507/457-9511; 507/523-2171 (w)

[email protected]

MONTANA

Wayne Burleson

RT 1, Box 2780

Absarokee, MT 59001


Certified Educators

UNITED STATES

❖ These Educators provide Holistic Management instruction on behalf of the institutions they represent.

To our knowledge, Certified Educators are the best qualified individuals to help others learn to

practice Holistic Management and to provide them with technical assistance when necessary. On a yearly

basis, Certified Educators renew their agreement to be affiliated with the Center. This agreement requires

their commitment to practice Holistic Management in their own lives, to seek out opportunities for

staying current with the latest developments in Holistic Management and to maintain a high standard of

ethical conduct in their work.

For more information about or application forms for the U.S., Africa, or International Certified Educator

Training Programs, contact Kelly Pasztor at the Savory Center or visit our website at

www.holisticmanagement.org/wwo_certed.cfm?


OHIO

❖ Deborah Stinner

Department of Entomology OARDC

1680 Madison Hill

Wooster, OH 44691

330/202-3534 (w); [email protected]

OKLAHOMAKim Barker

RT 2, Box 67Waynoka, OK 73860580/824-9011; [email protected]

OREGONCindy Douglas

2795 McMillian St., Eugene, OR 97405541/465-4882; [email protected]

TEXAS

Christina Allday-Bondy

2703 Grennock Dr.Austin, TX 78745512/441-2019 ; [email protected]

Guy Glosson

6717 Hwy 380, Snyder, TX 79549806/237-2554; [email protected]

Lois Trevino

P.O. Box 615, Nespelem, WA 99155

509/634-4410; 509/634-2430 (w)

[email protected]

Doug Warnock

151 Cedar Cove Rd., Ellensburg, WA 98926

509/925-9127

warnockd@ elltel.net

WISCONSIN

Elizabeth Bird

Room 203 Hiram Smith Hall

1545 Observatory Dr., Madison WI 53706

6 0 8 / 2 6 5 - 3 7 2 7

e a b i r d @ fa c s t a ff . w i s c . e d u

WYOMING

Miles Keogh

450 N. Adams Ave .

B u ffalo WY 82834


Tim Morrison

P.O. Box 536, Meeteese, WY 82433

307/868-2354; mcd@tctwe s t . n e t

❖ R.H. (Dick) Richardson

University of Texas at Austin

Department of Integrative Biology

Austin, TX 78712


Peggy Sechrist

25 Thunderbird Rd., Fredericksburg, TX 78624830/990-2529; [email protected]

WASHINGTON

Craig Madsen

P.O. Box 107, Edwall, WA 99008


Sandra Matheson

228 E. Smith Rd., Bellingham, WA 98226


❖ Don Nelson

Washington State University

P.O. Box 646310, Pullman, WA 99164


Maurice Robinette

S. 16102 Wolfe Rd., Cheney, WA 99004


I N T E R N AT I O N A L

AUSTRALIA

Helen Carrell

“Hillside” 25 Weewondilla Rd.Glennie Heights, Warwick, QLD 437061-4-1878-5285; 61-7-4661-7383 [email protected]

Steve Hailstone

5 Lampert Rd., Crafers, SA 515261-4-1882-2212; [email protected]

Graeme Hand

“Inverary”Caroona Lane; Branxholme, VIC 330261-3-5578-6272; [email protected]

Mark Gardner

P.O. Box 1395, Dubbo, NSW 283061-2-6882-0605; [email protected]

Brian Marshall

“Lucella”; Nundle, NSW 2340

61-2-6769 8226; fax: 61-2-6769 8223

[email protected]

Bruce Ward

P.O. Box 103, Milsons Pt., NSW 156561-2-9929-5568; fax: [email protected]

Brian Wehlburg

c/o “Sunnyholt”, Injue, QLD 445461-7-4626-7187; [email protected]

CANADA

Don and Randee Halladay

Box 2, Site 2, RR 1; Rocky Mountain House, AB T0M 1T0; 403/[email protected]

Noel McNaughton

5704-144 St., Edmondton, AB, T6H 4H4780/432-5492; [email protected]

Len Pigott

Box 222, Dysart, SK SOH 1HO 306/432-4583; [email protected]

Kelly Sidoryk

Box 374, Lloydminster, AB, S9V 0Y4403/[email protected]

CHINA/GERMANY

Dieter Albrecht

2, Yuan Ming Yuan Xi LuBeijing 1009486-10-6289 1061; [email protected] (international)

MEXICO

Ivan Aguirre

La InmaculadaApdo. Postal 304; Hermosillo, Sonora 83000tel/fax: [email protected]

Elco Blanco-Madrid

Cristobal de Olid #307 Chihuahua Chih., 3124052-614-415-3497; fax: [email protected]

Manuel Casas-Perez

Calle Amarguva No. 61, Lomas HerraduraHuixquilucan, Mexico City CP 5278552-558-291-3934; 52-588-992-0220 (w)[email protected]

Jose Ramon “Moncho” Villar

Av. Las Americas #1178Fracc. CumbresSaltillo, Coahuila 2527052-844-415-1542; [email protected]

NAMIBIA

Gero Diekmann

P.O. Box 363, Okahandja 9000264-62-518091; [email protected]

Colin Nott

P.O. Box 11977; Windhoek264-61-228506; [email protected]

Wiebke Volkmann

P.O. Box 182, Otavi, [email protected]

NEW ZEALAND

John King

P.O. Box 3440, Richmond, [email protected]

SOUTH AFRICA

Sheldon Barnes

P.O. Box 300; Kimberly 8300

Johan Blom

P.O. Box 568, Graaf-Reinet [email protected]

Ian Mitchell-Innes

P.O. Box 52, Elandslaagte [email protected]

Norman Neave

Box 141, Mtubatuba [email protected]

Dick Richardson

P.O. Box 1806, Vryburg 8600tel/fax: 27-53-927-4367 [email protected]

Colleen Todd

P.O. Box 21, Hoedspruit 138027-82-335-3901 (cell)[email protected]

ZIMBABWE

Mutizwa Mukute

PELUM Association Regional DeskP.O. Box MP 1059, Mount Pleasant, Harare263-4-74470/744117fax: [email protected]

Liberty Mabhena

Spring CabinetP.O. Box 853, Harare263-4-210021/2; 263-4-210577/8fax: 263-4-210273

Sister Maria Chiedza Mutasa

Bandolfi ConventP.O. Box 900, Masvingo263-39-7699, 263-39-7530

Elias Ncube

P. Bag 5950, Victoria [email protected]


CALIFORNIA

Holistic Management of California

Tom Walther, newsletter editor

5550 Griffin St.

Oakland, CA 94605

510/530-6410

[email protected]

COLORADO

Colorado Branch of the Center

For Holistic Management

Jim and Daniela Howell

newletter editors

1661 Sonoma Court,

Montrose, CO 81401

970/249-0353

[email protected]

GEORGIA

Constance Neely

1160 Twelve Oaks Circle

Watkinsville, GA 30677

706/310-0678

[email protected]

MONTANA

Beartooth Management Club

Wayne Burleson

RT 1, Box 2780, Absarokee, MT 59001


Local Netwo r k s There are several branch organizations or groups

affiliated with the Center in the U.S. and abroad (some publish their own

newsletters.) We encourage you to contact the group closest to you:

PENNSYLVANIA

Northern Penn Network

Jim Weaver, contact person

RD #6, Box 205

Wellsboro, PA 16901

717/724-7788

[email protected]

TEXAS

HRM of Texas

Peggy Jones, newsletter editor

101 Hill View Trail

Dripping Springs, TX 78620

512/858-4251

[email protected]

AUSTRALIA

Holistic Decision Making Association

(AUST+NZ)

Irene Dasey, Executive Officer

P.O. Box 543

Inverell NSW, 2360

tel: 61-2-6721-0123

[email protected]

CANADA

Canadian Holistic Management

Lee Pengilly

Box 216, Stirling, AB, T0K 2E0

403/327-9262

MEXICO

Fundación para Fomentar

el Manejo Holístico, A.C.

Jose Ramon Villar, President

Ave. Las Americas #1178

United States

International

NEW YORK

Regional Farm & Food ProjectTracy Frisch, contact person148 Central Ave., 2nd floorAlbany, NY 12206518/427-6537

USDA/NRCS - Central NY RC&D

Phil Metzger, contact person

99 North Broad St.

Norwich, NY 13815

607/334-3231, ext. 4

[email protected]

NORTHWEST

Managing WholesPeter Donovan

501 South St.

Enterprise, OR 97828-1345

541/426-2145

www.managingwholes.com

OKLAHOMA

Oklahoma Land Stewardship AllianceCharles GriffithsRoute 5, Box E44, Ardmore, OK 73401580/[email protected]

Fracc. Cumbres Saltillo, Coahuila 25270

tel/fax: 52-844-415-1542

[email protected]

NAMIBIA

Namibia Centre for

Holistic Management

Anja Denker, contact person

P.O. Box 23600

Windhoek 9000

tel/fax: 264-61-230-515

[email protected]

SOUTH AFRICA

Community Dynamics

Judy Richardson

P.O. Box 1806

Vryburg 8600

tel/fax: 27-53-9274367

[email protected]

Come Visit Us!

We Offe r:

• Guided Bush Wa l ks

• H o rs e b a ck To u rs

• G a m e -Vi ewing Dri ve s

• A n t i - Po a ching Pa t rol Experi e n c e

• And much more !

In an unfo rget table setting with

comfy lodging, memorable meals

AT DIMBANGOMBE

Come Visit Us!AT DIMBANGOMBE

P ri va te Bag 5950 Ro ger Pa rry

Vi c to ria Fa l l s Email: ro g p a ch m @ a f ri c a o n l i n e . c o . z w

Z i m b a bwe Tel. (263)(11 ) 213 529

w w w. a f ri c a n s o j o u rn . c o m

Board of Trustees

Allan Savory, Chair

Ignatius Ncube, Vice Chair

Chief D. Shana II

Chief A. J. Mvutu

Chief B.W. Wange

Chief D. Nelukoba

Chief S.R. Nekatambe

Councilor Ndubiwa

Mary Ncube

Lot Ndlovu

Emeldah Nkomo

(Staff Representative)

Elias Ncube

(Staff Representative)

Osmond Mugweni - Masvingo

Hendrik O’Neill - Harare

Sam Brown, Austin, Texas,

ex-officio

Staff

Huggins Matanga, Director

Alan Sparrow, Director of

Education

Elias Ncube, Community

Programmes Manager

Emeldah Nkomo, Community

Training Coordinator

Andrew Moyo, Village

Banking Coordinator

Otilia Mpofu,

Office Manager

Sylvia Nyakujawa and

Vusa Mangena, Bookkeepers

Dimbangombe Ranch and

Conservation Safaris:

Roger Parry, Manager

Trish Pullen,

Assistant Manager, Catering

Albert Chauke, Ranch Foreman

Africa Centre for Holistic Management

(A subsidiary of the Allan Savory Center for

Holistic Management since 1992)

To order products inAustralia/New Zealand or southern Africa contact:

Australia: Holistic Decision Making Association, Irene Dasey, P.O. Box 543,

Inverell NSW 2360, tel: 61-2-6721-0123; [email protected]

South Africa: Whole Concepts cc, PO Box 1806, Vryburg 8600;

tel/fax: 27-53-9274367; [email protected]

#091, In Practice, Sept/Oct 2003

Documents

Transcript of #091, In Practice, Sept/Oct 2003