Regenerating degraded landscapes: there is no "one size fits all" solution

I visited a ranch this past week in the Texas Hill Country that reminded me much of our own ranch many years ago. I will be the first to acknowledge that we have a long ways to go here at Parker Creek Ranch before we are truly regenerative. It’s a constant work in progress that will take perhaps decades to repair. Remember the problems we face didn’t occur “over night,” they happened steadily over the past several hundred years. The problems stem from a severely overgrazed landscape. Livestock grazed the desirable vegetation into oblivion and what remains is a dried out, malfunctioning ecosystem trying to slowly repair itself. Our goal is to speed up the regeneration of the ecosystem using the tools available to us including technology, animal impact, money and labor.

There is a misnomer out there right now that if you simply put up electric fences, install a watering system and rotate livestock that the land will magically recover over night. This may be true for some landscapes, but it is not the case at all for dry, brittle environments. It is my belief that they need a bit more help. We created the problem and we can fix it. Considering that water is the major limiting factor in dry environments it is our responsibility to do what we can to slow it down and allow it to sink into the landscape. Sometimes this process may require heavy machinery to move soil and stones for creating catchments, it may require sub-soiling to create deep rips in the Earth for the water to infiltrate, perhaps the reintroduction of beneficial microbes or strategically creating more pastures for better livestock rotation. Maybe a combination of all of these and more depending on the money and labor resources available to us. Understanding the mineral cycle, water cycle, community dynamics and energy cycle can help us identify which of these tools is best for our ranch. Context check the action or decision. If you go forward with the action or decision be sure to monitor. Good monitoring will enable you to determine if the action is achieving the desired goals, and can help you to become a better decision maker in the future.

My point is landscapes (our ranches) are a system. Nature function as a whole (system). A system of natural processes that are impacted by our decisions and actions. Typically the answer isn’t a “one size fits all” solution.

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2014 A highly degraded Parker Creek resulting from drought and livestock.

2017 The process of regeneration is starting with the exclusion and very controlled grazing of livestock in addition to reintroducing desired vegetation.

2013 At Parker Creek Ranch sub-soiling a highly degraded landscape.

2013 Just a few a few inches of rain and a few months later. Look where the grass grew!