I attended New Cowgirl camp as the first female in my family with an interest in stewarding our ancestral lands. I had zero experience in livestock handling or land management but knew that I wanted to step into my role with integrity and in a way that felt more connected to natural rhythms than I had seen in many traditional male-led ranching and land stewardship operations.  The instructors at New Cowgirl Camp create a safe space for folks of all types to come together as they are to learn these skills and ask as many questions as they need to. The learning environment is a mix of hands-on, lecture, and ample time for hanging out to casually connect with other attendees and instructors. I made lifelong connections during my time at Lazy R.

Managing production and food system information is a challenge, whether you are managing 1,000 acres or a small garden. In this article, I will introduce my journey into information management, share my current efforts related to food production and information management at WWCC, and ask for your experience and thoughts to help shape future articles.

I got my first introduction to the challenges of information management while in graduate school and later while working in the agriculture chemical industry. While in graduate school, I realized the challenges of managing information in a research program with a large team and multiple contributors per project.

"A Sand County Almanac" by Aldo Leopold is a cornerstone text in environmental literature. It offers a profound, eloquent, and reflective account of the natural world and our relationship with it. First published in 1949, it has been reprinted many times since then. The book is divided into three sections, each offering a different perspective on ecology and conservation.

 The first part of the book, "A Sand County Almanac," provides a month-by-month account of the changes and natural processes that occur throughout the year on Leopold's property in the sand counties of Wisconsin. Through these vivid, meticulous observations, Leopold illustrates the interconnectedness of all living things and the importance of each species to the ecosystem's overall health. Leopold became an astute student of the flora, fauna, and geology of his farm.

In eastern Washington, grappling with wildfires is inevitable – a matter of when, not if. This summer, in partnership with the Washington Department of Natural Resources and the Spokane Conservation District, Roots of Resilience will host a workshop focused on measures to lessen wildfire damage to your property and strategies for post-fire recovery.