The Wild Horse Project: A Successful Coordinated Resource Management Program

by Doug Warnock

 The Wild Horse Coordinated Resource Management (CRM) Project in Kittitas County, Washington, is an example of positive results coming from people working together to solve problems and improve natural resources. It was the main feature of a meeting of CRM proponents recently in Ellensburg, WA.  

 CRM is about empowering local people to work together to resolve resource problems and coordinate their activities across the landscape and jurisdictional boundaries to result in positive outcomes for the land.

 The Wild Horse project got its start in 2006, when a diverse group of people met to discuss ways to improve the rangelands of eastern Kittitas County. This area provides wintering and calving grounds for a resident elk herd, but over time had been deteriorating in forage quality and quantity. The elk had started coming down into the valley to forage on irrigated hay and pastureland, destroying crops and causing a financial burden for the farmers and ranchers.

 The recommended solution for the problem was to improve the condition of the rangeland through planned grazing with cattle. This solution came from a group, known as the Big Game Management Roundtable (BGMR), after several years of studying the elk depredation problem. BGMR had been formed and operated using the CRM process.

 Participating in this diverse group of stakeholders were agricultural producers, environmentalists, wildlife and resource conservationists, wind power enthusiasts, outdoor recreationists, state and federal agency representatives and the Yakama Nation. In its first meetings, the Wild Horse CRM group developed a goal and a mission. Its mission was to enhance rangeland health, improve wildlife habitat and promote collaboration among the landowners and users, both public and private, in eastern Kittitas County.

 Ownership of the 60,000 acres involved in the Wild Horse project included Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Puget Sound Energy (PSE), and several private landowners. Most of the property is managed by WDFW. Through an open bidding process, Russ Stingley, a local cattle producer, was awarded a lease for grazing the CRM area. The Stingley family’s patience and devotion to the group’s goal were key to the program’s success.

 Over the next 18 months, a team of range management specialists inventoried the rangeland included in the project. This information provided a base set of data on range condition for use in developing a grazing plan. Also, monitoring sites were established for periodic data collection to determine the results of the planned grazing.

 In early 2010, the Western Watersheds Project (WWP), an organization based in Idaho, filed suit to stop grazing on property managed by WDFW. A settlement agreement was reached between Fish and Wildlife and Western Watersheds in January of 2011 in which the eastern half of the area would not be grazed for 20 years. Grazing would continue on the western part and monitoring would be done on it and that data used for evaluation of the effects of grazing over a twenty-year period.

 At the meeting and tour this fall, Tip Hudson, Washington State University Extension Rangeland and Livestock Specialist, reported the land area in this project had retained its original plant community and was in good condition. The management applied over the ten or more years since the beginning of the project has been successful.

 The Wild Horse CRM Project illustrates how a diverse group can collaborate to address a natural resources problem, arriving at a solution that is acceptable to the stakeholders. A team of rangeland specialists has been assisting the rancher in planning the grazing and is collecting valuable data for use in future planning and management.   

 Information on Coordinated Resource Management and how to get help in establishing a CRM project is available from Alison Halpern, Chair of the Washington CRM Taskforce at 360-407-6209.

 Doug Warnock, retired from Washington State University Extension, lives on a ranch in the Touchet River Valley where he writes about and teaches grazing management.

A Yak in My Classroom

By Sandra Mathison, DVM

Any time you decide to raise a species that is new to you, do your research and be prepared for a learning curve. This series of articles is about my journey into the “high peaks” and “low valleys” of raising yak. There are estimated to be over 10,000 yaks in the US, and we are still learning about them. I use the yaks for meat, sometimes fiber, and for education. I hope to train a couple for packing and riding. They are part of my classroom on the farm.

Part 1 - How I became a Yak Whisperer
As a lifelong beef producer, people often ask me how I got into Yaks. “By accident!”, I say.

It began with an innocent search for an item on Craigslist. As I scrolled through, I came across an ad about Yaks for sale. It surprised me since I didn’t think there were many Yaks in the US, let alone in my own county. At that time there was only text on the ad. To see the photos, one had to click on the ad. I sighed and decided to continue with my search instead.

A couple of days later, I saw the ad again. This time I clicked on it. The first photo that came up was that of a Yak bull named Rogue. He was so magnificent; it took my breath away! I viewed the rest of the photos. The other yaks were just as beautiful. I groaned and moved on, assuring myself that I did not need any Yaks.

Two days later, I came back to the ad. Out of curiosity, I called the phone number. I was greeted on the other end of the line by a nice lady. She was a wealth of knowledge and invited me to come visit. I said to myself, “No I shouldn’t.” But I did and about three months later became the proud owner of three yaks. She and I went on to become the best of friends. I acquired more animals over time and limited the herd to between 30-40 head.

Yaks are fascinating creatures. They are Bos Grunniens, the same genus as beef cattle but a different species (Bos Taurus). Yak are like having a cow, horse, goat, sheep, bison, and a poodle all in one animal. When they run, they throw their horse tails over their backs. They love to jump and climb like goats. They have fine wool like sheep as well as hair like in beef cattle – albeit longer. They have a hump like bison and the babies look like poodle dogs when they are born.

The meat is similar to beef, mild in flavor, lean, and tasty. It is difficult to keep up with the demand. Yaks milk is rich and creamy. However, my quality-of-life dictates that I do not run a yak dairy. I mentioned that they have wonderful soft fiber. The yaks may be combed in the spring and not sheared. If not combed, the wool simply sheds off. I find sheep’s wool terribly scratchy and can’t wear it, but I can wear the incredibly soft yak wool.

The yaks are fascinating creatures. They are smart, playful, majestic, and often protective of their newborns. Since they have been in the US for only a century, there is so much we don’t know about them. In Part 2, I will share about my learning curve and the realities of owning yak.

Sandra Mathison, a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, is a lifelong farmer, educator, filmmaker, author, speaker, and retired veterinarian. She lives and ranches in Bellingham, Washington, where she runs a cow/calf operation and grass-fed beef and Yak business.

The Soil Breathes

By Craig Madsen

When we think about agricultural production what factors do we consider to be limiting? We might consider the standard NPK trio of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, or plain old water. What if we look at the soil as a living organism instead of a growth medium, how would that change our answer? A person can live without food for 1 to 3 months, without water for about 3 days, and without air for 3 minutes. Air is critical for our survival and for all living organisms, which includes soil biology from microorganisms to earthworms. Our soils need to be able to breathe.

 Average soil is composed of 45% minerals, 50% pore space (25% water, 25% air), and 5% organic matter. The pore space is critical for water storage, gas exchange, and living quarters for soil biology to thrive. The better the soil aggregation the more pore space and the greater the ability of the soil to breathe and hold water. The soil is built by a community of organisms. Soil biology is what forms soil aggregates. Bacteria form the small aggregates, the building bricks. In most situations balance is important. A bacterially dominated soil is going to have limited structure. This type of soil is more likely to crust over when it rains causing the water to runoff versus infiltrating into the soil. When the rain hits a bacterial-dominated soil, it dissolves the small soil aggregates and fills the small pore spaces, resulting in water running off versus being absorbed.

 A balanced soil needs fungi. Fungi bind the building blocks together by their hyphae and a sticky protein called glomalin and form larger stable aggregates. The hyphae are so fine that you cannot see them with the naked eye. These aggregates held together by the fungi are able to hold their structure when it rains resisting the erosive forces of water and allowing water to infiltrate into the still-open pore spaces.  A diversity of living organisms in the soil is critical to building the infrastructure to cycle nutrients and store water. Worms, nematodes, arthropods, protists, and amoebas all play a role in building a healthy functional plant community. This is just as true on cropland as it is on rangeland.

 A simple test for soil aggregation is the slake test. Take a fist-size soil sample from your field and a second one from a less disturbed site such as a pasture or along a fence line. Suspend the soil samples in water using hardware cloth and a quart jar to see how long it takes for the soil samples to dissolve in water. If the soil starts to dissolve in the water right away, you have a bacterially dominated soil with little to no structure or aggregation. If the soil stays together and the water stays clear, you have a soil that has stronger aggregation and a higher fungal component.

 Another simple test is to look at your plant roots. Dig up one plant and look at its root system.  Is it covered with soil or is it mostly bare? (See picture).  If it is covered with soil, then the plant has developed a relationship with mycorrhizal fungi. This relationship is critical in building the soil infrastructure and in the cycling of nutrients as well as protecting the plant from harmful fungi and nematodes. Mycorrhizae fungi increase the root surface area for water and nutrient uptake by 40 times. Without this relationship, there is water in the soil the plant roots cannot access.

 Plants exude root exudates into the soil to feed the soil biology. What does the plant get in return? The plant gets nutrients, water, pest, and disease protection, and gets tied into a communication system that warns the plant of threats. The bacteria, fungi, amoebas, protozoa, nematodes, worms, etc. are essential for the cycling of nutrients and the formation of humus. Humus is the black or brown color of biologically active soil. It has a great ability to absorb nutrients and water.

 When the system is functioning well the soil is able to capture all the rainfall and it is able to access nutrients that the plant cannot access by itself. We’ve talked about water, now let’s talk about air. We breathe out carbon dioxide and so does the soil biology. What is a key component of photosynthesis? Carbon dioxide. A biologically active soil releases CO2 as it breaths out and the higher concentration at the soil level is readily available for the plants to absorb through the stomata located underneath their leaves. Higher levels of CO2 increase plant yields which is why CO2 concentration is increased in greenhouse production. Increasing CO2 levels in greenhouses to 700 to 1200 ppm has increased yields by 40% to 100%.

 A well-aerated soil breathes in the surrounding atmosphere, which is 21% oxygen and 78% nitrogen. Over every acre of land to a height of 6 feet, there are about 6 tons of nitrogen in the air. How do we capture some of that nitrogen so we can reduce or eliminate synthetic nitrogen applications? That will be the topic of the next article.

Craig Madsen is a co-owner of Healing Hooves which was started in 2002. Healing Hooves uses a herd of goats as a tool to manage vegetation and help clients create their landscape goals. The goats are managed to target undesirable plants and to reduce fire risk for clients.

Before starting Healing Hooves, Craig was a Range Management Specialist with the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service for 14 years. Craig is the current president of Roots of Resilience.