The Coalition is built on the foundation of real experience, scientific research, and commitment to our common goals of rangeland conservation and ranching viability. The stories below are about the ranchers, the agency representatives, and others who have made a commitment to the mission of the Coalition into action. See also Grazing for Change I and II. More videos are hosted by California Cattlemen’s Association.
2024 Range Camp Report
40th Annual Range Camp in the Books! Theresa Becchetti
This past June marked the 40th Range Camp. I can’t believe it. And the Top Camper from that first year is still active in natural resources! Camp has meant so many things to so many people over the years. I cannot thank Mike Stroud enough for pulling together that first camp and the Navy Natural Resources program for keeping it going for so long before it transitioned to a more diverse Cal-Pac led Camp, and then lately to a University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) led Camp.
Cal-Pac members have continued to show up and help share their love of rangelands with a group of 25-ish (our numbers over the years have been between 20 and 29, mostly around 24-25) high school kids every summer. For those of us based in the San Joaquin Valley, a week in Half Moon Bay is not a bad way to start summer.
This year we had a really great group of campers. A handful of kids have grandparents or parents who work in the natural resources world with some being SRM (and Cal-Pac) members. We have seen kiddos of SRM members come to camp in the past and often they are there purely for the unique social experience of Range Camp. This group was an excellent mix of students from across California who all wanted to learn, as well as enjoy the social aspect. And those kiddos who have been exposed to rangelands – they competed very well with everyone! With two of them placing in the Top Three Campers and one just a few points shy of the Top 5. Less than 10 points separated the top camper and the 10th camp[1]er. Normally, we have a bigger spread in points, underscoring just how tough the competition was this year.
For those who have never been to Camp, it is a week-long mini cram session for a range degree. We try to expose Campers to a little bit of everything encompassed by rangeland management. A little bit on range ecology, a little bit on monitoring, little bit on soils, geology, wildlife, riparian areas, forestry, fire, and more! Each speaker also shares background on their career path to spark an interest in college… and a career on rangelands with any luck. And to point out, career paths are often like a windy road to an unknown destination, and that is ok. Each session has a field component – from digging soil pits, collecting plants, conducting monitoring, setting things on fire, and seeing geological events on the cliffs at the beach. Campers are outside most of the days, actively learning and getting their hands dirty.
Thank you to all our speakers, volunteers and staff who make Range Camp possible every year!! And just so you know, the reason we keep registration costs as low as we do, is because we only hire two counselors, our caterer and a health supervisor. The rest of those who come to camp are volunteering their time to be there. And we could not have as stellar a camp without them. And a huge thank you to the many Resource Conservation Districts who sponsor Campers year after year. We are so thankful for the support of the RCDs and other natural resource focused groups who provide scholarships for campers every year.
Range Camp sponsors the top two campers to attend the High School Youth Forum at the Annual SRM meeting. Hawaii held their first Range Camp this past spring, and we are waiting to see if the third spot Cal[1]Pac has for HSYF will be filled by a Hawaiian Camper or a California Camper. No matter what, we know the delegates from the Cal-Pac section who attend the HSYF will enjoy another unforgettable experience and represent Cal-Pac well. Without further ado, we present the Top Campers from the 40th Annual Range and Natural Resource Camp! Izzy and Teagan will be representing Cal-Pac at the HSYF, and if the Hawaii Top Camper is not able to at[1]tend, Spyder will be given the opportunity as the third delegate (and we will help him find funding if he needs it – Camp is only able to financially support the Top 2). If you are at the SRM Annual Meeting in Spokane, be sure to come support our Cal-Pac delegates as they present their papers on the rangeland topic of their choice (one will be on California’s vernal pools I know!).
If you are thinking of becoming a sponsor for Range Camp 2025 please follow the steps below: 1. Email us at rangecamp@ucanr.edu 2. Get the word out 3. Select a Camper to Sponsor 4. Submit the Sponsorship Funds to Range Camp. 5. Coordinate with camper to insure they submit their application and supporting documents by the Ap[1]plication Deadline. More information can be found at our website: https://ucanr.edu/sites/rangecamp/
2024 CRCC SIGNATORIES
Alameda County Board of Supervisors
Alameda County Resource Conservation District
Blue Ridge Berryessa Partnership
Burrowing Owl Preservation Society
California Association of Family Farmers
California Association of RCDs
California Board of Forestry
California Cattlemen’s Association
California Cattlewomen’s Association
Ca Chap Int’l Soil &Water Conservation Society
California Climate and Agriculture Network
California Council of Land Trusts
California Department of Conservation
California Department of Fish and Wildlife
California Department of Food and Agriculture
California Dept of Forestry & Fire Protection
California Farm Bureau Federation
California Grazing Lands Coalition
California Invasive Plant Council
California Native Grasslands Association
California Native Plant Society
California Range Management Advisory Cmtee
California Wildlife Foundation/California Oaks
California Wool Growers Association
Cal-Pac Section Society For Range Management
Center for Natural Lands Management
Center for Re-connecting with Nature
Center for Conservation Biology, Stanford
Central Coast Rangeland Coalition
Central Sierra Region of Resource Conservation Districts
Cobblestone Ranch
Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors
East Bay Regional Park District
Humboldt State University Rangeland Resources
Institute for Ecological Health
Kingsley Farms
Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo
Land Trust for Santa Barbara County
Napa County Board of Supervisors
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
National Marine Fisheries Service Southwest Region Protected Resource Division
National Wild Turkey Federation
Nevada County Board of Supervisors
Northern California Regional Land Trust
Planning and Conservation League
Point Blue Conservation Science
Rancho Ventura Conservation Trust
Rangeland Management Advisory Committee, CA Board of Forestry
Sacramento River Watershed Program
San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors
Santa Barbara County Farm Bureau
Sierra Foothills Audubon Society
Sonoma County Board of Supervisors
State Water Resources Control Board
Sutter Buttes Regional Land Trust
Sweet Ranch
TomKat Ranch Educational Foundation
UC California Rangeland Research and Information Center
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
U S Bureau of Land Management
Xerces Soc for Invertebrate Conservation
Bre Owens, Chair, CRCC
Bre lives in Los Molinos, CA where she runs a small cattle operation utilizing mostly leased private and public lands. Bre grew up in Northern CA on a cow-calf ranch, attended Chico State and Colorado State University, Fort Collins, focusing her studies on rangeland ecology and livestock production. Beyond CA, she has worked on cattle ranches in OR, NV, WY, and HI.
She is motivated by a love for working landscapes – for the people, land and livestock that are a part of them. She believes that agriculture at its best is conservation at its best. Bre’s role at NatGLC is designed to bring western graziers needs and solutions into the organization’s programs, policy and communications efforts while sharing resources and facilitating partnerships across NatGLC’s western network. In this capacity, she works with livestock producers in all western states. She maintains a comprehensive understanding of current challenges and emerging opportunities relevant to grazing lands stewardship through these interactions and by running her own beef cattle operation.
Additionally, she serves as the board chair of the CA Rangeland Conservation Coalition, board chair for Holistic Management International, President of the Cal-Pac Section of Society for Range Management, and is a CA Certified Rangeland Manager (CRM #97). She supports various working lands collaborative projects across the west in an advisory capacity. In her spare time, she prepares grazing management plans for ranching operations in CA.
Text: NatGLC
John Austel, CalGLC Rancher Panelist and California Cattlemen’s Association 2nd Vice-President
“Originally published in the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Directions magazine.” Photo, CCA.
In the last 50 years the volume of beef produced in the U.S. has grown by 25% while the number of cattle has decreased by 6%. With increased efficiency in mind, technology is what makes the U.S. the global leader in high-quality, sustainable beef.
Out West, the Austel family also adopts technologies to solve problems and set them up for a successful future. John Austel, owner of 4J Horse and Livestock Co. and a first-generation rancher, has grazed cattle in Southern California with his family for 10 years, working hand in hand with the local Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) to return fallow acres to grazing land for cattle production. They run a Natural Angus operation on an Old Spanish Land Grant which used to be agricultural land but sat unused for more than 20 years. It is now a CDFW Ecological Reserve and Wildlife Area.
Along with raising cattle, the ranch focuses on preserving land, water and ecosystems unique to their region. To manage these different factors and stay in business, the Austels had to look for technologies and practices that would also reduce labor and cost while contributing to conservation. “Striving for win-win solutions has always been our mindset and has served us well so far. We are currently working with entities onsite to help increase our knowledge of range monitoring, wildlife habitat improvement and maintenance, soil health, wildfire fuel management and more,” Austel explained.
One of the first things they decided to tackle was water. After two major wildfires burned the land in 2003 and 2007, water infrastructure was one of the first things needing replacement. John and his eldest son, Jake, saw an opportunity to do something different. With support from the NRCS Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) they converted previously drilled wells from electric to solar. NRCS conducted site inspections and engineered designs, and the Austels installed the solar-powered technology using EQIP funding.
The solar-powered wells transform sunlight to energy to pump water into holding tanks. As cattle drink from nearby troughs or the water evaporates, the float in the trough signals to the holding tank it needs to be refilled. The holding tank’s elevation is above that of the trough, so gravity is optimized to refill the trough. Each well location is required by NRCS to have two 5,000 gallon holding tanks to store water for up to three days in case of an emergency. In addition, each tank has a quick connection for the fire department to be able to get a one-time shot of 10,000 gallons of water if needed. 4J Horse and Livestock has seven solar water pumps on the ranch, with plans to establish an eighth. “The largest benefit is there’s no power bill. That’s the first benefit — a financial benefit. The second benefit is they are very low maintenance. Those two things make me feel they are very reliable, and they are beneficial to invest in,” John said.
Saving money is always important to a business, and not repairing wells often saves labor and allows John and Jake to focus their attention on other things, like herd genetics and other infrastructure maintenance. Looking ahead, John is excited to see solar water technology advance. “These pumps we are putting in, we will be able to add more solar panels to a low-flow well to increase the gallons per minute. With these pumps, they can increase from 10 to 12 gallons a minute up to 25 gallons a minute if you add more panels,” John explained. “You increase your flow just by increasing the number of panels and without replacing the pump.”
There are other emerging technologies John is keeping an eye on to improve his water management and adaptive grazing plans. He is excited to watch tools progress and determine if they will fit into 4J Horse and Livestock’s plans.
The Path Forward: Technology Transforms Cattle Production Efficiency
“Originally published in the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Directions magazine.”
In the last 50 years, the volume of beef produced in the U.S. has grown by 25% while the number of cattle has decreased by 6%. With increased efficiency in mind, technology is what makes the U.S. the global leader in high-quality, sustainable beef.
Out West, the Austel family also adopts technologies to solve problems and set them up for a successful future. John Austel, owner of 4J Horse and Livestock Co. and a first-generation rancher, has grazed cattle in Southern California with his family for 10 years, working hand in hand with the local Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) to return fallow acres to grazing land for cattle production. They run a Natural Angus operation on an Old Spanish Land Grant which used to be agricultural land but sat unused for more than 20 years. It is now a CDFW Ecological Reserve and Wildlife Area.
Along with raising cattle, the ranch focuses on preserving land, water and ecosystems unique to their region. To manage these different factors and stay in business, the Austels had to look for technologies and practices that would also reduce labor and cost while contributing to conservation. “Striving for win-win solutions has always been our mindset and has served us well so far. We are currently working with entities onsite to help increase our knowledge of range monitoring, wildlife habitat improvement and maintenance, soil health, wildfire fuel management and more,” Austel explained.
One of the first things they decided to tackle was water. After two major wildfires burned the land in 2003 and 2007, water infrastructure was one of the first things needing replacement. John and his eldest son, Jake, saw an opportunity to do something different. With support from the NRCS Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) they converted previously drilled wells from electric to solar. NRCS conducted site inspections and engineered designs, and the Austels installed the solar-powered technology using EQIP funding.
The solar-powered wells transform sunlight to energy to pump water into holding tanks. As cattle drink from nearby troughs or the water evaporates, the float in the trough signals to the holding tank it needs to be refilled. The holding tank’s elevation is above that of the trough, so gravity is optimized to refill the trough. Each well location is required by NRCS to have two 5,000 gallon holding tanks to store water for up to three days in case of an emergency. In addition, each tank has a quick connection for the fire department to be able to get a one-time shot of 10,000 gallons of water if needed. 4J Horse and Livestock has seven solar water pumps on the ranch, with plans to establish an eighth. “The largest benefit is there’s no power bill. That’s the first benefit — a financial benefit. The second benefit is they are very low maintenance. Those two things make me feel they are very reliable, and they are beneficial to invest in,” John said.
Saving money is always important to a business, and not repairing wells often saves labor and allows John and Jake to focus their attention on other things, like herd genetics and other infrastructure maintenance. Looking ahead, John is excited to see solar water technology advance. “These pumps we are putting in, we will be able to add more solar panels to a low-flow well to increase the gallons per minute. With these pumps, they can increase from 10 to 12 gallons a minute up to 25 gallons a minute if you add more panels,” John explained. “You increase your flow just by increasing the number of panels and without replacing the pump.”
There are other emerging technologies John is keeping an eye on to improve his water management and adaptive grazing plans. He is excited to watch tools progress and determine if they will fit into 4J Horse and Livestock’s plans.
RANGELAND-RELATED JOB BOARD
BOOKMARK THESE JOB BOARDS
See also recent Field Notes for current opportunities.
CA Association of Conservation Districts
Center for Collaborative Conservation
Intermountain West Joint Venture
University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources
(Submit others to ksweet@cattlemen.net)
2024 Summit Agenda
It Takes a Community – Ranchers, Land and Neighbors, too!
This theme captures many elements of the CRCC Rangeland Resolution. As RangelandsGateway.org also states, ‘Communities, where ranchers live and work depend on rangeland and they, too affect how rangelands are managed. We all have a stake in how our rangelands are managed and the goods and services they produce.”
Ranchers and their rangeland neighbors gathered to focus on rangeland communities, learn about stewardship economy and stimulate new strategies for thriving rural communities with healthy landscapes.
Welcome, Bre Owens, CRCC Chair and Stephanie Larson, UCANR, Summit Moderator
What Rangeland Conversion means for Local Communities – The Solano Together story by Al Medvitz and Ian Anderson
Conservation Economics – Learning from Keep it Colorado’s, Return on Investment Study. A collaborative effort involving the CO Cattlemen’s Ag Land Trust – Amy Beatie, Executive Director, Keep it Colorado
What is a Stewardship Economy? And how do we build them? – Interview by Lynn Huntsinger with Laurel Harkness, Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition and Staci Heaton, Rural Community Representatives of California
Ranching and Community – A dialogue with ranchers from across California
You just can’t see them from the road – California Rangeland Trust Documentary trailer
Lunch Thank you, San Joaquin Stanislaus Cattlewomen, Audubon California,and Orvis Ranch Beef
Introducing CalGLC – Bre Owens and Alex Karol, Coordinator
Challenges and Opportunities of Conservation Easements – a panel discussion lead by Michael Delbar, CA Rangeland Trust; Dean Kwasny, Easement Program Manager, CA NRCS State office; John Walsh, Deputy Executive Director, Land Acquisition, Wildlife Conservation Board; and Jack Hanson, Willow Creek Ranch
Photo Contest Results – Bonnie Eyestone and Laura Robison, Point Blue Conservation Science
Pathways to Stewardship Economies – Empowering people, place and profits – Jared Talley, Boise State University, and Kris Hulvey, Working Lands Conservation.
“Land conservation keeps our rural heritage alive, fosters healthy communities, generates good jobs, supports sustainable agriculture, preserves diverse wildlife habitats, and maintains the wild landscapes of the West.” Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust
National Ag Day 2023
Ideas to showcase and promote rangeland diversity, values and rancher stewardship
Let’s all celebrate National Ag Day on the CA Rangeland on March 21
and showcase the values of California ranchers and working rangelands, especially your own ranchers and other rangeland colleagues and constituents. Resources online.
- See CRCC’s website for quick facts, Benefits of Rangeland and Photo Gallery.
- See CRT’s ecosystem services study.
- Follow CRCC Facebook page for posts to easily share. Use your Instagram and Twitter accounts to post something the week of March 19-25.
- Submit a Letter to the Editor, ranch recipe or an op-ed in your paper. Invite a news person to the ranch.
- Make and Share a video from a ranch. Here’s a sample, Settrini Ranch.
- Local Cattlewomen groups seek outreach projects and may partner on a project.
Share one of these videos of nationally-recognized ranch land stewards from your neighborhood. Update it with an interview & photo and share it in paper and social media. Let these be an inspiration to your own stories. National Environmental Stewardship Award Program – CA Awardees, Sparrowk Livestock, Conlan Ranches / True Grass Farms, Work Ranch, Canyon Creek Ranch, Leavitt Lake Ranches, Yolo Land & Cattle, Smith Valley Cattle Feeders / Centennial Livestock, Blanchard Ranch