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SCF holds "Generations on the Land" symposium in Texas

October 25, 2008

Sand County Foundation, in partnership with Texas A&M University’s Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, hosted a landowner symposium October 24 at Texas A&M University.

The “Generations on the Land” symposium, which was comprised of over 140 participants, including Sand County Foundation Directors David K. Langford and Ed Warner, brought together 11 of Sand County Foundation’s Leopold Conservation Award winning families, from all over the country, to share their stories and philosophies of land management and conservation with other landowners and students.

The event began with a presentation from David Pratt, who teaches holistic ranch management in a seminar he calls Ranching for Profit. To Pratt, sustainability is more than ecological resilience. Sustainability implies that the human activity is sustainable as well. For that to be true, the human enterprise must be economically profitable, culturally supported, socially allowed, and fun.

Pratt’s lecture was followed by presentations from three of the Leopold Conservation Award winning families, which were chosen based on the diversity of their operations. Tom Vandivier, who presented with his daughter Laura Sherrod, bought his family’s Llano Springs Ranch in central Texas just 20 years ago, but the Vandiviers have been able to achieve a tremendous transformation on their land in this short period of time. Aaron Lange, of LangeTwins Wine Estates, is the fifth generation of Langes to farm near Lodi, California. The Lange family now sustainably grows wine grapes within the context of a programmatic Safe Harbor Agreement for an endangered longhorn beetle. Sara and Mike Shields are fifth generation cattle ranchers in the scenic Wet Mountain Valley in Colorado. Facing heavy development pressure from those who want a small piece of Heaven for themselves, the Shields know that their valley will not stay isolated much longer.

The afternoon session featured five student speakers whose presentations were focused on various themes of land management. Each student received a $1,000 scholarship from Sand County Foundation.

The concluding session was a free-flowing discussion about topical issues facing landowner producers, regardless of what part of the country they’re from or what they produce. The conversation was rich and flowed easily from conservation easements to death taxes, from private property rights to carbon credits, and from ethics to water.

The symposium was made possible through the generous support of the Bradley Fund for the Environment, Capital Farm Credit, Lee and Ramona Bass Foundation, Mr. Steve Lewis, Mr. Scott Noble, S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association and Texas Wildlife Association.