Common Sense and Natural Forces

There is more than one way to deal with a water gap.  We had a neighbor that recognized nature's way of removing them by utilizing natural materials to fill them.  You can see the remains of an ancient barbed wire fence in the photo and a nearly new post on the left, but the gap is blocked by tree limbs that will be washed away when the next flood comes.  When that occurred, he simply came back after the waters receded and replaced them with more limbs.

Most people approach a water gap as a way to pit themselves against nature.  The idea is to construct something that will withstand the forces of the water and bend it to their will.  They use bull wire panels that will swing upward as the waters rise, or perhaps even anchor them to the banks in a way that allows smaller debris to pass through while catching the larger pieces.  Eventually, they always wash out, or are otherwise destroyed in the floods.

Working with nature seems to be the best way.  It is something we should do in many areas.  Instead, it is man's way to attempt to tame it.  We build our buildings and streets, we change the landscape with heavy equipment and we suffer the consequences with flooding and devastation.

Many agricultural practices also take an approach that doesn't necessarily work with nature, but seeks to "overcome" natural forces through artificial means.  We do this with fertilizers and chemicals and plows that re-shape the land into our "image" of what is necessary to produce food.  Historically, such practices resulted in catastrophic loss through flooding, or drought-fueled wind storms.

Many today are taking more conservation-conscious approaches that disturb the soil less and utilize natural forces to manage the land.  In livestock production it is seen in rotational grazing systems based on native forage species -- sometimes in intensive rotational grazing that mimics the pattern of native ungulates such as American Bison.  In farming we are seeing a switch to less soil-disturbing methods such as low-till, or no-till cultivation.  We see the use of cover crops and more drought-tolerant species.

We are currently seeing another form of the devastating impacts of man's attempts to change the natural systems in the California wildfires.  Failure to allow periodic low-impact fires to clear brush and undergrowth has created a tremendous fuel load in those forests.  Crossing those brush-covered hills with electrical lines is a perfect setup for the fires which are raging there now.  Just like in the water gap shown in the image at the top of this post, nature will cross man's artificial boundaries at a whim.

They need to control the brush with goats, or controlled burns.  They need to bury their power transmission lines.  They need to stop building on erosive slopes.  They need to understand that nature will have her way in spite of the billions of dollars they spend attempting to prevent it.  Perhaps what is needed most is some common sense, like our neighbor used by stopping the water gap with limbs, but we are talking about California....

Working Grasses

Maintaining a strong stand of grasses is critical to sustainability.  Rotational grazing allows periods of rest that give the grasses time to deepen their roots and to produce seed.  This area of our pasture is primarily Dallisgrass (Paspalum dilatatum) which some folks see as an invasive species.  Our cattle love it.  You do have to be careful because of the potential of a smut infecting the grass which causes problems.

I, of course, chose one of the cleanest, best-looking areas of the pasture for this photograph.  It's too bad all of the pasture doesn't look like this!  The rains this year have been helpful as well.

This pasture has had no fertilizer and no herbicide or, pesticide application since we have owned the place.  The soil here is alluvial and is sometimes covered with silt-laden water that pushes out of the nearby creeks.  The silt is captured by the grasses and the water running off of the land is cleaner than the water that runs onto it!  I wish the folks upstream from me used better management techniques for their land, but then we wouldn't get the benefit of their soil migrating onto ours.

There is a tremendous amount of "carbon capture" in this grass which is then cycled through the cattle.  The Dallisgrass in this meadow will produce 3 to 4 tons of hay per acre each year while maintaining this type of stand, anchoring the soil and capturing all that carbon while it filters the water passing over it.  That's a lot of work!

The meadow also offers food for a number of wildlife species.  Early in the morning, or just before sunset, we often see deer grazing in the meadow.  Our game cameras capture them at all hours of the night as well.  Without the open meadows of healthy grasses, wildlife populations would be significantly diminished.  Deep in a dense forest there is often a lack of food sources for wildlife.  With the variety of both grasslands and forests, the number of food species increases dramatically.  The "edge" where the transition between forest and grassland occurs is crucial to wildlife and frequently where they will be found -- close to food, yet within easy distance to cover.

Now, if we just didn't have the feral hogs that roam the area and tear up the meadow....

Perspective

Between Pampa and Perryton in the Texas Panhandle is a long stretch of native grassland. It is part of the area that burned in the big fire last year. The summer rains though, helped the grass to recover nicely.

I enjoy the drive across that stretch because I like to watch for the antelope. I count them. I guess it's impulsive behavior, but I always count to see how many there are that I can spot from the highway as I pass by at 70 mph. Today I counted 24 of them.

Almost any time of year I will see them. They are usually scattered in groups of 4 or 5 up to 15 or 20. I think the most I ever remember counting for the whole stretch was a little over 50 of them.

That stretch of grassland makes it easier to imagine what it must have been like before this country was settled. The buffalo trails of history have been replaced by the cattle trails of today, but otherwise, I suspect it looks the way the earliest settlers saw the Plains.

The Panhandle was one of the last bastions of the Plains Indians. The last Indian battle in the Panhandle was fought in 1876. That was only 131 years ago. This is a young country.

I think that recent taming of the land is evident in the people of the Panhandle. It is why they are friendlier and more ready to lend a helping hand than people in many parts of the country. It is because of the generational memory of the survival behavior of the pioneers that settled here. It is the memory of 10 miles to the nearest neighbor; helping each other with the round-up, or the harvest; the loneliness of the women, mid-wiving because the doctor was two days away, and the rare trips to town for supplies.

The wide-open country produces good people. It seems that it is where folks are pressed together in cities that most of our country's problems occur. I think God made us to need a little space. Sure, we need each other and we seek each other's company, but we also need to be able to get away by ourselves where we can commune with our Maker. I suspect the Pioneers found it a lot easier to depend on Him when there wasn't anyone else around to depend on.

I imagine that most people are a little like me and need some "alone" time every once in a while. Maybe that's why I enjoy that lonely stretch of highway. It helps me to keep things in perspective.