Restoring Biodiversity - 12/19/2023
Harvesting water from gullies. Human agricultural practices harm range and farm lands. What we know about mule deer subspecies. And more.
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We hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas and New Year break.
Here is what we’ve been reading, watching and writing about this week…
Video
Plug and Spread Made Easy
This is a 4-1/2 minute video about the “Plug-and-Spread” method of harvesting water from gullies.
Water harvesting including Plug and Spread, in combination with Keyline sub-soiling, wild animal impact and planned grazing of cattle are the cheapest, easiest and quickest way to restore water function to degraded desert grasslands.
The Most Read Posts In 2023
The Agriculture Of Hope: Climate Farmers Of North America
We can debate whether human impact contributes to climate change, but we cannot deny that human agricultural practices harm range and farm lands. These practices can be changed in ways that will restore the land, its profitability and conceivably, help the climate as well.
What We Know About Mule Deer Subspecies
Far-West Texas is home to the Desert Mule Deer, one of eleven subspecies of Odocoileus hemionus. Though larger than the Texas whitetail, Texas’ mule deer are smaller than their northern cousins.
For many reasons, far-West Texas’ mule deer numbers have been falling irregularly for years. The many perversities of so-called wildlife “management” are major contributing factors to the decline.
Humans do all manner of things to artificially increase numbers of favored species like mule deer and bighorn or manipulate physical attributes such as deer antler size. Most of these “management” practices have unintentionally harmed wildlife, rangelands and habitat.
Is Feedlot Beef Bad for the Environment?
Although this debate contains statistical data that may be accurate, it is missing holistic thinking, including the fact that our grasslands are in decline as a result of animal removals. This fact has profound implications for our society.
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