TPWD Mule Deer Habitat Advice

Circle Ranch - Mule Deer

I was surprised to learn at a TPWD mule deer seminar that the way we graze cattle at Circle Ranch harms plants and water function. So I read all the studies on which these conclusions were based and found they did not study what they claimed to study. I wrote this letter to the authors…

Note: This #ThrowbackThursday post originally appeared on the Circle Ranch Blog in December, 2008.

Author:
Ranching, wildlife management, finance, oil & gas, real estate development and management.
Comments
    • Hello Justin,

      I have had pretty good results one-on-one but no ability to alter group policies.

      Savory explains it this way:

      1. They are engaged in reductionist management, and this issue of scientifically based management of the wildlife requires Holistic Management – but they like all organizations ridicule and oppose new counter-intuitive scientific insights, and they simply cannot change until the public begins demanding management be holistic. There is not one case in history of any organization ever accepting new paradigm-shifting knowledge ahead of the public view shifting.

      2. Organizations seldom admit to error, but almost universally if criticized circle the wagons and protect the organization, even when it means going totally against their mission. Example Catholic Church and pedophile priests – known problem for centuries but the organization chose to protect the church and not the innocent which is their mission.

      3. No matter how intelligent, good, well-meaning, etc. the people in an organization, such is the nature of complexity that the outcome commonly lacks commonsense and humanity. Example, ask any person does it make sense for America to produce oil to grow corn, to produce fuel? No stupid – but literally thousands of institutional scientists do it, and how few protest.

      TP&W are like all organizations exhibiting these three wicked problem behaviors. They cannot do otherwise.

      I no longer criticize any of these organizations for the simple reason that they are staffed with some wonderful intelligent good people, but simply cannot do any different because they are complex soft systems. I finally heed the research.

      Thanks for writing
      Chris Gill

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