The Dixon Water Foundation’s mission is to promote healthy watersheds through regenerative land management. In pursuit of this mission, the Foundation owns and operates research and demonstration ranches in the state of Texas. Foundation staff will share how on-going research partnerships and monitoring efforts inform adaptive management practices on these ranches.
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Women Food and Agriculture Network and American Farmland Trust’s Women for the Land teams will share our work with Iowa women landowners, which is focused on climate storytelling. We will share our Stories of the Season project which is grounded in producer/landowner experiences with seasonal weather and its extremes. Workshop attendees will learn and get to experience some of the multi-media outputs created within this project. Following our programmatic sharing, we will then invite a group exploration of climate emotions and memories as we wade into the complicated emotional territory of living in a changing world that is increasingly out of balance. Join us for this exploration and an opportunity to create multimedia art (no artists are required!) that will possibly include poetry, painting, weaving (and other fiber arts) and maybe even dance and illustration as an expression of our individual and shared experiences navigating big change. We hope to share the outputs of this workshop at our exhibitor table(s) during the main conference as a way to keep the conversation going beyond this workshop.
Well-managed pasture-based grazing operations naturally adhere to the principles of soil health. However, applying these same principles to a vegetable production system requires more focused effort. This presentation will explore the challenges and successes associated with reintegrating animals into a vegetable production system, transitioning to no-till, and implementing other soil and ecology-focused methods as we strive to follow the five principles of soil health in a vegetable production system.
Rachel Belouin, Southern Plains Program Manager for the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies will present on community engagement, collaboration, and the work of co-learning to support rural communities to develop resilience as they endeavor to remain in the grasslands as centers for ranching and farming working lands. This presentation will share current efforts on the eastern plains of Colorado and speak to the perspectives, needs, and barriers facing landowners/producers and communities. The conversation will include the importance of stakeholder involvement, the compatible incorporation of wildlife conservation, and the possibilities that come with investing in long-term trust-based relationships.
Rachel Belouin received a bachelor’s degree in Natural Resources from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a master’s degree in Non-Fiction Writing from Antioch University, Los Angeles, and a master’s in Natural Resource Stewardship with a concentration in grasslands and ecological restoration from Colorado State University. Rachel has experience working and living on a third-generation cattle ranch and enjoys riding her horse, hiking with her son, and a great book.