Part 4: Sustainability Is a Hallmark of Local Stewardship

“Sustainability Is a Hallmark of Local Stewardship” is part 4 in an 8-part series focused on explaining a document called “A Manifesto for Local Stewardship.” The manifesto, which made its rounds in summer of 2022, was published in The Byway’s most recent September paper.

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“Some conservationists suggest that local people are the principal threat to achieving conservation,” explained ecologist Douglas Sheil. This did not jibe with his experience, or the experiences of his team. They had worked closely with local people in a number of locations and been impressed … with their concern for the environment — [but] their efforts are often undermined by what Sheil calls “outside interventions, both well-intended and otherwise.”

“We seemed to have this vast blind spot for … where there was little or no ‘official’ conservation,” Sheil said. “But we know that local people are acting and responding in their own way to achieve their own goals – and these goals very often include the maintenance of productive lands and forests and the setting aside of areas for complete protection.”

– Mike Gaworecki, Mongabay

Environmental groups tend to act like they invented the concepts of conservation and sustainability when in fact these have been the backbone of farming and ranching for hundreds of years. Maybe we have something to learn from the people involved in agriculture — maybe they can teach us how to care for the land.

Little acknowledgement has been given to the farmer who has spent his life working to feed the world and his neighbors, only to find himself criticized for destroying the land, usually by outside conservationists.

Farmers are often attacked for not being sustainable. How can that be, seeing that most farms have been sustained for generations? Nowadays, land is so expensive that it is almost impossible for an individual to purchase ground for a farm and pay it off before they die. That’s why most farms have been owned by the same family for generations.

Surely this should serve as evidence that contrary to the claims of far-removed environmentalists, locals serve as the most qualified land stewards. Some of the oldest stewards of our land are our local producers and agriculturalists.

Rural people and communities understand this and have a difficult time when outsiders come into an area, as well-intentioned as they are, and try to tell them they are destroying the land. These people love the land and have farmed and grazed it for generations without harming it. 

Advice from experts unfamiliar with the land can teach us a good idea on occasion, but when the advice comes, say, in the form of criticism for the purpose of removing users of public land, the motive of these experts surely is suspect.

The rancher wants to save the land for the next generation, so that his children and grandchildren may have a livelihood. That is real conservation.

Environmental Challenges

Environmentalists should have made themselves trusted friends with rural farmers and ranchers, but environmentalists were too quick to be adversarial instead. Over 70 percent of those living in rural communities nationwide already cite environmental issues as important in their lives according to a Duke Nicholas Institute survey. 

By attacking the local rancher and creating an enemy, environmental groups have lost a war they could have easily won with different tactics. From here, trust and peace will be hard to achieve.

Recycling and Upcycling

For many generations the farmers have been recycling, upcycling, and reinventing new ways to grow more food in a sustainable way. They are experts at finding creative ways to reuse everything they have which is why some of those old tractors outlast the farmer. 

Many recycled items are found on the farm such as tires used for feeding troughs and for protecting silage against wind storms. Wood pallets and railroad ties that are thrown away by many industries are reused on the farm over and over again.

Using the same land for decades, they put forth every effort to improve their place and make it a showpiece to be proud of. Many farmers work each year with state extension agents and even engineers to better their land through modern farming methods. 

Farming must go hand-in-hand with environmental stewardship. Land stewards know their land cannot be replaced if they don’t take care of it.

An Unheroic Rescue From Grazing

Proper grazing techniques can enhance the land by natural fertilization and improving habitats for flora and fauna in the same area.

In 1991, The Nature Conservancy purchased a pasture north of Panguitch to protect an endangered buttercup flower. Of course, the first thing the Conservancy did was immediately remove the cows to prevent them from eating or trampling the buttercup. But in only a couple of growing seasons, the buttercup was struggling.

The group tried everything to help the flower thrive again, with no luck. Then one day, volunteers discovered that while their plot languished, buttercups were thriving in a cow pasture just to the north. “It was a robust population, and we thought, ‘Well, wait a minute,’” said Linda Whitham of the Conservancy’s Moab office. “Maybe the cows aren’t the problem. Maybe they’re actually the solution.”

So in 2017, they asked Panguitch rancher Jason Excell to bring his cows in at certain times, and the buttercups began to thrive again. One possible theory was that when a cow stepped into the damp ground, its footprint also provided a place for the buttercup seeds to remain damp enough to grow. The dwindling of the buttercup was a hard lesson for The Nature Conservancy to have to learn.

Local Stewards

The role of the farmer and rancher is irreplaceable in the future of sustainable agriculture. They protect the land and the water even if the primary reason is for sustaining their own livelihoods. We are also beneficiaries, however, as they help improve our environment and produce the food and goods we need to live.

If outside conservationists want to come and change how locals plant or where they graze, let them come asking our farmers and ranchers questions first, so they can also benefit from the generations of experience our agriculturists have gained. Until they can learn from that experience, the local will remain the most qualified to be the steward of this land, with sustainability as his badge.

– by Elaine Baldwin

Feature image caption: Autumn Buttercups in containers are ready to be planted by volunteers in a meadow near the Sevier River on June 10, 2017. The wildflower is only found in one site in the world in a field near Panguitch. Courtesy of Marc Weaver / KSL TV.

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